Since he first burst onto the hip hop scene back in 1998, Ryan Daniel Montgomery aka Royce Da 5’9 of Detroit Michigan has become one of the most underrated, respected and revered hip hop artists of the hip hop community. With a lyrical style and flow that is unsurpassed and at times uncomfortably raw and true, Royce has indeed solidified himself as one of the hardest working and authentic lyricist’s of the hip hop industry and with the release of his 6^th studio album this month called Layers, Royce has upped the ante another notch by gifting us with his most honest body of work to date.

Since he signed his first record deal in 1998 with Tommy Boy records which eventually led him to Colombia records and the recording of his first album Rock City (Version 2.0) which was released in 2002 and went on to give Royce major underground recognition and of course kick-started the long running collaboration between he and DJ Premier on the Primo produced single Boom off that debut album. A six album discography later and Royce Da 5’9 feels now is the time for him to share the personal side of a man, whom as an artist, battled with vices and demons almost to the point of self-destruction and he proudly celebrates his 4^th year anniversary of sobriety in September this year, with that conviction came a major awakening and sense of clarity for the rapper. He states that his current album Layers is his most personal and has come about at the perfect time for the more mature lyricist to finally shine some light on the man behind the rapper, his views, his past and even as far back as his childhood as fans will experience on his Tabernacle track, Royce has left no stone unturned in this almost therapeutic album.

From his strong bond and friendship with fellow rapper and Detroit native Eminem, whom he only refers to as Marshall, to his union with underground hip hop sensation Slaughterhouse and his successful collaboration with friend and mentor DJ Premier in their various projects from Prhyme and beyond, Royce is an artist that has never stopped respecting the foundations of a hip hop culture that helped carve him into the incredible talent he is today. He is also an artist that is encouraging of the forward movement and evolution of the genre he steers to becoming something the younger generation continue to keep relevant and poignant in the greater music industry. He has stopped the angst and war of words of his earlier years and is embracing the grown, wise and secure family man he has become, kicking out his heavy drinking and partying and replacing with music that is both personal and necessary to his artistry and to hip hop.

The following is a conversation that flowed effortlessly, speaking about what was, what is and what will be in an exchange that was honest, insightful, funny and real. Royce Da 5’9 is sans the celebrity and hype that shrouds our hip hop artists all too often, instead opting to be present in the moment of his own evolution from extraordinary rapper to one of the most powerful lyricists of our time, without ego but with a certainty that his music and message will remain a necessary part of hip hop no matter how many Layers he continues shed in the process!

Hey Royce, so awesome to speak with you – how has life been treating you?

Hey Maxine, thanks for having me. Man I can’t complain, life is good and I am doing great. If I nit-pick I can say that I would like a little bit more time with my babies but at the end of the day this is what I signed up for right so I am blessed to keep doing what I do. Man I stay busy which is a good thing as it keeps me outta trouble I guess (laughs).

You are a pioneer in this hip hop game hands down, you have put in the hard yards for years and have always kept it 100 percent real, regardless of feelings being hurt, when it comes to what and how you spit. You are many titles to your fans and critics alike but I would love to hear who Royce Da 5’9 as an artist is to Royce Da 5’9 the man and is there any separation between the two?

Thank for you that. You know what there’s less of Royce the 5’9 artist in me today than when I first started I can honestly say. I am working on bringing more of Royce the Man into the artistry side of me in recent times, especially on this new album Layers you know. There is a real sense of retrospection that is being ushered into my music now, what I right and say is more personal and reflective of my life and especially my childhood. This new album is by far my most personal body of work, being a full blown scope of who I am as a man, what some of my views are and so you are getting the full dose of Ryan Daniel Montgomery the man who’s calling himself Royce Da 5’9. There is still a divide though between the two, when I step in that booth I am the rapper, but when I head home to my family I am just a family man and I don’t get treated like a rapper, so its helps me to just carry myself between the two in the same vein. We are all regular people you know, aint no celebrity here, just a regular human being who loves to rap you know what I’m saying (laughs).

