It hasn’t always been an easy road for the fiery iconic hip-hop figure.
With certain label deals not panning out, beefs that have led at times to devastating consequences (including a high-profile fallout with Eminem and D12), and a 10-month stint in the big house, if anything, Royce Da 5’9” is a misunderstood – yet always ferocious on the mic – talent.
And, at the moment, there are still hurdles to overcome.
Royce, currently, is rehabbing a broken arm he suffered overseas in Norway. Yup, Norway. “I broke my own bone in my arm two weeks ago arm wrestling a fan,” Royce says.
“I snapped his hand down – and I work out a lot and am over-trained – and my muscle was supposed to tear, but the muscle and tendon didn’t even bruise. The bone just snapped. It’s a freak accident. The doctor said it was common among people who lift.”
Although the arm has temporarily sidelined the Motor City MC, the future is now and there is no time like the present. Many of the beefs inside the Detroit hip-hop community are squashed, something that the leaders in the scene are quite proud of. Advocating for unity in the Dirty District will continue to be essential and before all of our stars can fully shine it seems behind the scenes that they are now all aligned.
“Nothing good came out of just being a beast,” Royce says over the phone this week as he prepares for Saturday night’s Reunion show at St. Andrew’s where he is sharing the bill with D12.
“It’s never been a good look for the city, us being scattered about. There were people in Atlanta who took a leadership role and they kind of showed all the other cities what can come out of unity.
“It’s not that they necessarily all get along with each other like that, it’s just that they can all agree to disagree; they got a unified front, they don’t air that shit out publically.”
It kind of seems that you’re in a different place these days -- a new mixtape coming out, a new full-length being finished, working with D12…Is there something specific that has you moving in this positive direction?
Ninety percent of what I’ve learned in my lifetime -- not even from the music business -- I learned by making mistakes. I need to be taught lessons before I can really get something. Like I can be told shit until I’m blue in the face, but I actually gotta deal with the harsh realities of the negative aspects of a situation before I can really get it.
D12, Eminem – and the Detroit hip-hop community in general...Metromix talked to Kuniva not too long ago and it kind of seems that our rap veterans are in this state of being where it is more about working together to make great music, write vivid lyrics, do very big things…
Everybody in Detroit feels that we have more talent more than any other city. It’s here, it’s obvious – but the rest of the world will never know unless we give them a reason to pay attention.
I guess it’s just a maturity thing -- you’ve got the egos involved; nobody wants to back down, nobody wants to take the first step to actually squash it. But we gotta support each other. It’s the only way this is going to happen.
You were on the D12 mix tape that came out about two months ago and now you guys are doing this big Reunion show together. How did you guys work this out?
We’ve been having a lot of conversations with each other; I actually see all these guys individually. We’ll see each other, we’ll speak, we’ll have a quick conversation.
I finally spoke to Em over the phone and that was the last thing in my life hanging over my head that was on my mind. Once we had that conversation and got that out of the way I felt great about life in general. That was the only friendship where there was a big void there. I had always wondered what happened to that relationship…
So much shit transpired I didn’t know what caused us to go our separate ways. Once we were able to talk and we came to the conclusion, “Ok we back friends” – once that happened, I was good to go.
After that Kuniva called me and said we were working on this mixtape and we want you to drop a verse; so I went and did that. The sky’s the limit on what we can get done from here. It’s just all coming together; it’s a good opportunity for everybody.
Besides this big Reunion show Saturday night, you have a new mixtape coming and a full length with DJ Premiere…
The next release is the “Bar Exam II” -- it’s the second installment of my mixtape series and that’s coming out Aug. 26.
I like to say it’s “Happy Bar Exam” – we’re not going to put them in the stores; we’re just going to give them away on the Internet Aug. 26. It will be like you’re birthday or Christmas. It’ll be very lengthy; it’ll be everything that I’ve been strategically leaking onto the Net; some original songs on it, a bunch of new freestyles that nobody’s heard.
In late October I got an album called “Street Hop” that’s executive produced by DJ Premiere…I worked with Premiere a lot in the past. He’s not producing every track, but he’s executive producing it – he’ll do four or five tracks and he’ll oversee the rest of the beats. He’s reaching out to the producers for me; all around it’s just real hands on.
“Street Hop” is coming out on Imperial/Atlantic. I’m still working on it – we’re dealing with some leak issues.
I’m fuckin’ with a lot of legends on these albums – a lot of people I actually look up to. It’s interesting; guest appearances don’t sell albums no more. If I put you on the album, it’ll be out of shear admiration just for what you do.
Look for more information from the interview with Royce to be included in the photo gallery of the show on Saturday night that will be posted to detroit.metromix.com next week.
