Yelawolf's new album, Love Story, is in stores and online today. The rapper has hinted at what to expect from his sophomore album with the "Son's of Anarchy"-featured track "Til It's Gone" as well as "Whiskey In A Bottle" and most recently, "Best Friend." All these songs have a country and southern edge not often heard in hip-hop, and in comparison to Yela's first album, Radioactive, it's definitely a change of pace-- in a good way, though.
Yelawolf detailed how the road to Love Story was a long one, in fact, it took five months before he really settled on his first song and the general direction for the album.
"With this album it was important to say, alright, we're gunna close the door, and this is artists only. No one is even allowed to have an opinion, other than myself. When I decide if I like it or not, the I allow someone else to have an opinion about it, that I was working with. It took five months to get that first song. I had like 40 ideas before I had a song that I felt like was of the [right] caliber. After that, the album started flowing better," Yelawolf started to explain.
He continued, "Marshall and I we just got rid of some people that didn't need to be around. We just cut it out. I ducked off to Nashville, Tennessee, and I basically had a residency at Black Bird Studio. I fully invested myself into, I didn't rush it, and no one was rushing me to do it. Certain records started happening that we really got excited about. After I recorded "American You"...well actually, "American You" was the last of the sessions, the very last. I sent it to Marshall and I was like, man, if he digs this, it's a wrap. And he loved it, he actually asked to produce it. So, after I knew he was down for a record like that, and to go that route, I knew it was on. The door just got kicked open. After that, I went back and wrote 'Devil In My Veins,' it's the only one that I produced on the album. It's just a straight singer/songwriter's song."
Yela also spoke about the creation of "Best Friend" and tapping Eminem for an appearance on it. "When I wrote 'Best Friend' I knew that I had something special," he told us. "It was a great song as it was, but I thought, if I could get Marshall to buy into the concept of the record, it would be phenomenal. I just crossed my fingers and it sent to him like I would really like to hear you on this one. I thought, the juxtaposition of that; no one's seen us like that and no one's absolutely heard a song like that from me. Content-wise, I don't think Marshall's ever hit on those particular things." He added, "We shot a video for it actually, so that'll be out really soon."
Finally, he left us with word on an upcoming motorcycle-only tour: "I got this really cool tour coming up in September where we're gunna be doing the whole tour strictly on Harleys. So no bus, no nothing. We'll be starting in Nashville, then we'll go to Chattanooga, stay the night, next day bike out to Birmingham, and then Montgomery, then Atlanta, and then ending in Nashville for the first of the 'Slumerican Festival.' September 14th through the 19th. Bring your bike and ride."