#152 - Kxng Crooked

underrate you. Sometimes when people ask me that question, I always go to like Black Thought or Sean Price. I'd be like, no, you're one of those guys too. I mean, m have posted that in his opinion, I was the most underrated in hip hop history. That's a MC you know what I'm saying, And a lot of people feel that way. Who's it depends on who's doing the rating. Mm you feel me? So, if you know you know, if you know, you know, No, there's a lot of goat contenders, you know what I mean who don't get

on songs with me? Yeah, I mean listen, I just think when it comes to like wordplay, lyrics. I mean, the things that make an MC and MC. I just I think that when you're in your bag, it's rough. I mean, there ain't a lot of people who can hang with you. Man, Hey, I appreciate that. I mean,

that's that's years. That's years. That's years. Man. It's crazy too because I just remember back in the day buying the Swaying King Tech albums from like the liquor store, and that is where I first discovered you from those freestyles because they used to have like the best of

the wake Up Show. And this might have been around the time you're on Death ro Er, it might have been before, but that was like kind of you know, I mean, how many years ago was that, man, I was a kid, so that was that was years I was a kid too. I mean that was in the nineties probably somewhere, you know what I mean. Shout out to Swain Tech because they always heard Tech nine for

the first time too. Yeah, they have their platform. They really shared their platform with real lyricists, you know, and when their platform was at its hype, you know, syndication and you know, they're on one of the biggest stations in America. They were letting people come up there and

drop straight bars. I hope that we get a documentary for them, in the same way we got to Stretch and Bobido documentary, because I feel like what they did was like equals equally as important for guys like Eminem, for guys like all these you know, we could go on and on. Yeah, I mean, that's the first time I ever heard Eminem was on Swing Tech Facts. Well, listen,

welcome to the show. Obviously, so much we got to talk about so much, we got to unpack it'dt you got an album coming out with Joel, Yes, sir, Tomorrow Night. This is an album that is obviously stirred up a lot of controversy. It's stirred up a lot of opinions. The records that you guys have out have been great so far, and for people who are unaware, this is the second time you and Joel have put out a

joint project. Absolutely, so let's get Let's get for first of all, who like the initial idea of theming this album around the Rise and Falls Slaughterhouse? Right? Where did the idea come from? And how long have you guys been working on this body of work? Basically? Man, you know I had an opportunity for the whole group Slaughterhouse. And you know, let's give us the timeline. How long ago was that. This was in August okay, August of twenty twenty one. August of twenty twenty one. I had

an opportunity. I felt it was a good opportunity for where Slaughterhouse is today. You know what I mean. We kind of dropped off the scene as the streaming era took off, you know what I mean. Our last album was in twenty twelve. That's ten years ago. Wow, that's so great. I'm fucking old man. Yeah, Doug, that's what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying. So, our fans have been with a glass house. No, the Glasshouse never

came out, I know, that's right. That was the That was the Welcome Dark House with the Celo single and all that. Yes, sir, So that was ten years ago, and our fans have been waiting on music for ten years, you know what I'm saying. So I had this opportunity. I thought it was a great opportunity. I spoke to a couple other guys about it, and it was brought back to me that Joe didn't think that that was a good opportunity, you know what I mean, he didn't want to do it. So Joe didn't want to do it,

and Royce said he didn't want to do it. If if Joe wasn't doing it, now maybe maybe Royce felt like, it's not really slaughter House unless it's all four, you know what I mean? Because and so it might not just because of Joe per se. It could have just been whatever. But I went back to the label and I was like, Yo, what could you offer us for just us three? You know what I mean? Because Joe is retired and he's he doesn't seem interested in this deal right here. And they were like, Yo, we're rock

and roll with you. Let's do it, you know. And so when I brought that to Royce, he was like, nah, you know, slaughter House needs to be all four of us. So when we hung up the phone, met him and Joel. Me and Joel got back on the phone the next day and was like, yo. I was like, Yo, how'd you feel about that conversation? And he said it felt like the group was officially over? And I said, yeah, it does. You know, spent ten years we bring an opportunity to the table. You know, they don't want to

do it, you know, for whatever reason. You know, they're entitled of course to to you know, want to do business or not. I was like, man, this shit is pretty pretty much over. So, you know, we sat on it for a minute, and then I called Joel back and I was like, yo, man, let's get back in there. He was like, yeah, Man, let's get back in there and do something. And it was just a conversation. What are we going to talk about? And I was like, man,

let's talk about all the shit that happened. It's slaughter house. Let's talk about the good times the bad times. Let's just let's get a fan some closure, you know what I'm saying, and let's give ourselves some therapy, you know. And uh, that's how the whole concept started rolling out. And this was in like I would say, probably after September or something like that. October. So the other day the IG Live happens with Joe and Royce and then Joelle comes on. You were on a flight, right, Yeah,