You have given us an incredible new album called Layers, major congrats on that. How are you feeling about the music you are making right now and these albums, in particular Layers? Why this personal body of work now at this stage in your hip hop career?

I appreciate that thank you. Ummm I would have to say getting sober had a lot to do with it. I will be sober four years in September so anybody who knows Royce will know that I was very forthcoming with how much I drank, I mean I celebrated Patron like I had a sponsorship with them you know what I mean, and it truly highlighted everything in my life at that time, particularly in my music. Becoming sober just brought all these memories back for me to that time when I was running around crazy, drinking and not really knowing who I was to where I am now and I just look at things so differently through my sobriety. Like the word we live in where people are gripped by terror and violence constantly, economic strains, Trump running for President and just trying to be a Black man in hip hop doing what he loves and trying to take care of his family, man I look at things so differently now and that will be reflected in my music. I also had all these memories of my childhood start to hit me that I hadn’t thought about in the 10 years I was drinking so I have been dealing with that component of my life which I felt was important to be added on this album, which is how the Tabernacle song came about. So yeah, it is what it is, don’t get it twisted though I will always love to rap just for sake of rapping and it is a layer of myself that I will never lose but I also felt it was important for myself as an artist to show my personal side and get it off my chest and if there is someone out there who is going through some things that my album might help then I have done my job as best I could through Layers.

Royce you have worked with many great names in your lifetime, namely Eminem, Slaughterhouse and no doubt the coolest collaboration in hip hop to date, DJ Premier. Energy is an important thing when an artist decides to collaborate with another as the outcome of that project is clearly indicative of what the initial vibe is like between one another. Can I ask what it has been about these particular collabos that have been concurrent and helped create some incredible music projects for hip hop? Particularly DJ Premier – you both work so damn well together – Pryme was brilliant by the way ;o)

I think it’s just being likeminded you know, we don’t just randomly collaborate. It’s about us having the same goals and respect for hip hop as well that has solidified the unified bonds we share as well. Primo and myself are two guys who are friends and share a common interest and respect for hip hop that has made our bond and collabo work you know, one of us if from an era before mine that I respect so much and we share similar vision and work ethic for the projects we work on so it’s a great experience when we create something different and we push each other a little differently which keeps us open. With Slaughterhouse, that was taking 4 emcees from different states in the US and bringing us together to give hip hop an underground feel that was so needed at the time and it worked. We didn’t really know each other personally or kick it before the group came to be so that was group brought together purely by energy, lyricist ability and respect for the rawness of hip hop.

Marshall and I, that’s easy, we were just two best friends running around hip hop and having fun as the young men we were at the time. Two guys outta Detroit and the only two at the time to get record deals, tour the world and do what no-one thought we would you know what I mean, we had some of our best times musically and personally back then and we worked well and had so much fun working together and we always have been. And that’s where I am right now in my life, I just wanna have fun with what I am doing, I spent so many years being stressed and on guard with things, always feeling I had to fight all the time to be heard and after a while you get tired of fighting and you just wanna be you feel me, so that’s a big thing for me now, positive energy and outlook on music and life.

You are a straight shooter and don’t pussy foot around topics or issues in hip hop or life that need to be addressed and it is within this honesty that is your greatest appeal to lovers of real hip hop. Standout tracks of yours that have truly resonated with me would be My Own Planet, Hip Hop, You Should Know and You Can’t Touch Me …. Thank you by the way for those tracks – they have gotten me through my own tough times. When you put pen to paper what fuels you to write the tracks you do and how important is the marriage of beat and lyric to you at that point of creation?

