Last year, Jersey MC Joe Budden needed some lyricists to join him in tearing up the Scram Jones-produced track “Slaughterhouse,” an album cut off his digital-only release Halfway House. The result was seven minutes of utter sickness, featuring guest spots from Brooklynites Joell Ortiz and Nino Bless, West Coast representative Crooked I and Detroit MC Royce Da 5’9”. Each (save Bless, who was still new to the rap game compared to the others) had dealt with and moved beyond a ridiculous set of industry politics that many would never make it passed, and the chemistry seemed too good to be true. With the streets and the Internet buzzing heavily about the collaboration, it was obvious what needed to happen: the four would join forces and form a supergroup named after the track that brought them together (Bless was not included, but remains close to the others). With leaked tracks like “Onslaught,” “Wack MCs” and “Fight Club” only adding to the buzz, fans are anxiously awaiting the group’s first LP, which hits stores August 11 via E1 Music.
Late last week, the four sat in DJ Premier’s midtown Manhattan studio, cracking jokes, answering questions, and building the excitement for the debut album of the “Voltron crew.” I talked to them about the future of lyrics, their upcoming Rock the bells tour, and what exactly it is that makes Slaughterhouse a four-headed monster.
It seems like now is the first time in a while when you can be a rapper at any level— and you don’t have to be lyrical at all. As lyrical MCs, do you fear for the future of lyrics?
Budden: Hell no.
Me: Why not?
Budden: Cause of us, nigga! Nah, it’s just like with anything else out there. Like I tell my girl all the time,rummaging through my phone, searching for shit, ‘if you looking for something, you’ll find.’ So for the people out there that are in search of lyricists and top-notch wordsmiths, they’re out there. Maybe you won’t find them on your local radio station, or when you turn on the TV, but they’re definitely out there, you just have to put the effort forth in coming out there to get it. I know the four of us, together, are fucking phenomenal MCs, not to pat ourselves on the back. But I don’t think there’s any reason to fear the future. The game changes. It changes every however many years it is: dancing’s cool one second, words will be back one second, fashion is cool one second. We’ve all made a healthy, comfortable living for a lot of years being lyricists. So no, I don’t think you can fear.
I picture the studio being extremely competitive, lyrically, since you’re all on similar level. How do you avoid letting things get too heated and too competitive? How do you push the egos to the side and keep all the competition healthy in the studio?
Crooked: I think it’s a respect factor. We all respect each other and I know that these guys right here are lyrical geniuses. So there’s a respect. If he [Royce] says ‘yo, I think this should be like this,’ I have to take his opinion very seriously because he’s a lyrical genius. It would be different if it was somebody who I had no respect for on the microphone telling me ‘yo, you need to do X, Y and Z,’ you know? So I think we can put aside egos and all that and just mesh together because we all respect each other. We respect each other’s opinion, each other’s bodies of work, and each other’s work ethic—so it was smooth, man.
Royce: I don’t even compete. I just know that I gotta perform at the peak of my capabilities in order to exist. It’s not ‘yo, I gotta have a better verse than Joey.’ I’m not gonna mentally do that to myself because I don’t know if my verse is better than Joey’s, because opinions vary.
Crooked: Opinions are like assholes.
Royce: Yeah, there’s always gonna be somebody there to say Joey had a better verse or Royce had a better verse. I just know I gotta perform on a certain level in order to be on a song with these dudes, otherwise that song will not be balanced.
Do you ever hear something one of you says that makes you go, ‘shit, I gotta step my game up?’
Joell: Every goddamn time! Every song you gonna get that, if you’re your worst critic and you know the niggas next to you are fucking dope. But we don’t let that take away from the fun of recording. That never interferes with our recording process. It might be something we joke about after when this nigga [Crooked] is doing tequila sunrise, he’s [Royce] doing Patrón, he’s [Budden] Red Bullin’ it and I’m Jack-and-cokin’ it. We might be like, ‘you lost, mothafucka.’ As long as the song sounds fine when we’re done, we good.
Royce: We all try to do our best because of how good we know that each other are. But we’re not against each other. That’s what I think a lot of people in press don’t understand, and why we keep getting these same type of questions. We on the same team, you know? But there’s always going to be a friendly edge there in terms of competition. I mean, I’m cut from the Eminem cloth. I was 19 years old in the studio getting clinked up by Em. A certain mind frame was already instilled in me at an early age. So I’m just doing what’s natural.
So you guys are going on tour this summer. What’s a Slaughterhouse live show like? Is there a lot of planning or is it more just feeding off the energy on stage?
Royce: We have no choice but to feed off the energy because we don’t have a lot of time to rehearse. A lot of it is just what we do naturally. It ain’t nothing but rock-n-roll to us; we just go up there and do what we do best.
Crooked: And it’s a lot of energy. Don’t get it twisted, it’s not like some of these rappers that go up there and they don’t break a sweat. You got a lot of people in the industry right now that could do 12 songs and then walk off and look like they didn’t do shit. That’s absolutely not what’s going to go on at a Slaughterhouse show. At a Slaughterhouse show you’re gonna see a four-headed monster get on stage. Each individual is gonna tear into the microphone. Everybody’s gonna be sweating. You’re gonna see red slaughter water pouring all over the crowd. You’re gonna see an intense energy that you probably won’t see from the act after us.
Royce: Yeah, and if you’re headlining, and you’re a little too comfortable with your shit, then we might just steal the show.
Joell: And, if you look near me, there’s usually a good group of girls trying to tear my clothes off because of the element I bring to it. . .which is the beard element (laughs). You see, we do on stage the same thing we’re doing now, have a goddamn ball.
Budden: Wait, hold up a minute. (Turns to Joell) You really think those are girls trying to tear your clothes off?
Joell (to me): Go ahead, next question (laughs).
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