Billboard is celebrating the 2010s with essays on the 100 songs that we feel most define the decade that was — the songs that both shaped and reflected the music and culture of the period — with help telling their stories from some of the artists, behind-the-scenes collaborators and industry insiders involved.
Even before anyone outside of Atlanta had heard the name “Migos,” the tight-knit trio of Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff — two cousins and a nephew (Quavo’s sister is Takeoff’s mother) — had an aura of charisma around them.
“Migos was always on the set while I was shooting videos, just recording or waiting on the studio to be freed up,” says director Gabriel Hart, a.k.a. Video God, who already had music videos for Gucci Mane, Jeezy, and numerous other Southern stars under his belt by the early 2010s. “Usually I wouldn’t seek out people to be in videos, but I would ask them every time I shot a video, like, ‘Ay man, y’all look like y’all some stars.’ They just struck me as special.”
Producer Zaytoven was a similarly tenured veteran in Atlanta’s trap scene at the time, and while he didn’t hear of Migos until their song “Bando” was gathering local steam, he had the same reaction as Hart: “When I heard the song, I said, ‘Oh I gotta go get with them.’ As soon as I seen Quavo rapping on YouTube, I was like, ‘Oh, he a star.’”
Not so coincidentally, Migos’ inevitable breakout moment, their 2013 single “Versace,” would be produced by Zaytoven and get a video directed by Hart.
“After I shot the video but was still editing it, I remember going to a party in L.A. that Diddy was throwing, and people were standing outside trying to get in,” Hart says. “‘Versace’ came on while I was in the line — everyone inside starts yelling, everyone in the line starts going crazy. I got out the f–kin’ line, ran to my car, got in, drove back home, and finished the godd–n video. You don’t get how big the record is when you shoot the video, but when you see audiences reacting to it, you see it’s a real thing.”
Assisted by Drake lending a verse to a remix, the song took off in a way that blew even Zaytoven’s mind: “I knew it was hard already and it was going crazy, but when Drake hopped on it, I was like, ‘Oh snap, now we really got the hottest song in the world.’”
The immediate shockwave that “Versace,” and Migos’ budding stardom in general, sent through hip hop was the triplet-heavy rapping cadence that Quavo, Takeoff, and Offset used on most of their songs. “‘Versace’ almost caused a whole new sound of music, because everybody started changing their flow to the one that Migos was doing,” says Zaytoven, who’s been a go-to producer for Migos ever since.
Hart’s noticed a subtler, but more persistent trend kick-started by “Versace.” “Rappers shoot videos when they buy new clothes,” he says. “The whole purpose of rappers shooting videos is to show off their clothes. That’s where music is at now, and I think ‘Versace’ was the pinnacle of the beginning of that. High fashion is hip-hop now. I just did a video for Young Dolph and Key Glock— the clothes they have on is worth more than the video… All that s–t, I think the genesis of it was the ‘Versace’ video. This is the definitive moment in rap culture where how you dress matters.”
Triplet flow and fashion sense aside, Migos soon proved that “Versace” wouldn’t define their careers — they would end up becoming the biggest rap group of the decade. It took a few more years grinding on the mixtape circuit (and a false-start debut album, Yung Rich Nation, in 2015), but Migos eventually reached the heights their star power had always promised. Trampolining off the success of the meme-generating, Hot 100-topping single “Bad and Boujee,” their next two albums, Culture and Culture II, both debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and were certified Platinum by the RIAA.
Despite those more quantifiable accomplishments, “Versace” remains Migos’ most impactful contribution to hip-hop, an Ur-text for so much music that followed it. As Zaytoven says, “They definitely changed the industry at that time.”
