Royce: You better watch out man, Will.I.Am is going to come fuck you up.With a brand new EP available today, Slaughterhouse demolishing the internets and an album on the way entitled Street Hop executive produced by DJ Premier, it's easy to say that Royce Da 5'9'' is taking full advantage of any and every opportunity. I got the chance to sit down on a press day and talk to Royce about some of his music and a whole lot more. Check our feature below.illRoots.com: So tell me about this album?
Royce Da 5'9'': Which album? My album?
illRoots.com: Yeah your album.
Royce: I got a lot of albums, you have to be specific. You're talking to the jack of all trades baby. My album is called Street Hop. It's executive produced by DJ
Premier. It's definitely my best work to date and besides that being part of promotion, I really mean it. I got production from DJ Premier, Nottz out of Virginia, my man 6 July, my man Bink!.
iR: Oh yeah, Bink! is a monster.
Royce: Yeah man, he's definitely a monster. Also on the project is Streetrunner, Emile, Frequency, we got Busta Rhymes on the album, Phonte from Little Brother, we got my little brother Kid Vishis on the album. The shit is crazy and definitely a classic album and I'll argue with anybody who thinks differently.
iR: Word. That line up sounds pretty nice.
Royce: We definitely went in this time.
iR: I can tell. I think my first introduction to you was this vinyl I found in a record store while I was in high school and I wasn't going there to get your record particularly, but the cover had a chick with a pink furry bikini on it and I was like 'Eh, throw that in too, looks tasteful.'
Royce: It was either "I'm The King" or "Boom."
iR: That's it, "Boom."
Royce: Yeah yeah.
iR: That was a good ass marketing ploy man, put a hot ass chick on the front of the vinyl.
Royce: Thanks man. That was my idea.
iR: Yeah I found that and was like 'oh well, somebody put some effort and thought into this.' After that, I've been really following your career. So moving back into the present day, how is this album going to differ from the Slaughterhouse stuff that has been coming out as of recent?
Royce: I went a little bit deeper for my album and the project itself is a little more conceptual. As far as the Slaughterhouse project we have a few concepts, but we don't have anything like stories on the album. Its four people and its a group album so its automatically dynamic and things will sound a little different. My album took way more thought, but with the Slaughterhouse album, it didn't take a lot of thought because its a no brainer type of situation. So when you have a no brainer type of situation, there's no need to over-think anything. We got four niggas that can rhyme they ass off and all we have to do is go in there and do what we do. But with my album I was like I need this type of record and that type of record. So it takes way more thought for a solo effort than it takes on a group project. If you listen to any group album and any solo album, you will automatically hear the difference. Its the same concept.
iR: You being from Detroit, the scene that is going on right now overall is very abundant with emcee's. What emcee or artist do you feel is next?
Royce: Automatically I'm going with my little brother, Kid Vishis. He's a beast and he's working on a project right now along with a situation that we have for him. Besides him I don't know what you would entitle as "next," but from Black Milk to Guilty Simpson, Marv One.
iR: Fat Ray.
Royce: Fat Cat. We have a whole team of assassins.
iR: Isn't Finale from out that way too?
Royce: Finale is from Michigan but I'm not sure if he's from Detroit. You have Buff 1 which I think you said before but he's from Ann Arbor. Regardless, once you get into that area it's basically Detroit.
iR: One of the biggest issues in Detroit is gentrification. Invincible touched on that in a couple videos I believe, but what issues are you most worried about in your hometown?
Royce: In the Detroit area we used to have unity issues but that's dead. We are all really one community, my only issue with Detroit right now is the recession. The whole market is just fucked up in terms of the economy. It's bad though man, a lot of people are losing their houses. I know this has nothing to do with hip-hop but it effects everything.
iR: Oh yeah, but it does effect hip-hop though.
Royce: We got the Mayor acting crazy and everyone getting indicted and everyone under him- it's just crazy and the city as a whole has just taken a nose dive. We need someone to just stimulate our economy real quick and dump a quick bill [Laughs].
iR: I think that does effect hip-hop in a sense though because people who are flashy about how much money they have also have some form of struggle in their life and it has to be monetary. Just that some are much more fortunate than others. I think the people who actually love this culture are showing more because they are still around no matter what.
