Leland Wayne dropped out of Morehouse College at age 19 to create beats and become the hip-hop super-producer Metro Boomin, the name behind many of the year’s hottest tracks, from Future, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Kanye West and more. He’s been traveling throughout 2016 and will start 2017 with his first trip to Australia, but first he returns to Light Nightclub to kick off New Year’s Eve Weekend.
How excited are you for this NYE Weekend show in Vegas? Really excited. Every time out at Light it’s just fun; every time it’s a good energy and a good vibe. I usually end up going over my [set time]. It doesn’t feel like work.
Are you going to stay in Vegas for New Year’s Eve? I’m thinking about it. This is my first time. I don’t know, it might be too crazy for me. I might need to leave in the morning.
Have your gigs at Light had any impact on your music? For sure. It’s those different, diverse crowds. When I’m making music, I recall a lot of stuff from Vegas, certain moments and people’s reactions to different things, and try to take that back to the music.
You’ve been putting out so much stuff with so many different artists. What are you focusing on now? My main focus is working on my own album [that] I’m going to put out next year. All that other stuff is kind of on the side. It’s not really going to be a compilation, but there will be some familiar faces.
A lot of artists are spinning off from or even straight duplicating the sound that has become your signature. How do you distinguish your records? I always look ahead. That doesn’t really bother me, because I don’t look at it like, that’s my style. That’s for other people to say. Artists in my circle know what I do, and there really is no one style. People say they’re doing the Metro thing, but I just don’t look at it like that. And that was really just the sound of that time; it doesn’t mean that’s what everything is. I’m not going there. Everybody else can make those kind of beats. I just try to make stuff I haven’t heard of, staying innovative and staying weird. Metro Boomin at Light at Mandalay Bay, December 30.
