It takes a lot of humility to be able to work somebody in hip-hop. With the genre being so ego-driven, only a few rappers are able to toy around with the notion of forging a partnership with existing emcees or producers. Detroit rapper Royce Da 5'9'' sees no problem in creating conglomerates. In fact, he revels in the idea of it. Despite already being a reputable emcee with a voracious appetite for demolishing instrumentals, he has always been enthralled by the idea of creating supergroups to test the boundaries of creativity.  

In 2009, he, alongside the likes of Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz and Crooked I formed the four-headed monster known today as Slaughterhouse. In 2011, after being embroiled in a lyrical spat with Eminem, the two became friends again and formed their duo, Bad Meets Evil. Then, in 2014, he elected to test the waters with long-time friend and producer, DJ Premier to form PRhyme. 

While being entangled in a web of creativity is fun, Royce has now decided to place the focus back on himself. With his new album, Layers, serving as his first solo offering in five years, Royce's candor is on display. Not only will rap aficionados be able to soak in all of Royce's lyrical gems at once, but they will be able to extract every morsel of what makes him whole, too—something he failed to demonstrate on past projects. 

After the embattled rapper suffered from severe bouts with alcoholism, he made significant changes to clean up his act for his sake, and more importantly, his family's. Now, a refurbished Royce is locked and loaded to deliver more poignant records for us to enjoy. 

He sat down with Myspace to discuss the stories behind his tracks with Slaughterhouse, PRhyme, Eminem, and of course, his newest single "Tabernacle" from his just-released project, Layers. 

"Boom"

Rock City (1999)

Me and Preem [DJ Premier] first did a song called "My Friend." That was the first song that we ever did together. You know, I was still in geeky fan-mode. I was honored. So when we agreed that we were gonna go in and do a second one, you know, by that time, after we did the first one, I won him over. He liked me. I was in! I went in to do the second one and he played the beat. He was actually in there making it. He was doing some tightening up on it. He was like, “I'm about to get to your shit right after I finish this one.” I was like, “Wait! What's wrong with this one? I like this one.'” He was like, “Nah, man. This one is for Capone-N-Noreaga, man.” I was like, “Oh shit. Alright. They heard it yet?” Then he was like, “Oh nah. I ain't play it for 'em yet. I think they're supposed to be coming through later.” And I was just like, “Oh nah, give me that.'”So I stole Capone-N-Norega's beat. He ended up making them a different one and he ended up giving me that one. 

Then when I heard [mumbles the beat], for some reason, it made me think of a clock. I don't know why, but I think that noise was like reminiscent to an alarm clock that I had growing up or something. It reminded me of a clock and I just started thinking of a bomb. I started using all of these bomb references. That's just how the verses came together. I wasn't really thinking like, “Yo man. This is gonna be a classic beat in hip-hop, so I gotta make...” I wasn't thinking that. I was just going in there without any cares or worries. I just recorded it. Once you throw it out there, the fans are going to determine what it's gonna be. 

Eminem Featuring Royce Da 5'9" - "Bad Meets Evil" 

Slim Shady LP (1999)

When we met each other, that was one of the first things we spoke about. We talked about just getting together and making some shit. He had heard of me and obviously, I heard of him. He was making tons of noise in the city. When we finally got a chance to get together, we met at my man's studio and he came in with a lot of the concept already. We did it over this kid name Dr. Seuss, over one of this beats. I was kind of just vibing off him. We were just going back and forth. That's why it sounded like his song. He had a lot of the direction. I just came ready to rap. So when he was like, “This is where Bad Meets Evil…” we just started going back and forth like that, completing each other's syllables like on the hooky part and just making our verse our verse. So when he signed his deal with [Dr.] Dre, he played the label all of the songs that he had with people and out of all of the songs, for some reason, the label just liked THAT song. Not that they liked me more than they liked other people he rapped with, but it was something about that song that they liked.

He kept that song for his album and I had to go out. He had to change the beat and make a whole new beat and I had to go recut my vocals to it. So there's two versions of it. There's an original version of that online somewhere and then there's his album version. 

