Royce Da 5'9 ~Make It Count

There was beef cooking in Rock City. After publicized battle records between Royce Da 5’9 and D-12 came out someone eventually got hurt. One of Royce’s crew got jumped in a club. Things were about to be taken a lot further. Enough was enough…It was time to lock down the studio and concentrate on business.

I got in touch with Royce late one Friday night, in Detroit for a late night interview and preview of his new mix tape. After some minor setbacks Big Lou and I got there around 1am. Royce is notorius for all night sessions with his crew. He was there ten deep, after 3 sweets Los’s beats made the night complete. After previewing most of his banging mix tape, and a few healthy doses of Bacardi Limon, we got right to business…

One 1X Tyme : So what project are you working on now?

Royce Da 5'9 : [I’m] working on the mix tape right now. It’s called the M.I.C. [Make It Count] mix tape. I’m working on my album, it’s called “Death is Certain”. It comes out in February. In the meantime, I just wanna keep doin sh--…just to reintroduce myself, ya’know what I’m saying. Keep the buzz going. Like I kind of dropped off the scene for a minute, which I did on purpose.

One 1X Tyme : Why did you do it on purpose?

Royce Da 5'9 : Well, it was a lot of sh-- going on. Mainly in Detroit, it was a lot of heat around me. I was in a lot of beef and sh%*. I ran into a lot of jealousy in my city. A lot of envy, a lot of muphkas deciding that they wanna man up on me, so I kind of had to get out of the scene to stay out of trouble. I had to use my brain. I can go out and try to go against everybody, and I felt like everybody was against me. Either I’ma do something against somebody or somebody’s gonna do it to me. Which is a lose/lose situation.

So I just kept my ass at home and in the studio. Which turned out to be the best method for me, cause now I’ve got like a zillion songs! That’s what gave me the idea to just start doing the mix tape sh*^! In between albums just like never stop. Ya’know’em sayin, like my man Busta. In between albums, you hear him on a lot of peoples sh--. It ain’t about money; he’s just trying to keep his name out there. So I’m just trying to be on some smart MC sh--.

One 1X Tyme : This is a new mix tape, but you had one out before…

Royce Da 5'9 : That was called Build and Destroy. That one is not as extreme as this one. This mix tape is so crazy it’s almost like an album. Even though I’ve got freestyles over other peoples beats, we’ve got actual songs in between, we just record and record. The Build and Destroy cd was actually just songs that we were sitting on that we weren’t gonna use on nothing. We figured why not just put’em out. This one is more fresh and new.

One 1X Tyme : I know you have your crew, D-Elite, is this a project to bring them out?

Royce Da 5'9 : I want them to hit the underground first. I want them to come up, organically, not truly through me. I don’t want they sh*^ to depend on my fame or my success. I don’t want it to be “Oh Royce Da 5’9 sold a million records…and here’s his crew!” I want them to get a buzz for themselves. We gonna keep hitting with the mix tapes until it’s time. The public will let us know who they wanna hear out the crew, and that’s who’s album we’re gonna do.

One 1X Tyme : So what’s the overall agenda? Are you gonna let the mix tape ride till the album?

Royce Da 5'9 : We gonna keep doing more sh--. I’ma keep doing freestyles every week. I’ma go harder now than I’ve ever gone. This is like my third time around. This time around I’ma do triple what I did the other two times cause I know more, and I’m doing it not just as an artist, but as an executive.

As far as the Death is Certain album, it’s been done. I finished that album in like three weeks. My man Los [producer] came into town, and I just really had a lot of sh-- to get off of my chest. It’s real morbid, no flashy punchlines. It’s timeless. It’s something you can listen to ten years from now, and be like that’s good music. I ain’t in to the fad rap like, catchy punch lines that fade out. Like Canibus, once his style faded out, he could never come back again. You can’t come back as a different person. That’s why you got artists like Pac, you can listen to his album to this day, and he didn’t get into that punch line sh-- , he just said what was on his mind. That’s what I did with my album. I save the punch lines for the mix tapes, that’s throw away sh--.

One 1X Tyme : I always remember you being know for the punchlines…

Royce Da 5'9 : They still punchlines, but they’re not the faddish ones. Some people will say a punchline and it’s like timeless. But some people will say a punchline and it’s like Used Jeans…you remember USED JEANS?

One 1X Tyme : Yeaaaaman [laughter throughout the room]

Royce Da 5'9 : Faddish like “I’ll stick my d--- in your ear, so f--- what ya heard!” That would have been ill in like ’97. You can’t say that now, that’s what I call a faddish punchline. Somebody who would say something like that then would have been considered lyrical, now they’d be called corny… You do metaphors when your gleeful. I wasn’t happy on this album.

One 1X Tyme : Content wise, what was your mindset when you walked into this album project?

Royce Da 5'9 : I had the whole album mapped out in my head. Death is Certain, I had that before I wrote the first record. The whole album is about my second time around in the rap game, I felt like I died. I felt like I was murdered by my circumstances. Not knowing what I was doing, depending on the label too much. Then my sh-- didn’t come out. I got flip flopped around. I felt like I was too nice for this. I’m seeing mu----kas, Pharell, Slim, Dre’, I’ve set and watch so many mu----kas get super rich, who tell me I’m ill. They tell me “You sick, what’s goin on with the label?” That sh-t was like death for me.

I call it Death is Certain because it’s not like the actual death like somebody killing somebody, that’s one aspect of it. But you can die in your career. It’s basically saying what goes around comes around. You can be here today and gone tomorrow. That’s death, it’s certain.

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