Thank you for listening to those tracks man I really appreciate it. I always just aspire to keep positive thoughts and feelings around me before I head into the studio and lay down a track, and if I don’t feel positive I try to keep myself or bring people that are positive and inspiring around me as that fuels me to create better. Like Mr Porter helped me out with that a lot and he would bring an energy into the studio that would light a fire beneath me and I would just be so ready to work and create after that. It’s basically just finding the inspiration, the mechanics of writing a rhyme and making it happen. You know sometimes I overwrite my tracks to the point where I have to find the best 16 bars I want to lay down in a track and keep the other words for other projects later on, I just love writing and creating so it happens often (laughs) …. I put no limit to it and just do the best I can.

Can I ask you what your thoughts are on the current state of hip hop and what you think are the pros and cons of the industry today as opposed to when you started?

I think we are in a pretty good place, um there’s a lot of good music being made, there’s also a lot of bad music being made and a lot of new styles being created and not the text book standard sound you would expect from hip hop so that’s a good thing I think. As long as hip hop is evolving and keeps changing forms and trying new variations from time to time that’ means it’s not going anywhere and that’s a great thing. Hip Hop will never go away, it will always remain but we have to keep it fresh and relevant and forward moving, we can’t be having everyone trying to rhyme like a lyrical sirpit and tear up the next emcee that’s no good as we need balance. When I think about the cons I would have to say there is not enough balance on the radio, the climate itself is a sedative to how the labels function and the labels are not functioning in a way that is conducive. They are not using their own instincts anymore but it’s all come down to numbers and how many followers the artist has and that is nothing like what I had experienced when I first came into the game you know. If I had label meetings I had to go in there and impress them with everything I had to make them hear my music and believe in taking a chance on me like I was auditioning for a record deal, now, they won’t even give you a shot unless you have social media buzz.

As far who I am listening to right now in hip hop I’m liking Anderson Paak’s album, Pusha T a lot, Kendrick a lot, Schoolboy Q is great, I pretty much try to hear everything new that comes out and of course I love my classic stuff as well, Kiss From a Rose by Seal is a favourite of mine too so yeah lots of different stuff. I’m getting older now too so my brain can’t be on ratchet mode all the time I gotta slow things down from time to time (laughs).

If you could take 4 albums with you into the afterlife what would they be?

The Chronic, Thriller, Life after Death and any Stevie Wonder album – it’s that simple for me.

Your thoughts and feelings on all the musical artists we have been losing this year in 2016 – how does that affect you as an artist if at all?

You know what, it’s just really sad and truly it just makes me feel really old to be honest! You know how it is when all your heroes start dying you be like “am I really this age man”?? I don’t remember going through any of this when I was a kid and now all of a sudden they are upon us you know, Phife Dawg, Prince, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston – gone. That’s half of my childhood right there, half the 80’s just gone. It just makes me feel old and sad for real.

What would you say your role is in this hip hop community and how to you wish for your music and message to be remembered? 

I think my role now is to be an OG and to set good a good example and role model for the younger generation on the come up. I just want to continue to be true to the sport and y legacy to be remembered as one of the true lyricists in the game, I don’t need any trophy’s or trinkets but for the general consensus to be that I was one of the great lyricists of my time and to make age appropriate music and show my peers that’s is okay to age lyrically, its ok to do that. We are living in a time now where you know hip hop is like rock and roll in a way and we have to own that and not always feel like we gotta chase these youngens around all the time. Hip Hop is not just for the kids but hip hop is for the world and I would like for the kids to look at me and say I wanna be like Royce!

 

For more information on Royce Da 5’9 visit:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Royceda59

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/royceda59official

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/royceda59

 

Royce Da 5’9 Studio Albums

Rock City (2002)

Death Is Certain (2004)

Independent’s Day (2005)

Street Hop (2009)

Success Is Certain (2011)

Layers (2016)

Collaboration albums

Slaughterhouse (with Slaughterhouse) (2009)

Hell: The Sequel (with Eminem) (2011)

Welcome to: Our House (with Slaughterhouse) (2012)

Shady XV (with Shady Records) (2014)

PRhyme (with DJ Premier) (2014)

 

New album Layers out now on ITunes.

(All Images Supplied )

 

Always Hip Hop

Ms Hennessey