Slaughterhouse  - "Truth Or Truth"

Tears of Joy Freestyle (2012)

"Truth Or Truth" was like one or two steps before I decided to get sober. That was like an emotional time. That was the time I almost knew that my career, because of drinking, was almost over. It was like in the back of my mind. It was like, “I'ma have to quit this shit. I know it. I know it's coming.” Everything just started coming out emotional. I wasn't letting things go fast. I was hanging on to shit. I was angry. I was getting into fights. I had broke my finger. I got into a fight with this guy in front of a bar and broke my finger. I was going to SXSW with a fucking cast on. I was looking crazy.  

So that song, I was starting to worry about my son and how he views me. And then, I was always falling out with my wife. I was always worried about that, but I wasn't talking to them. So there wasn't always like a very open line of communication in the house. We were all kind of like roommates. They had their space and I had my space. I did all my venting on records. It got to a point where my wife was literally listening to my music just to know how I felt about things. That's basically how that song came together. I was feeling that way, and I just wrote my verse and laid it. I was going to do the freestyle myself and I was like, 'You know what? Joe [Budden] would sound ill on this,' cuz he's introspective in that way. Up until that point, I hadn't been introspective in my career at all—aside from the Death Is Certain album, which was a one time thing. 

So I was going out to New York for the next couple of days, and I played it in the studio with Slaughterhouse for Joe. He immediately started writing. That's why he was like on the song, 'Royce, you inspire me,' because what I was talking about on the song inspired him to write a gang of bars. Then, Crooked [I] and Joell [Ortiz] jumped on it like, “Y'all not about to do this record and leave us off it!” That's how it became like a 13-minute freestyle. 

PRhyme - "PRhyme"

PRhyme (2014)

That was actually the first song that we did for the album. First song that we did, first beat that Preme sent me. He sent that beat to me probably around 5 o'clock. He got on a flight to LA, got to the shower, got dressed, got to an event and it was in his e-mail. I think he got a call from Joaquin Phoenix or someone like that like, “Yo, come to this party.” He always tells the story. “Come to this party,” and he was like, “Let me listen to this shit' real quick.” 

He said he listened to it and that was his first time hearing me rap since I've been sober in terms me and him working. Prior to that, he's been always wondering like, Is Royce still gonna come with that same aggression? Can he go there and be that aggressive? Can he go there with all his inhibitions still there? Can he let go of his inhibitions without drinking and still let it all hang out of the booth? He called me and was like, "Yo, this is crazy.” I had only did the first two verses. I did the first two verses and left the gaps for the scratches. I didn't know where I wanted to go for with that album. I didn't know what I wanted to talk about. I just knew that everything would be driven from his beats. I knew that I would use DJ Premier as a soundbed for whatever that was gonna happen. I didn't go in there with ammo. I did every song on the spot. Every time I heard a beat, I just did it on the spot cuz I wanted that organic feel for that album. 

"Tabernacle"

Layers (2016)

It didn't take a long time to write it, but it took me many years of reflection to put it together in my mind. You know, when you reflect on things when you're sober, it's way different. When you're drunk, you don't really reflect at all. I always knew when my son was born, that my granny died, and I met Marshall on the same day. But it wasn't until I started talking to my mom about things; you know she was the one who told me about the fifth floor, the ninth floor, and my girl being dilated 5 centimeters, and all of those things, if you're into that shit, things are very deep to you. You know how the universe works? It becomes deep to you. 

Once I was able to put all that together in my mind, it was pretty easy to just word it. You know, I had the body of the story in my head already. And I always been thinking about the time I met Marshall with my son being born. With those two things happening at the same time, I always knew I wanted to address that in a story, but it took many years for me to reflect and really reflect on some of the things surrounding me. Now, my granny and the car accident that she got in, she was hit by a drunk driver. That's what I didn't put in the story. That's even deeper to me. I'm a drunk driver. I've never been in an accident that involved anybody else. I wrapped my car around a tree before. I still think there's some irony there.