Fourteen years, zero albums.
You know the familiar tale of Dominick Whitfield, better known as Crooked I. Yet, the futility of the second stat should be overshadowed by the achievement of the first figure. Lasting relevancy in this fickle game of rap politics and fleeting celebrity ain’t no joke.
On a March evening, Crooked is recording at Premo’s studio in midtown Manhattan. No, he’s not at work on his debut, but rather the upcoming album from Royce Da 5’9′, another sublime lyricist suffering from major-label shelf woes. In fact, the commonalities are shared by all the members of Slaughterhouse, the rest of whom—Joey and Joell—will arrive later. But before the group lays down another lyrical massacre worthy of its namesake, Crooked chops it up with the Crew’s Devin Chanda to talk Death Row to Detox, Long Beach to New York and Muscle Records to Slaughterhouse collaborations.
TSS: So how many tracks into the album so far?
Crooked I: With Slaughterhouse? Basically man, the Slaughterhouse shit—we got a lot of tracks in. We just been leaking shit. I don’t know if we officially started an album. It’s like we just workin’.
TSS: Getting the chemistry down…
Crooked I: Yeah, just workin’ man and havin’ fun because that’s the thing about the business—the business is so shady sometimes that you can’t have fun anymore. And right now, we just find it fun to record records together. So we doin’ that right now. I think our first move might be an EP—just something for the collective, about 7 crazy joints, and working with producers who are actually producers. They gonna come in there and say, “Hold on, we gonna put the hook right here, we gonna do this right here.” I think the EP is really gonna set the standard—change the standard—of ’09 music.
TSS: What’s the standard right now?
Crooked I: If you ask me—what I hear on the radio, what I see on video—if I had to say out of the 100% of Hip-Hop that’s out there, I gotta say at least 87% is garbage. That’s not balance. We need balance restored to the game. Back in the day, it was like you had your steak, potatoes, green beans—you had everything you need. Now, it’s just like a bunch of sides—you ain’t got no main course no more. So we definitely trying to restore some sort of balance.
I’m not mad at rappers who make songs about dances. But the thing about it is back when Kid N’ Play did it, they actually knew how to rap, knowhatimsayin’? When Shock G. said, “Do The Humpty Hump,” it was funny—it was all fun and games—but Shock G. knew how to rap. It’s different now. People make up dance songs and they don’t how to rap.
It’s crazy, because more and more people are sinking. It’s like we not rapping no more. It’s like ever since Lil’ Wayne did “Lollipop,” which was a good song—huge success for him and I’m sure the bank account is on happy status right now—but since he did “Lollipop,” then T.I. came with “Whatever You Like” and Kanye came with 808′s, that’s three of the top emcees in the game right now—singing.
It’s not no knock towards them because they do what they do—I got respect for all three of those dudes—but I wanna hear them rap. As a fan, I don’t wanna hear them sing. So, I think what we gonna do is make people wanna jump back on that mic like, “Nah, fuck that. Put a beat on, nigga. I still know how to do this,” that type of shit.
TSS: As niggas who can rap, will you guys have any dance records then?
Crooked I: No, no records about a dance (Laughs). That’s strictly off-limits. We’re not having no records about dances, but we’ll have joints that people can dance to because that’s what it’s all about. It’s not like we trying to be super-hardcore dudes who don’t wanna have fun and make music that people enjoy. We wanna give these fans—this new era of fans—the same kind of feeling that we had when we was growing up 10,11,12,13 listening to Hip-Hop. We wanna give them quality emcees that they can debate all day and night about who’s the best. We wanna give them that feeling. I don’t think they really got that feeling. They almost there, but they not quite there.
TSS: As a youth, who did you debate about? Read the rest of this entry »
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