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Detroit seem to be back on the map, but this time it has nothing to do with Berry Gordy's Motown but everything to do with the ever increasing force of Hip Hop. Recently it has been Eminem along D12 and now it's Royce Da 5'9" ( 5' what? yes 5'9" we thought the same thing too) who have snatch the crown from New York and Cali. Well Phatmag took Royce Da 5'9" shopping and ended up interviewing him but bought nothing... poor bastards
Phatmag: hey Royce welcome to London, How are you feeling about it so far? 5'9" : I Like it, I like it a lot (he say's in stupid English ascent) First things first, when we got your CD at Phatmag we looked at the name and said what's that all about? Why 5'9"? 5'9" : That's my height... As simple as that? 5'9" : Nothing clever about it why did you decide to go with that? 5'9" : Cause I played basketball at high school and every year I used to 5'9", 5'9", so I started using. Very simple. So is that 5'9" with Timbs or without? 5'9" :|I don't know, I didn't were Timbs at high school so I guess it's 5'9" So you're probably 5'10" now? 5'9" : No still 5'9"
How long have you been in this Rap game for and how did start for you? 5'9" :About five, six years. It stated out as a hobby just playing around doing my thing, in school free styling do my thing but I didn't actually start writing songs until about 97, I think I met Slim that same year. How did you meet Slim? 5'9" : My manager, manager extrodiner "ikino" introduced us. I was opening up for Usher in Detroit and Slim was there so he introduced us, we got together and did the the damn thing I believe you were the hype man for Slim for a little while, how long was that for? 5'9" :yeah! is for a couple of years Did you guys fall out or just moved on? 5'9" : When I got my deal, I couldn't be consistent on the road with him. So if Tommy Boy had me on the road somewhere and he had to be somewhere, you know what I'm saying, I didn't want to not be able to be there on deferent dates so he had to get somebody that could be there all the time, so he got Proof to start doing it with him and |I would to at times when I could. What happened with Tommy Boy, did you release any thing with them? 5'9" : We didn't see eye to eye creatively so the year was a nightmare, I asked for a release ( from the record contract) they gave me one, got off and did the damn thing again. Did you leave them or did they drop you? 5'9" : I left.... I asked for release, we negotiated for long time and I got it. ... F**k Tommy Boy....( someone shouts from the background) Was it before you got signed again? 5'9" : "I was unsigned for about a year and what happened within that year, were you working on new material? 5'9" : That's when I did "Boom", that's what created the buzz which threw attention to Columbia and then I did a deal with them. |
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How did you hook up with Premier? 5'9" : We actually hooked up when I was signed to Tommy Boy. We did my friend first and then you know, we said we got to do another joint we got to do something a little more raw, something a little more MCish. Would you say you stuff now is a lot more commercial than it used to be? 5'9" : I think so, I think so.. Is that deliberate? 5'9" : Yeah! cause "I never focused on doing a single when |I was just unsigned and recording, It wasn't an option, it didn't matter cause I wasn't going to put anything out anyway. But when you sign to a label then you've got to go within the scheme of what the label doing. That's when you realise it's a job now and you've got to feed your family, you've got to give them a complete album, you can't just limit yourself... So yeah! definitely more commercial than it was cause I had no reason to be commercial before. So it's obviously just a money thing? 5'9" : Well it's not just a money thing, I do the music that I like to do and I'm developing, it's always forward and I'm moving, developing and becoming more diverse cause I can do more things. If feel I've got a talent over here I'm not going to mask that talent because I think this person thinks I'm commercial. Cause there's always going to be this person that likes me and this person that don't like me. So it's what pleases you really? 5'9" : Definitely How do feel this album is going, do you feel people feeling in London so far?
5'9" : So far everybody I've runnned into that's heard it say they like it, so I just hope for the best. Are you doing your promo's in Europe or just London? 5'9" : Europe. I'm going to Paris, Germany then I think I'm coming back to London. Doing any big show's? 5'9" : Done big show last night, "I think we got another one, I don't know I got to look at the itenary.I've got to have more than just one show I've got to check to see when and where, cause they've been having me doing press and everything, my whole days been full, but it's good to be busy I believe you wrote some stuff for Dre's Chronic 2001, how did that come about? 5'9" : Slim introduced me to Dre, then we just started working S o your publishing must be Phat? 5'9" : I can't complain, it's cool "I know Dre sold tons of albums.. 5'9" : He takes care of his people Was it a buy out? 5'9" : What reason he got to buy me out, I only wrote one song which made the album so... which was "The Message" featuring Mary J. Planning on doing any more with? 5'9" : Hopefully in the future But at this moment are you just concentrating on your own stuff? 5'9" :yeah! that's like the inevitable thing. Dre is somebody that "I know now so, he's somebody that I can go to... Did he do any cuts on your album? 5'9" : No, it was just a time issue. I spoke to him a couple of times about it. You know it's always I'm with it let's do it bit we couldn't match the times up and I don't speak to him enough to stay on him or him to stay on me so it didn't happen I didn't force it. Well thank you for your time Royce.. 5'9" : Cool brother let's shop....
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