With his latest EP dropping this past Tuesday (July 7), Detroit veteran Royce da 5’9 is the lead emcee to kick off an EP series buildup to the anticipated debut of the super group Slaughterhouse.
Each member (Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, Royce Da 5’9) will release an EP in the month of July in preparation for the group’s self-titled LP on August 11.
As the member with the most released albums (4), Royce revealed this project represents the first time he’s had hands-on involvement on an album’s marketing strategy.
“It’s the one I’ve been most involved in. Normally in the past I would do a project and hand it over to the label and say ‘ok, y’all do your thing,’” Royce told AllHipHop.com in an exclusive interview. “I’m very involved with the media campaign of it, and also getting together with the guys and trying to make this work for our solo careers as well as the group. The beauty of it is we all have our respective careers. We don’t want to get in a group and just be looked at as group members. We’re all sitting on monster sh*t as solo artists. We want to strategically put ‘em up out to where we’re controlling a part of the music business for a certain amount of time…It’s a powerful movement.”
While fans of their solo work remain excited, there are some who question whether Slaughterhouse’s debut will just be a collection of battle-heavy, mixtape styled rhymes as opposed to a cohesive album.
To those critics, Royce promises the project is the best artistic achievement the foursome has done in their careers.
“We got real records. The album sounds like one of our solo albums with us all over it,” Royce explained to AllHipHop.com. “Because we’re a group doesn’t mean we’re gonna go in and sway from the formula any of us would use for our own albums. We were more concerned about making records than doing 13 onslaught Slaughterhouse records, because people already know we can do that. I’m telling you, everyone is going to be surprised when they hear it. Its classic and all 4 of us think so. It’s the best project that any of us have been a part of. We’re real proud of what we’ve come with.”
Yesterday, Wu Tang founding member Inspectah Deck released a venomous diss (“House N*gga”) aimed at Joe Budden in response to the Jersey emcee’s brief feud with Method Man.
When asked if the group has reservations about Budden’s outspoken nature getting them into unnecessary beefs, Royce affirmed that Joe has the group’s full support.
“I’m going to hold him down [even] if I’m uncomfortable with something he’s saying. I’ll go to him, I won’t go to the media and disagree with Joe,” Royce clarified. “His personality is just stronger than the average person’s, that’s what makes him special, that’s what makes him that character in the group. We let him be who he is, and we just keep a close eye on him, like ‘you probably shouldn’t have said that, but don’t worry about it we’re gonna straighten it out.’ Because he’s never said nothing too crazy where someone will want to kill him…The real n*ggas, we’re always gonna squash it [with them].”
The full interview will be featured soon on AllHipHop.com