Bass, Babes, And Sending Naked Selfies To Your Mother: My 15 Minutes With HeRobust

Atlanta born and bred music producer HeRobust sat down with me for a candid talk that ended up going behind the music. Boasting records endorsed by SMOG and Firepower, this southern hip-hop lover has brought his trap influence to heavy bass music and audiences across America are loving it. To bring you a more intimate side of the trapstep artist that’s dominating dance floors in your city, I sat down with the producer to get to know Hayden on a more personal level. We laughed at the sexual innuendo girls will play on his name to get his attention, played a fun game of “Would You Rather…?” and we even discussed how much we both would pay to see a DJ Pauly D vs. Paris Hilton in a DJ contest.

How did you get set up with Snails for your recent OWSLA collab?
Pretty typical way; ones a music nerd, the other is a music nerd, then you nerd out on each others music. From some of the sounds that he was using and that I was using we kind of deduced that we both use the same program, Reason, which is pretty rare. Not many people use that anymore. So, I guess we connected over that and a collab just seemed like the thing to do.

Any other awesome collabs coming up we can get excited for?
Nothing I can speak about currently.

How has being from the hip hop capitol of the world shaped you as an artist?
Everybody’s identity has influences and where you grow up basically dictates a lot of that. For me, that was southern hip hop. It just seems like no matter what I do there is going to be an element of that in there. I can’t really remove that–that’s just who I am.

Let’s talk about life outside of music. Do you have a favorite vacation spot?
Yes, I do. I’ve been to Mexico a few times and there’s this little surfing town called Sayulita; it has awesome food and awesome waves. I’m by no means a great surfer but, I have fun doing it.

Do you have a favorite junk food?
I don’t really eat junk food. I’m kind of a health fanatic. People kind of get to know I’m weird because I’m like a functional eater–I’m not trying to eat stuff that tastes the best. I’m going for what’s good for me over taste.

So, should I ask you what your favorite work out supplement is then?
Honestly I don’t bother with doing that kind of stuff either. When you’re on a bus tour you have a GREAT time but your health really just goes to shit. You get one legit meal a day and other than that you’re eating vegetables with hummus or like pizza at 5am. So for me, I lose a ton of weight because I’m just not eating enough or working out like I usually do.

With your busy tour schedule, how do you keep up your work out schedule?
I try to do it as much as I possibly can. Fit it in where I can. I’ll bring running shoes and just go for a run out of the bus. Barring any extreme hang overs of course 😉

Let’s have a little fun. Are you down for a little game of  “Would you rather…?”
Haha! Ok, yeah.
Would you rather… Take the fat girl home… or have the fat girl turn you down?
Haha… I think I would choose turn me down. I think it would take me less time to get over that than actually taking her home. If my music homies found out–because my life is basically entirely public on the internet–that could really spiral out of control, haha.

Have a threesome with two nasty chicks… or one hott girl and one hott guy?
I’m not interested in a having a threesome with two nasty chicks AT ALL… I’ve never had a threesome with a dude involved… So I guess I’ll go with the second just because I’ll just block the guy out. It doesn’t really matter if the dude is good looking or not to me, haha, that’s a funny part of the question. For sure though… two nasty chicks is definitely worse than one.

Accidentally send a naked selfie to your mom… or have her accidentally send one to you?
Probably send one to my mom just because I care about my mom and I wouldn’t want her to have to deal with the embarrassment. I’d rather take one for the team.
Awww 🙂

Go home with the hott girl from the Wolf of Wall Street or spend the night at the bar talking to Micheal Jordan?
Go home with the girl! Are you kidding me?! Look, you can print this, HeRo is on the record: Michael Jordan is overrated.

Be sexually attracted to vegetables… or not be sexually attractive to anyone?
Sexually attracted to vegetables. I even think you could make the case that being sexually attracted to vegetables is easier than being sexually attracted to the opposite sex. If you think about it… how easy would your life be after that? Haha! I mean I don’t know exactly which vegetable I would take home to mom but, I think if you’re a girl there’s obviously some options. Carrots come to mind. You could do some traveling and try out different indigenous vegetables.
Haha!

Has a girl ever done anything crazy to get your attention?
Yes *blushes*. There’s the obvious wordplay that they use… *embarrassingly* y’know… “HeRo-bust on me”. I’ve gotten that a decent amount of times. To be perfectly honest, it’s the actual real people that you remember. The people that talk to you like you’re a real person and not like a character. That’s the only way you’re going to actually connect with them or be friends with them. It’s when you get that text message sitting on the couch–that’s the stuff that works. But I guess I definitely remember the girls who wrote “HeRo-bust on me” too, so… I can’t say that didn’t work, haha.

Have you ever done anything crazy to get a girl’s attention?
No. I’m a really low key person. My usual tactic is to play the #2 position… and then swoop in.

Blonde or brunettes?
I really don’t have a preference. I will say this though–healthy hair is very sexy. I notice that moreso than I notice the color.
Aww you pay attention 🙂
Well… not too much, haha!

