The flavour of creative juice: The beat behind Migos hit ‘T-Shirt’
In 2017, Atlanta trio, Migos released their sophomore studio album Culture, and, aside from the multi-platinum lead single, ‘Bad and Boujee’ featuring Lil Uzi Vert one of the tracks that was at the forefront of the project was ‘T-shirt’.
With its name deriving from the first verse of Shawty Lo’s 2005 single ‘I’m Da Man’ on which he raps, Momma told me not to sell work / Seventeen five, same colour T-shirt”, the track debuted at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was quickly certified platinum.
That said, the hit had a unique beat produced by James “Nard” Bernard Rosser and Brandon “B” Rackley, known together as Nard & B. The production duo have produced for Atlanta legends, including the likes of T.I. and Maino.
In an interview with Genius about the work that they did for Migos’ Culture, Nard & B explained how they made the distinct instrumental of ‘T-Shirt.’ Recalling the moment, the pair told the online magazine, “That day, we were in the studio, and we had just got our hands on some new preset for the Electra2 Plugin. Anytime we get our hands on some new presets or new sounds, it triggers some creative juice on a whole other level for us.”
The duo unveiled that they had made more than one beat that day and were working around the clock trying to strike gold. Remembering their experimentation with new presets, the producers continued, “That’s when we sparked the idea for the core melody for that beat. It was part of the batch – we’d actually done probably two or three beats with the same type of flavour that same day.”
As they delved into the technical details of their creation, the beatmakers revealed that they added a key element that wasn’t obvious to the listener upon hearing the song. Highlighting what the key to the beat was, Nard told Genius, “I don’t know if you can actually tell, but the melody we put in is actually a reverse melody. We’ve actually done that in a couple other beats, but that one just so happened to catch Migos’ ear when I sent it their way. But we were working on that one and it was just a regular day working with new sounds. We did the whole beat in Fruity Loops.”
Nard & B are Atlanta icons and have also worked with Future on a number of tracks, including one of his own tracks named “T-Shirt.” What’s even more bizarre is that, coincidentally, both of these singles contain sounds that have been reversed.
Migos worked with a vast amount of producers for Culture, including Buddah Bless, Zaytoven Cardo, and even Metro Boomin. Culture debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was critically acclaimed.