I was on a flight. You were in the area. You probably would have been on there as well, right. I tried to get in there, though I would even I would even gather to say that that conversation would have probably been a lot more measured if you were a part of it, because I feel like you're you're

kind of I just know you. Yeah. Now, there were certain aspects of that conversation where I could kind of see everyone's perspective right when we when we think of like like, did you guys ever actually hear Joe say no? Or was it like some hearsay because he said he never turned down the deal? And the thing that Royce kept bringing out was when did we When did we say no? Over and over and over and then there

was just a lot of back and forth. Royce is calling Joel a liar, Joel's calling them like why are y'all lying? What? Like? Is there any chance that there was muddled communication or there was, because I mean, all four of you guys, from what I know, are stand up guys who would not lie on each other. Yea, I think that. Can you kind of give me some context on where some of the you're a liar? Why

the fuck are you lying? Well, you're lying? When did I turn a depth like that is kind of where it's like to me, it's like, Okay, there's a huge disconnect on each side of what actually happened, right, and it's it's I feel like, to be honest, they were

kind of put in a position. Who's that Joe and Royce? Okay, they didn't know that this album was coming out, so I kind of afforded them, you know, a little elbow room to be emotional and you know, try to address it in the best way that they could being caught off guard like that. You know what I'm saying now, within that I'm trying to say that, you know, maybe that's the reason that the story doesn't add up. You see what I'm saying, because it's like, yo, what are

we going to say? You feel me? But point blank no fact, no opinions, no no lies, no just straight facts. I brought the deal to the table, Okay. I told the guys, I need to get on a phone call with all of them. I couldn't get in contact with Joe because Joe said he never actually saw a deal, right, Joe never called me. So so I got on Twitter and I said, hey, guys, cause I talked to my supporters.

You're very active on Twitter on Twitter very much, so I say, hey, guys, I didn't tell him about the deal. I'm just like, yo, y'all want to see the gang back together. I'm giving everybody forty eight hours to call me. Okay, forty eight hours went by. Race hit me, yo, what's going on. That's when I say, Yo, this is what's going on. I got this deal. It's it's a great opportunity for us. That's ownership involved. You know, we're gonna be able to do our thing, roll it out how

we want to roll it out. Everything is laid out, you know. We good, all right, we just need to all get on the phone. So he calls Joe. All right, So Joe, I don't want to do it. Okay, Joe calls Joel, Man, what's Crooked doing on Twitter? He got everybody in my telling me to call him? Yeah, right right, Well he got this deal, Joe, and YadA, YadA, YadA. Well, I don't want to do the deal, and I don't want to be the one that ship on cook right

now about this deal. So I'm gonna call I'm gonna think about it, but I'm gonna call Crook in a couple hours. And that this was related to you from Royce from from Joel told me that to expect a call from Joe in an hour, and he was gonna tell me why he didn't want to do the deal. Assuming you never got the call. Never got the call. Royce called me a couple of times. I remember, like it was yesterday. I was getting the COVID test because

I was going to Hawaii. I was at the airport and he said, Yo, So Joe said, he don't think that's a good deal. You know the thing the deal memo points that I kind of conveyed to Royce. Royce told Joe the advance amount, yeah, all that shit, percentages whatever. So I said, well, I'll tell you what. Royce, tell Joe to call me. We'll all get on the phone, and whatever Joe wants, we'll give it to him. Because I got juice like that with the people that I'm

working with people, so we have full contexts. Who are the people that offer the deal. Well, one of my business partners has distribution through every major that there is, and he's a business partner of mine outside of music too, and I've been doing business with him. He's like a brother to me. This guy was in a position where he wanted it bankroll the situation. He could bankroll it. He could if you just wanted to bankroll it yourself, you know, you could just use the whatever. So he had,

