Photo by Andreas BrauningQuentin Miller is like that friendly neighbor you have down the street that you see too early in the morning. You don't know him that well, but he's always smiling, and, like, wearing a Nike windbreaker. You wonder what's up with this dude that makes him chipper every damn morning. But he’s more than your every day dude—Quentin Miller works with some of the biggest stars in music, and contributed to some of the most popular songs of 2015. Meek Mill wanted to know “who the fuck was Quentin running through the six with.” Drake also said he might take him to Follies.But Quentin Miller is a normal-ass dude who’s just better at living it than you are. By now, you’ve heard the name. Maybe you’ve been wise and done some real research—kicked back to some WDNG Crshrs, his duo with Thecoolismac, or gone back into Hey! Thanks A Lot’ 1 and 2. Maybe you caught his feature on a Key Wane track or a Hit Boy track or a Trae the Truth track. Maybe you already rep 1317.For the listeners who don't think he's much beyond a writer for popular artists, this is his attempt to prove you wrong. On Hey! Thanks A Lot 3, which we’re premiering below, there are some special notes from Juicy J and Black Jesus, plus a track with Vic Mensa. HTA3 is the equivalent of killing your haters with kindness. Smiling at someone when they’re mean to you, and then making a joke so funny they can’t help but laugh. How are you doing? Spectacular. We had a quick conversation with Quentin about the tape.Noisey: Talk to me about haters. How would you define a hater?
Quentin Miller: How would I define a hater? I guess it’s someone that sees you progressing and wishing that it will stop, if that makes sense. It’s definitely for no reason at all, or the reason doesn't really make sense. There are different kinds of haters—different degrees of hate, of hateration.Tell me about Slink Johnson, Black Jesus and some of the skits.
Man. I went to All Def Digital, and saw that they had done some skits with Slink Johnson, and I kinda asked about it because I always do the Hey! Thanks A Lot during holiday times, like when I started the series it was on Thanksgiving; the last one was on Christmas. I knew I was going for the Christmas theme, and I just thought, “What’s better than some cheesy Santa Claus shit? What about Black Jesus? Oh shit, that’d be great.” He got it exactly how I wanted him to get it. I kinda wanted him to capture the heart of Black Jesus—I mean that’s him, obviously, but it’s just like the spirit of Black Jesus and the spirit of “Oh come on man, why y’all got to…” There’s so much negativity surrounding my name. I wanted it to be the time of year when you’re not supposed to be an asshole, and I kinda wanted to use the time and the Black Jesus interlude and that feeling and that heart to my advantage. Because that’s the energy I want to spread. I want to spread positive energy. I didn’t come in here for this negative shit. It just happened to attach itself to me. A lot of people probably expect me to drop certain lines, be at people, but I really wanted this album to show that that’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to just make good music and be apart of that conversation.
It’s a collective. Basically, it was the unit number in my homegirl’s apartment and she used let me and Mac, the other guy in WDNG Crshrs—Thecoolismac—record in her apartment. That was the only place that we could record, so I would get off work—I stayed like 45 minutes from downtown—and rush to the crib and get my microphone and shit and rush to her house and stand up in the living room and record. We used to be like, “We headed to 1317, 1317.” It just kinda stuck.The project goes deeper than a message of “I’m doing great.”
I feel like everyone is a complex person. There’s no such thing as a person just having good days all the time and everything going right. But that’s part of life. That’s what makes you who you are. I am who I am because of the shit I went through. You know, working the jobs I hated. In hindsight, looking at it now, it kinda built the character I am now. Not having shit makes you appreciate what you get. People hear me talk about my ’97 Infinity all the time, and I’m not flexing. I don’t say it to be like, “This is the hottest car in the game.” I say it because it’s mine. I hope that I can inspire anyone—if you’re driving a fucking Honda Civic, like a ’96 Honda Civic, if it’s yours, it’s yours, man.Everybody doesn’t have millions of dollars, you know. I try to keep it realistic and stay in a realistic standpoint. Just a year ago I was making minimum wage. I still kinda feel that same mentality.I have an ’02 Toyota Highlander and that’s my baby.
