Biba Adams hits us with another exclusive, this time a Royce Da 5′9″ feature for the Michigan Citizen.
Royce talks about his drinking problem, his new album and looks back at what runied his relationship with Dr. Dre.
MC: Looking back at those times. When you were with Em, and he was working with Dre, you did a lot of songs for The Chronic 2001. What happened with Dre? What exactly was said? What happened exactly? (Royce wrote numerous songs for Dr. Dre for his comeback album, many of which were scrapped after Royce’s then-manager, Kino Childrey made some comments that were published in a national magazine. Royce’s lyrics remained on one song, The Message. The comments became part of a huge controversy which follows the rapper to this day.)
R59: I was young, Kino was young. We were excited to be around Dre. You gotta understand, we were like 20, 21, and we’re in the studio working with Dre. We went from the Open Mic’s to that. So we were excited and Kino just went a little bit fast. I was doing an interview over the phone and he was on the phone too, he knew the guy that I was doing the interview with. After I got off the phone, they stayed on the phone for a little while. To this day he says he didn’t say it, but the comment that was made was, “I’ve seen Em sit Dre down like a pupil and coach him on rhymes”. The reporter printed it. When it got back to Dre, he got upset. Kino wrote an apology letter and he was sorry, but Dre did what he did which was kinda wash his hands of him.
MC: Do you regret it? Do you feel like it was something you could have done?
R59: Do I regret him saying it? I can’t regret somebody else’s actions. You can ask him, he probably regrets saying it.
The hip hop world likes to look back at the Royce and Dre situation and wonder: “What if?”, however there’s no guarantee that Royce would have been a superstar had he and his manager not angered Dre. Think about the long list of rappers that Dre has taken under his wing who have not flourished. Hittman, Crooked I, Knoc-turnal and others may never see the light of day on a major label.
Without the missteps in his career we wouldn’t have gotten Death is Certain. If Royce sticks to that formula of brutal honesty, accountability and acknowledging his mistakes (prevalent also in this interview), he could have his second classic album to date in Street Hop.
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[…] This unreleased track by Royce Da 5′9″ was scheduled to appear on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic 2001 before their falling out. […]