but he was going to bankroll it. So based on what those deal points where Joe was, Joe said he didn't want to do it, okay, And I told Royce to give me a call. I can get Joe whatever he wants to get put into the paperwork, but I'm not going to go back and forth and you know, with the attorneys and let's see this, and let's see this. Just tell me what you want. We've all been in the game past twenty some years. We know what contracts

look like. Tell me exactly what you want. We'll put it in the contract and then we'll start from there. We'll start from where you want, Joe, wherever you want, you know what I mean. And I was doing that honestly as a courtesy to Royce, because I got love for Royce, you know what I mean. Already was at a point where this was my last time ever trying to do business with Joe Button again. So I got

love for Royce. So I said, you know what, as a courtesy, we'll do that, you know what I mean, to try to see if we can get the fans this last album. So you know, he was like, all right, man, y'all, y'all gotta talk about it. I'm like, yeah, because he's being the middle man. Joe was using Royce as a middleman to communicate with me. I didn't like that because Joe, because Royce is a general, and I start feeling like, why is he trying to use this man as a

foot soldier. You know what I'm saying, This do is a general. All men are created equal. We all should be on the phone together. It's no reason you shouldn't be calling me right now. So he didn't call. He never called. Weeks went by, months went by, and it was like everybody just went back to their corners and I never even heard back about the deal, you know, none of that stuff. It was just over, man. So you know, and once Royce said that he didn't want to do it as a three man crew, which he's

totally entitled to. Right. Once he said that, it was like, all right, well, this shit is over. You know what I'm saying. I don't think. I don't think that what I could have communicated better to Royce because as a friend, I could have communicated it better to him that I'm only talking to Joe for you. I would prefer to move slaughter House forward without Joe because Joe is retired and there's been a lot of snags dealing with Joe in the business side of things. So I would rather

move slaughter House for without Joe. But as a courtesy to my friend, and I know you fuck with Joe, and I know you have a different relationship with Joe. Yeah, that's fine, bring Joe to the table, But I don't think that as a friend. I don't think that I communicated that enough. He knows where I'm at, But I feel like he felt like he could massage the situation. Crook got love for me, Joe got love for me. I could probably be the glue to keep all that

shit together, you know what I mean. But he didn't know that I was at my last final breaking point with Joe. With Joe as far as the slaughter House situation goes, now, you had said that, to be fair, Joe and Royce did not know this album was coming. Yeah, they didn't know. Can you take any responsibility in keeping them in the loop or did you not feel like you needed to because this was not a Slaughterhouse album. It's not a Slaughterhouse album. I'm not kept in the

loop with no of their albums that they dropping. And to be honest with you, it was a situation where I said, you know what, we need to tell our story and we don't need any distractions. We need to go. Maybe if you give them the heads up, the distractions start coming from behind the scenes and you guys aren't able to focus on your task. Absolutely, there's no way. We had to take that energy when we got off the phone, that heartbreak, that heartbreak, that energy that we

had that this shit is over. We had to take that into the into the booth. That had to go into the booth. That was the energy that needed to go into the booth to create this for the fans, you know what I mean. And all we talked so much, Like Willie d say, no more talk. We talked so much. It got to the first ten years, it got to the point where talking and no actions was just I had it up to here, man, I couldn't I couldn't talk.

I couldn't talk one more time saying with the with the slaughter House situation in general, and I'm sure fans feel the same way. Fan. I mean, listen, you guys have a core fan base that it's there, right, But I do feel like over time, the fan base, the excitement for a new Slaughterhouse, I'm just getting smaller and smaller and smaller because it's just been so long ten years. Brother, Like, think about that. Put yourself in the in the fans shoes for two seconds. And I don't think this is

what the group ever did. I don't think they really specifically what Joe and Royce are saying. I don't watch everything that they say because I'm not about to fall into that type of trap and that low vibration energy and you know, calling names and you know liars and all this type of shit. I'm not even trying to fall into noh, none of that. But people send me clips, people tell me, hey, this, this is what happened in all this. You know, put put yourself in a fan

put yourself in the fan shoes for a minute. You've been waiting on one of your favorite groups in the world to drop an album for ten years now. Behind the scenes, I've been taking flights to New York go talk to Paul Rosenberg. I've been taking flights to Detroit, talking to EM, talking to to Royce. How can we put this back together? You know what I mean? And it's not happened in ten years, So it's like, you know what you're telling me, You want me to wait again.

