It takes a true fighter to win in this race. Some of the best artists in the history of this genre didn’t get what they deserved. Impressive lyricists got their due in props but never in plaques. Label drama got the best of them. Life made them switch lanes and some were forced to leave the game by outside pressures. Underground heroes stayed under the radar. Critics wrote them off and fans faded. That could have been the outcome for each member of Slaughterhouse. After all, many counted every single one of them out at some point in their careers. Between the four emcees, they have had to fight and endure single issues, label quarrels, shelved projects and beefs with bigger named acts all while trying to juggle personal lives, families and more amidst the turmoil and infinite chaos in the music business. The fight continued.
Faced with adversity, they refused to fade into obscurity and milk carton status. Instead, these four men came up fighting with something to prove. They fought against the boxes they were put into and fought for their respect in an industry that often wins these battles. But, they kept fighting, even when they were counted out. They joined forces in an unexpected partnership and made sure people knew exactly what they were out to do by boldly naming themselves after a murderous and bloody home for death, a testament to the fact that they were fighting ‘till the end.
Faced with adversity most would plummet under, they rose and faught against odds. To those familiar with their life stories, that shouldn’t be surprising. They have been doing this since they were young kids in their respective streets and they have never stopped scrapping. In an exclusive interview with HipHopDX, each member of what they call “The Slaughterhouse Machine” spoke on their lives, upbringing, rhyme writing techniques and more, allowing readers a “peak into their windows” to see what truly makes them survivors. Even after all of the disputes, feuds and problematic situations, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, Joe Budden and Royce Da 5'9" have come out on top as the one-time underdogs are currently the most talked about group in the Rap world and hoping to keep that momentum alive after releasing a critically acclaimed debut album that they managed to churn out in less than a week. With solo projects soon to follow and a second Slaughterhouse album to drop after that, don’t expect them to stop fighting anytime soon.
HipHopDX: From the start of the new album, you all switch up your flows in unexpected fashion. Later on the album, you come with up-tempo tracks, more mellow ones, heartfelt tracks or straight punch line attacks. How important was it to showcase the fact that you can all be versatile with both flow and subject matter without letting your lyrics suffer?
Royce Da 5'9": We all were concerned [about the outcome]. We had numerous discussions because we all had this box that everybody was putting us in. Like, a lot of the personal shit, Joell donated [material] from his own album because that’s what he does. The different flows and different styles automatically just came off the different beats. We all just attacked it like we would attack our own shit and it came out sounding like that.
Joe Budden: I can only speak for me. I was high for the entire recording process so I was just trying to keep up. I was just trying to keep up and I was so out of it! Royce gassed me, too. He was like, “You know what I like about your performance on the album? I like the fact that it sounds like you were high...because you were!”
DX: The best groups in music history compliment one another well with different characteristics. You’ve called yourselves “The Voltron Crew” and “The Four Headed Monster” and seem united even though you all come from very different parts of the States. How do each of you bring something that balances the group as a whole and how does each group member contribute to that dynamic?
Crooked I: We grew up in different regions and we’re expressing ourselves the way we see fit. Coming from the west, I do it like this. Joell will give you a piece of Brooklyn life. Joe will give you a piece of Jersey and Nickel will give you a piece of Detroit. Those are different points of views, different ways that people get down and different ways of life but we all come together on a song and you start to see how much we all have in common across the map while you also see the diversity in the hoods. We just bring a lot of stuff. Joell can touch your heart with a couple of verses and talk about some real stuff or get on an old school track and just rip it. He’s great at what he does. Joey might jump in and come with some real deep introspective lyrics, something dark or the thought of being close to death or something that just makes your mind think. Then, he might come out and do something that’ll make the club jump up! Royce is just a technical master of lyricism. You could tell when you listen to him, that he and Eminem are cut from the same cloth like that. It’s like “I can master this! No matter what I’m rapping about, the flow is going to be on point, the words are going to be on point and everything is going to be in the pocket so it’s going to be as close to perfect as you can get.” That’s the whole thing. We all bring those elements to the table and that’s what makes us a four headed monster
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