Mac Miller Talks Beats, Working With DJ Premier

In a recent interview during the Washington, D.C. stop on his Incredibly Dope tour, Wiz Khalifa protégé Mac Miller discussed his beat selection process, explaining that he approaches his production from an "excited fan" standpoint, attempting to work with as many of his top beatmakers as possible.

"When I first starting making a name for myself, what I really wanted to do was just work with as many people as possible. I'm just an excited fan, so as a fan, I want to work with everybody, like, I want to work with all of my favorite [artists]," Mac told iLLVibes, explaining that he picks his producers based on his personal preferences, rather than popularity.

"What it comes down to is, the people who I really want to work with are the people who really support my movement and who really support what I do and who really want to see me succeed," Mac continued. "As far as picking beats and everything, it really doesn't matter what the name is to me; I'mma pick the dopest beats. When I did [mixtape] 'K.I.D.S.,' a lot of those beats were straight up off of an email."

The 19-year-old Pittsburgh prodigy also revealed that, while he may still work with some of his producers over email, he recently had a very intimate recording session with one of hip-hop's most legendary producers.

"I just left the studio, I did a jam with DJ Premier, which was a life changing experience for me because that's like, the top producer of all time," Mac said. "It was cool, like, the one thing I like about working with people, especially [people] like Premo, is my favorite rapper is Big L, and he was able to tell me all these stories about L. I actually stood in the same booth that Big L stood in to record, and that so many other people like Jay-Z and Nas. Premo has the same booth, he keeps it 100% traditional. I got to record in the place of all my favorite rappers, it was cool."

Mac recently dropped his newest mixtape, 'Best Day Ever,' which can be downloaded here.