And then I saw something where roy said that we weren't waiting on anybody. That that's a lie. So I need to address all this stuff because whenever they say that, I just come back with the truth. You know what I'm saying, Like, you can attack my character, my integrity, you could try to assassinate it and say that I'm a liar and I'm doing this for money and all this other type of shit, But I'm gonna just keep

on hitting back with truth. We started off slaughter House in the early days, waiting on Joe, you know what I'm saying. Like when we first got our deal with Shady, we had a song called Session one on one of EM's projects. He was trying to, you know, put the group on one of his projects. I think it was gonna be a bonus cut or something on one of the albums, and you know, we're new to the label. Let me share my platform with the group. So we do Session one and all the Slaughterhouse fans know Joe

Budden isn't on Session one. Well, why isn't Joe on Session one? Joe was signed to another label. He was caught up in some paperwork something. He was signed to a Malcolm Digital, okay, and they called over to Shady like, hey, we have him under contract. You have to get a clearance from us to have him appear on that song. Right, So we're like, wait a minute, because all of us went in as supposedly free agents to sign this deal with Shady and come to find out Joe was under paperwork.

He said that they forged his signature and that wasn't him, and the group was put on the shelf for a minute. It while he was fighting a Malcolm Digit on court and we were waiting on Joe because we couldn't move forward. Now here we are with a brand new deal with Shady Records, and we can't even really move forward as a group because we got to wait on Joe in court and that took months. Let me tell you that

took months. Right So, after the the signature expert determined that that was his signature on the on the contract, we was able to figure out how you know, to matter forward after that, you know what I mean? And that was that was the first time waiting on Joe to give the fans slaughter house. A lot of other scenarios like that kept happening, you feel me, So Joe related scenarios where we're waiting on Joe. Okay, So when when when Roy says, we don't wait on Joe, Just like,

wait a minute. What about when we were Glasshouse was sitting around collecting dust and we were all on a conference call with Paul Rosenberg and all of the Shady staff, and we say, hey, guys, when we're gonna get back together to do the album. And we're like, okay, let's finish the album in the summer. And Joe's like, nah, we can't do the summer. You know, I gotta throw pool parties and shit and I gotta do this other shit and all that. Like okay, so we'll wait on that.

We'll reconvene in September or October. Hit him September October. Nah, I still ain't ready waiting on jail. So everybody was on the same page to finish Glasshouse except Joie for a while. For a while, you know what, I'm saying Royce's studio was always open. See Royce, I feel he's always down to work if everybody is on board. But if everybody's not on board, he's gonna do his own thing, which makes sense, you feel me. I mean, that's just logical. It was always us waiting on Joe to be on board.

And when I brought this last and final opportunity to the table, and you're telling me that I got to wait on Joe, Joe doesn't like it. He wants to do some other kind of deal. Well, what kind of deal does Joe want to do? Because all of a sudden there's deals that he wants to do. But for ten years there's been nothing. It's been crickets. But now that I have this, now he wants to do another kind of deal. And it's like, okay, well what kind of deal does he want to do? He wants to

finance it. That's what I heard him talking about when I did catch a piece of the live They want to he wanted to finance it. He's like, Yo, it takes a lot of trust to go into that type of business with somebody. You know what I'm saying, You gotta have like if I was to if we would have to all for financing one it could never be just one person, and that one person could definitely not be mister Joe. But I'm sorry, you know, he don't have that type of credit with me when it comes

to the business. You know what I'm saying now, I'm just speaking on slaughter house business. He doesn't have the credit with me for me to say, oh yeah, cool, you can finance it, Joe. That's not gonna work. So I don't know, whatever kind of deal that they envisioned for the group, it wasn't gonna work with me anyway. So we come to a stalemate. He don't want to do the deal I'm bringing, and I'm not doing the deal his way. So it all leads to slaughter House

being over. I think to a lot of people. Got to understand it is like, after ten years of conversations, hitting a wall that involved one person. Maybe you know, under normal circumstances, yourself and Joelle would have at least kept Royce in the loop. But at a certain point in time when the frustration is at a level where it's like, you know what, we know we've done this over and over and over. Here we just got to

do what we gotta do. It just is what it is, like, it just is what it is at this point, and it's like, you know, I was in my kitchen right we were talking, me and Royce and Joel, and I said, Royce, if Joe ain't gonna rap, because he's not gonna rap, I didn't even believe Joe will rapp. Yeah, I'm like, Yo, are you down or do the Three Man Crew? Don't say that, crook, don't put that in the universe. He's gonna he's gonna be, he's gonna do do the right thing.