Have you ever written a song for a girl?
Yes.
Is there an interesting story behind that that you would like to share?
That’s pretty much the extent of the story. I did that once.
Was it “SHEKNOWSHEBAD”?
Haha, no. Wait… actually yes. That was actually for A LOT of different girls, haha.

In a DJ competition who would win: Paris Hilton or DJ Pauly D?
Haha! Wow. I don’t know. I guess I gotta go with Pauly D because I’ve never seen someone actually DJing FOR him and so I assume he knows what he’s doing.
Would you not pay to go see something like that though?

OF COURSE. Absolutely.

Realistically… I would probably pay $30 for that.
Oh I would pay WAY more than that. And you know what, there are people that don’t see the comedic value in this that would pay $3,000 dollars.
You’re right. That’s even more funny. The people who would be there–
Buying bottle service and shit!

Yeah! Haha! Look at what Paris is raking in playing in Ibiza–just imagine what you could sell tables for. Someone’s gotta get those two in a room together.
Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?

I’m thinking you and I need to go in on this project and make a shit ton of money, haha.
Run The Trap presents… DJ Pauly D vs. DJ Paris Hilton… Guests include A-trak… haha!
If a festival did that I would have to imagine everyone there would be there.
They would be there, but that could also get like… violent.
Haha!
There are gunna be people like us who think it’s funny, then there will be the radicals who are probably going to throw shit at the stage. Then you’re going to have the people who actually want to see it and they’re going to take offense to the fact people are throwing stuff at the stage. If you dropped like $8,000 on a table to see your two favorite DJs in the world face-off and someone’s throwing bottles at them you’re going to be pissed.
I still want to see this.
I want to see it EVEN MORE if it gets like that, haha.

Let’s go back in time… What were you listening to in middle school?
Anything Cash Money Records, Master P, Biggie… I started to get into Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. Definitely a TON of Outkast. Mostly southern hip hop and just my beginning exposure to electronic music.

What did your taste morph into once you reached high school?
It kind of stayed the same. I started to get into more ignorant rap instead of the conscious rap like Nas’ Illmatik album. Still one of my favorite albums of all time. That’s a very well-done classy record, but then I started to see the entertainment value of dirty south bullshit rap, haha. Now I love 2 Chainz and stuff like that. On the electronic side I went everywhere. I didn’t go to EDM, I just arrived there. I found electronic music and was just obsessed with the original nature of it; that you could make ambient sounds for like 2 hours and call that an album. And I swear to god I used to listen to stuff that people thought was just noise–it was just noise. It’s ridiculous the shit I used to listen to. I would get into subgenres of subgenres. So, on one side, I was into this super obscure snobby electronic music then on the other side I was listening to not the most intelligent kind of rap. It was opposite ends of the spectrum.

What was the last song you have had on repeat?
Hmm… I liked the original 2 Chainz stuff–I don’t like his newer stuff. Drake is awesome. Man, I still have D’Angelo pretty much on repeat to be perfectly honest. That’s always happening.

Thank you so much for taking your time to sit down and chat with me. I know you’re a busy guy and we really appreciate you carving out a little time for us!
Thank you! I appreciate it!

Check out HeRobust’s latest mix for Shade 45’s Sway In The Morning radio show. Track list is below and it is full of banger after banger.

1. Missy Elliot – Get Your Freak On (Goldtop remix)
2. Grandtheft & Jackal – Let Me Tell You Something
3. heRobust & Cvpellv – URDNO
4. Jay Z – Dirt Off Your Shoulders (Brillz & Z Trip Remix)
5. Chainsmokers – Selfie (Creaky Jackals remix)
6. Martin Garrix – Animal (Victor Niglio remix)
7. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Ni**as In Paris
8. Showtek & Justin Prime – Cannonball (Carnage & Victor Niglio Festival Trap Remix)
9. RL Grime & What So Not – Tell Me
10. heRobust – SHEKNOWSHEBAD
11.Diplo – Express Yourself (Tomsize & Simeon Remix)
12. Future – Same Dame Spaceman (Busted by heRobust)
13. Hardwell – Spaceman (Carnage remix)
14. Jay Z – Tom Ford (Crizzly remix)
15. gLAdiator x Stooki Sound – Scared Now
16. Skrillex – Make it Bun Dem (Laudz remix)
17. Dont Stop vs I Cant Stop (Herobust Mashup)
18. Fratello – Back To The Future (V-T3K TRAP EDIT)
19. Carnage feat. Migos – Bricks
20. A-Trak – Landline 2.0 (feat. GTA)
21. Branchez – Truth
22. Drake – Trophies
23. Goldtop – Soundsystem
24. Salva – Drop That Bitch Remix (ft. Kurupt, ScHoolboy Q, Problem, Bad Lucc)
25. heRobust – Rain On Em (feat. Lis)

Bass, Babes, And Sending Naked Selfies To Your Mother: My 15 Minutes With HeRobust