With his new album The Allegory set to drop tomorrow, Royce Da 5'9" hit up Real 92.3 for a conversation about his recent creative endeavors; aside from his own project, he also laced two production credits on Eminem's gold-certified Music To Be Murdered By, as well as three typically solid verses. Speaking on his turn to production, Royce explains that he has been hitting the studio every day to practice his craft. "I hadn't planned on doing anything," he admits. "I started messing with the beats, learning how to make beats. One thing led to another and I was halfway through a project. Had a direction in mind, knew what I wanted to say and went with it. This is the first project that happened to me."
Moving forward, Royce shares a hilarious story about the time he allowed Griselda's entire tour team to crash at his studio. "Before I even knew Benny existed I was a big Griselda fan," he shares. "They didn't get a hotel room, they were just sprawled out everywhere. Merch laying everywhere. Suitcases opened up everywhere. My studio was a mess -- a bunch of real hood-ass n***as!" Meanwhile, Royce was working on a beat in his room with the key players when he noticed Benny whispering some bars. "I was like, what's up homie, you got something to this? He was like 'yeah I got something.' And he went in my booth and torched my booth."
Yelawolf Issue">Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
In a moment that's sure to elicit a few playful barbs from Eminem, Royce declares The Real Slim Shady to be his favorite of his rhyming partner's album; it's unclear as to whether he's referring to The Slim Shady LP, or The Marshall Mathers LP on which "The Real Slim Shady" can be found. He also kindly ranked Revival as his least favorite of Em's project, though he neglects to elaborate further. When asked about his involvement in Em's latest record, which has the staunch approval of both DJ Hed and Bootleg Kev, Royce maintains that he had nothing to do in the creation -- aside from hooking up a monstrous feature. "This is something he wanted to do," confirms Nickle. "He called me about the 'Yah Yah' song, and told me he wanted Black Thought. I went and got him Black Thought."
On the topic of Royce's recent shot at Yelawolf on "Over Comer," he explains that it comes down to the topic of respect. "He did something I felt was disrespectful," explains Royce. "There was a window of time where he could have called me to clarify or just say something to me. He didn't even think he needed to call me -- he didn't even extend me that respect. It was something that happened behind closed doors and he knew I knew about it. I took offense to it, and how I handled it was addressing it on a song. I felt it was the only way I could handle it -- for me to to air it out publically would imply I'm using it as a vehicle to push an album or be vindictive. I'm not a vindictive person...I felt the only way to do it was let him know it's on my radar. I'm aware."
Check out the full interview with one of the greatest rappers of our time below, and look out for that Allegory project to arrive in full at midnight.