It's August 30, 2025, 03:27:22 AM
props on the interview ferhat. Was a good read.
DX: Now, another thing you had mentioned was that if you had it your way, Dr. Dre would produce tracks on this album. You also said that you had Dr. Dre beats lying around with Slaughterhouse’s name on it. Today, I’m wondering how that has progressed.Crooked I: We did record something. You know? We did record something. [Pauses] Eh, I’m never going to be satisfied until I hear like five or six Slaughterhouse/Dr. Dre collabs. That’s just me, though. That’s me being a fan of Dr. Dre since I was a fuckin’ kid. That’s also me understanding that a Slaughterhouse and Dre collab could be potentially 2012-N.W.A. type shit. In my mind, if I was in control of this shit, I don’t want nothing laid back. I don’t want nothing that’s going to be mistaken for a club banger. I want some shit that sounds like straight mothafuckin’ chaos, rebellious lyrics, some I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude, and some 2012 Dr. Dre/N.W.A. type shit going on in that fuckin’ beat. If you give me that, I guarantee you we’ll shut the fuckin’ game down with them songs. Guaranteed because that’s what’s missing right now: high quality production and I-don’t-give-a-fuck mentality on the mic. Since the recession in Hip Hop, those budgets are smaller now. The budgets are so small right now. It’s funny because I’ve been in the game for so long. Some people are recording whole albums with what we used to call an advance, just for our pockets. So, when they do get that high profile producer, they gotta do something that’s gonna hit iTunes and Billboard heavy, and the radio. So, they gotta get more bang for their buck. That’s why you might hear a high profile producer and an artist making the same kind of songs all the fuckin’ time because the record companies try to get as much bang for their buck for a producer that’s charging them an arm and a leg. But, when you say, “Fuck all of that. Fuck what the radio talkin’ about. Fuck what iTunes’ or Billboard’s talkin’ about. Let’s go in this mothafucka and make some shit, some we-don’t-give-a-fuck shit.” That’s what kind of shit I want to do with Dr. Dre.
Crooked I: Yeah, aw man, c’mon, dog. That’s the whole thing. My career should serve as inspiration to any up-and-coming artist. If they follow my career and research my career, they’ll find out that I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs. To me, what kept me going is being motivated by peoples’ stories. I like to read motivational books and shit like that. Plus, I talk to the people who write those books. They tell me their stories and it’s just like, I could’ve came out 18 years old and sold a million records and been fell off by now, or still going strong. Who knows? But, it went down the way it went down and now it could serve as inspiration for an artist going through anything in this industry. From fake manager, bad record deals, lack of money so you can’t get in a studio how you want to, no connections, no networking capabilities because you don’t even know where to start, they can look at my career and learn from it and definitely be inspired by it. It’s all good at the end of the day. That’s why I’m not a bitter emcee. I’ve got people that came in the game with me the same year, we had the same rookie year, but when I talk to them, they’re very bitter. Things didn’t go the way they planned them, and they’re real bitter. I can’t be bitter because first of all, nobody gives a fuck. [Laughs] Second of all, why [be bitter]? I just want to be some sort of inspiration. People tell me, some rappers hit me on Twitter. They say, “I wanted to give up but if Crooked could keep going, I could keep going.” That’s big shit. That’s the reward right there.
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