Royce: We just did Rock The Bells over here in Detroit and the turnout wasn't nearly as good as the Chicago show. We had to look at that as that is the recession, yet in the same token it was a party that same night called the White Party, its an annual party thrown in Detroit and it's one of the biggest parties out there, and that shit was still crazy. It just goes to show the priorities that the average Detroit motherfucker actually has and this is not the main one. It's just a whole different world over here man.
iR: I've never been to Detroit but I've heard about the hardships that go on. I have no idea of what's going on over there in comparison to where I'm at in Maryland.
Royce: You ever watch the "Faces Of Death" videos?
iR: I've heard of that before but refresh me.
Royce: It's a video where actual death is taking place on the video and actual faces of dying people are seen throughout the video. So go to YouTube and type in "Faces Of Death" and watch those videos. That is Detroit.
iR: Oh fuck that shit, that's crazy.
Royce: [Laughs]
iR: Fuck that.
Royce: I'm just fucking with you, you've been smoking weed haven't you?
iR: Oh, nah not at all man, this is my normal self.
Royce: Oh man, we need to hang out then. You sound like you have a bong in your lap right now. You don't smoke at all man? C'mon now?
iR: Nah, I have a 5 year old and a college degree, keywords "I have." In college maybe it's a little different, but I can't do that now, I'll have the worst time getting anything done if I do that.
Royce: I was going to say what does a college degree have to do with anything? Everyone in college smokes.
iR: Yeah but I got a kid so all that shit stops.
Royce: Yeah well I got an 11 year old, a 2 year old, and a 9 month old so I guess I'm a fucked up nigga.
iR: Oh no not even, I wouldn't go that far.
Royce: [Laughs]
iR: I go pretty far but I wouldn't say all that. So since we're off topic, I hate structured interviews, because A: they get very boring and tedious because only a fraction of them are questions that I would want to ask, and B: regular conversations seem to work much better. I mean look at Barbara Walters, she will ask anybody anything but she takes them through parks and puts them in their natural setting to try to get a natural conversation instead of just having a natural conversation.
Royce: Right this is good, this is good, I'm having fun.
iR: What projects are you looking forward to listening to this year?
Royce: I mean the Slaughterhouse project is one I'm definitely looking forward too.
iR: Well, your making that, so that doesn't count. I'm talking about projects outside of what you already have.
Royce: Projects that I'm not apart of? Maybe I should ask you that question because I'm not looking forward to anything that's coming out this year.
iR: Honestly, I'm just looking forward to my friends projects coming out.
Royce: So you know what? We share the same interests then because I'm not checking anything else but my family's stuff coming out. I'm looking forward to Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I, Kid Vishis, the Slaughterhouse album, my album. That's a lot of projects and I'm really not checking for anything else. Not to hate on anybody.
iR: Hate is such a loosely defined word though.
Royce: Yeah, you're right. You can't say you don't like someone's shit without them saying "Why you hating?"
iR: Yeah its just alot of sensitive people out right now, if people like your stuff no matter what field you're in, you will eventually rise to the top, but criticizing others for disliking your stuff is overly sensitive. That includes everyone from rappers to bloggers.
Royce: Yeah, look at what happened to Perez Hilton.
iR: Yeah, well shit happens.
Royce: You better watch out man, Will.I.Am is going to come fuck you up.
iR: [Laughs]
Royce: Hey look man, what would you have done if he would have smacked you?
iR: I tell you what I wouldn't have done is make a video blog about it.
Royce: What did you think about that video blog that Perez did? Because that shit was pretty damn funny to me.
iR: That shit was so funny.
Royce: [Laughs]
iR: Everyone gets reality and digital fucked up and once you forget that there are people behind the boards and monitors, you lose touch with reality.
Royce: Yeah that shit was hilarious, I was laughing out loud at that.
iR: Yeah, speaking of, have you ever seen someone type "LOL" but they're not laughing?
Royce: Right [Laughs].
iR: Does that mean you're fake?
Royce: Nah because I'm guilty of that too. Even though I don't laugh it still may get a smirk on my face.
iR: Well Royce, thanks again for your time and I can't wait to hear what your album sounds like.
Royce: Thank you man, anytime.
