Royce album "Biuld and Destroy" is way better than I origionally thought....

[TraceOneInfinite]

Royce was one of my favorite rappers even before he even had an album.  Unreleased joints like "Soldier" (although released on Stretch Armstrongs album), "The Throne Is Mine", and "I'm the King" were classic joints for me. 

Then I was really disappointed when Rock City finally dropped.  Most of the production (besides that of DJ Premier and Eminem) didn't match his very direct, deliberate style and flow.  I also bought his album Build And Destroy but I never understood if it was an official album or just a bootleg. 

Finally, I was on a long drive so I dusted the album off, and forced myself to listen through the whole thing again.  And the shit is dope!!!!   Unlike Rock City there are hardly any filler tracks, and a few bangers, the bangers are...


"Life Goes On"-  I think this track is produced by J Dilla of Slum Village.  Track is banging, and uplifting, kind of like Royce has been through alot in his career and he's determined to overcome it.

Other hott tracks....

"Make Money"  - this is an old song, but still one of Royce's best.  Nice to finally here a final version of this track in high quality.

"Take Me Away"-  another touching track, he's somewhat like Pac and easy to relate to when he's talking about his struggles

"I Won't Be"

"U Don't Know Me"

"What Would You Do"


...so many dope tracks for an album that I don't think was even an official release.  After hearing this I'm going to pick up Death Is Certain.

[TraceOneInfinite]

btw, so many great one-liners on this album, maybe I will post a few later

[Jaydc555]

For me its still his best album

[Jaydc555]

Rock city and Joe buddens debut are perfect examples of why some artists should not be on major labels

[pootypooty]

Build & Destroy was a mixtape, but a very solid one at that.

My favorite Royce album by far is "Death Is Certain". It's a dark album, but no skippable tracks.

[Jaydc555]

True it is a mixtape but its his best work.for me anyway.death is certain is good but not great.theirs no skippable tracks but theirs a lot of average tracks

[dubsmith_nz]

Yup Death Is Certain is sickkk, extremely polished and dark, plus "Hip Hop" by Premier is insane. Waiting on his new album, gonna be fire...

[TraceOneInfinite]

Rock city and Joe buddens debut are perfect examples of why some artists should not be on major labels

Word...

...you know I never did understand how Royce screwed up his relationship with Dre.  I only remember reading something once about him exposing Dre in a magazine for having ghostwriters on his 2001 album.  However, everyone knows Dre uses ghostwriters so I don't understand what the big deal was about that.  Everything was going perfect for Royce in the late 90's.  He was the only other rapper besides Dre to appear on Eminem's triple platinum Slim Shady LP; he was writing tracks for Dre's 2001 album, and I thought "The Throne Was Mine" could of been used by Dre and been a huge comeback hit.  I still will never understand why that song was scrapped.

Anyway, Tommy Boy ends up giving this dude a huge signing bonus, his album gets held up in red tape, dude is dropping nothing but fire on everything that's bootlegged of him.  Finally years down the road he comes out with the Rock City album.  I don't know why people hated on the title track, but I thought Eminem hooked him up with a banger, "Rock City" the song should of been a huge hit and given his album pop success.

Instead the dude just ends up sort of wasting away on the underground.  Ends up beefing with Eminem, and so on. 

[Jaydc555]

I think it made him a much stronger emcee because of everything he went through.he would probably be dropping garbage like most of the stuff on rock city today.it wasn't Royce exposing dre using ghostwriters.in an interview royces manager said eminem would sit dre down like a student in the studio and dre didn't like that so he told Royce to fire his manager and Royce refused.

[TraceOneInfinite]

I think it made him a much stronger emcee because of everything he went through.he would probably be dropping garbage like most of the stuff on rock city today.it wasn't Royce exposing dre using ghostwriters.in an interview royces manager said eminem would sit dre down like a student in the studio and dre didn't like that so he told Royce to fire his manager and Royce refused.

Props for explaining the story.  I knew it was something like that.  I think Royce should of just fired his manager, but maybe Royce has some integrity, and that integrity could be what makes him dope...who knows?  And like you said, maybe all the bad luck he's had may be what will keep him hott as an emcee and it will all work out in the long run. 

[Jaydc555]

I think it made him a stronger emcee.same with budden and crook.someone like Lloyd banks has tons of talent but he had so much success that dude lost his hunger and he's half the emcee he used to be

[Meho]

Is he still with that same manager ?

[Jaydc555]

Yes he is.keno

[TraceOneInfinite]

Yes he is.keno

I would probably fire myself if I had ruined my clients relationship with Dr. Dre... better yet, I would probably kill myself

[Jaydc555]

Meh who cares.I'm glad it happened.I give Royce credit for sticking up for his man.dre was acting like a fucking female just because he said something true.if Royce stayed and fired his man then dre would be like hey this is my bitch and hed be under aftermath not dropping shit.death is certain came out of that incident and I'm glad it did.Royce was his own man and I respect him for it