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Zaytoven is the professional name of Xavier Dotson, a record producer born in 1980 who grew up in San Francisco and built his career in Atlanta. He spent much of his childhood in church, where his father preached, and learned to play piano and organ in church bands alongside his younger siblings. In high school he played keyboard at football halftime shows, which is how he met the Bay Area rapper JT the Bigga Figga, who gave him the run of his studio and helped him learn to make beats. After producing Gucci Mane’s 2005 single “Icy,” he signed with 1017 Records as an in-house producer, and he is widely considered a pioneer of trap production. He has released collaborative projects with artists including Gucci Mane, Future, Usher, Migos, Young Dolph, Lil Yachty and 21 Savage, and he was credited on Usher’s 2009 single “Papers,” a Billboard Hot 100 top-40 hit. He is one of the producers credited on Gucci Mane’s Against All Odds.