Long as you get to the party—that’s all that matters. Roll up to the party however you want. That’s what HTA is all about. You getting there however you can. This year, we were able to go to Coachella—I’m not gonna say how—but we got some really nice passes, and we were just excited about shit. Saying, “Hey, we got here our own way.” We weren’t the richest dudes or the most famous dudes at Coachella, but WDNG Crshrs was at Coachella. Excuse me security, we got all the passes.Julia Hannafin is a writer based in LA. Follow her on Twitter.
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Quentin Miller: How would I define a hater? I guess it’s someone that sees you progressing and wishing that it will stop, if that makes sense. It’s definitely for no reason at all, or the reason doesn't really make sense. There are different kinds of haters—different degrees of hate, of hateration.Tell me about Slink Johnson, Black Jesus and some of the skits.
Man. I went to All Def Digital, and saw that they had done some skits with Slink Johnson, and I kinda asked about it because I always do the Hey! Thanks A Lot during holiday times, like when I started the series it was on Thanksgiving; the last one was on Christmas. I knew I was going for the Christmas theme, and I just thought, “What’s better than some cheesy Santa Claus shit? What about Black Jesus? Oh shit, that’d be great.” He got it exactly how I wanted him to get it. I kinda wanted him to capture the heart of Black Jesus—I mean that’s him, obviously, but it’s just like the spirit of Black Jesus and the spirit of “Oh come on man, why y’all got to…” There’s so much negativity surrounding my name. I wanted it to be the time of year when you’re not supposed to be an asshole, and I kinda wanted to use the time and the Black Jesus interlude and that feeling and that heart to my advantage. Because that’s the energy I want to spread. I want to spread positive energy. I didn’t come in here for this negative shit. It just happened to attach itself to me. A lot of people probably expect me to drop certain lines, be at people, but I really wanted this album to show that that’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to just make good music and be apart of that conversation.
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For the uninitiated, what is 1317?
It’s a collective. Basically, it was the unit number in my homegirl’s apartment and she used let me and Mac, the other guy in WDNG Crshrs—Thecoolismac—record in her apartment. That was the only place that we could record, so I would get off work—I stayed like 45 minutes from downtown—and rush to the crib and get my microphone and shit and rush to her house and stand up in the living room and record. We used to be like, “We headed to 1317, 1317.” It just kinda stuck.The project goes deeper than a message of “I’m doing great.”
I feel like everyone is a complex person. There’s no such thing as a person just having good days all the time and everything going right. But that’s part of life. That’s what makes you who you are. I am who I am because of the shit I went through. You know, working the jobs I hated. In hindsight, looking at it now, it kinda built the character I am now. Not having shit makes you appreciate what you get. People hear me talk about my ’97 Infinity all the time, and I’m not flexing. I don’t say it to be like, “This is the hottest car in the game.” I say it because it’s mine. I hope that I can inspire anyone—if you’re driving a fucking Honda Civic, like a ’96 Honda Civic, if it’s yours, it’s yours, man.Everybody doesn’t have millions of dollars, you know. I try to keep it realistic and stay in a realistic standpoint. Just a year ago I was making minimum wage. I still kinda feel that same mentality.I have an ’02 Toyota Highlander and that’s my baby.
Long as you get to the party—that’s all that matters. Roll up to the party however you want. That’s what HTA is all about. You getting there however you can. This year, we were able to go to Coachella—I’m not gonna say how—but we got some really nice passes, and we were just excited about shit. Saying, “Hey, we got here our own way.” We weren’t the richest dudes or the most famous dudes at Coachella, but WDNG Crshrs was at Coachella. Excuse me security, we got all the passes.Julia Hannafin is a writer based in LA. Follow her on Twitter.