So we keep talking for fifteen twenty minutes and we're about to hang up the phone. I say, listen, Rayce, I just really need to hear this. I know you said, don't put in the universe. I'm not trying to put any negativity, no negative vibes out there. But if Joe isn't with this, are you gonna do the three Man Crew? And He's like, slaughter house is four people, So what do you think that means? Call that means no. It means no. Without saying no, that means no. He's slarter

houses for people. So technically, neither of you are lying because technically, well, I didn't say, well, I'm gonna tell you list like this. I'm Joel was like, no, no, crook. He did say Slaughterhouse is not for people. But I was on the call he said no, okay, and I was like, I was just so clouded and my mind got clouded when he said that, because it meant so much to me that when he said slaughter house is

for people, and I'm like, Yo, this is over. So I kind of blacked out on the phone, like all this fucking work that I put in, all this shit that we built together, this shit is really over. Was there ever an idea to replace Joe? People always said, hey, won't you replace Joe? You know, won't you put him in that slot? Let him go? Was the other guy who was supposed to be part of the group. Was

it Nino Blessed? Was that his name? Nino bless I remember he was like on that first Slaughterhouse record that was like not even a slaughteruse. Yeah, shut out Nino bless you know what I mean? Like, he's very instrumental into how this whole thing came together. He's part of the story, you know what I mean? And I just think that. You know, everybody who was part of the story needs to mention now, you know. So how about this, Like, I know you and Royce better than I know Joelle

and Joe. I know you guys could be men of high integrity, high character. You guys have the longevity you've had in this industry for a reason. Never know bullshit involving y'all's names, right, you know, I can understand the frustration of Royce's side saying, Hey, that's that's our logo that you guys are putting on the front of that, and you guys just bombard us with this album that I had no idea was coming, and it's our logo

on fire. You know, he has to me, he has he has a right to be emotional about that and to feel a way about that. Would you agree? Absolutely? And and like you guys obviously know that, like you said, you said, you said, I I can give I knew that this. I didn't give them a heads up, so I understood that they that there's gonna be an emotional reaction, and you kind of counted for that already, right, No,

I give them room to react to that. You know what I'm saying, you know, I'm watching how I'm watching the reactions, you know what I'm saying, because if it was me, you know, but I feel differently. But if it was me, I don't care. They can use the Slaughterhouse logo for whatever they want to use it for, you know what I mean. Like I said, I owns that logo. Well, what happened was they're saying that ownership was relinquished to the group later. I haven't seen no

paperwork stating that we got jerked in the beginning. You know, somebody owned it that was not a part of the group, you feel me, So somebody on the management team owned it, to my knowledge, someone who was a part of the group's management groups management, you know what I mean? So right off, rip that should have been that's that's a rip flat. But I heard that they made it write and relinquished it to the group when we went to Shady. I'm not sure. I've never seen the paperwork on that.

When I go and look look up the trademark, I don't see our names anywhere mentioned on the trademark. So I don't know who wants it and feel some type of way somebody would just see you yeah, and I would just take it off the cover and keep going, you know what I'm saying, because this story is gonna be told. They can't stop it. They can't, you know. I feel like they have efforts to try to do damage control over something that they haven't even heard yet,

you know what I mean. And it's like, you know, this story needs to be told for us on our fans. I think the fans need closure, and I think y'all need clothes. I need Hella closure, keV. I'm gonna tell you because guess what, every fucking time you do an interview or Joelle does an interview, or Royce does an interviewer, everyone's asking what's up with what's up with glass House? What's up with slaughter House's It'll never go away until you just close the chapter and say, burn the book

you have to. And that's what I had to do, man, like a lot of people like you burning the shirts up on a video. Now listen, I'm trying to get this low vibration shit out of my life forever. I'm in a whole nother place. I'm six years sober. I haven't I've been, you know, in master classes. I've been you know, trying to better myself, get to get myself into a better headspace, just be a better human being. Period. I need this negative triggering shit the fuck out of

my life for the forever. I don't want to go back to it. They could do whatever they want with it, and that was my that was my intention. So just me symbolically tearing slaughter House down out of my life, you know what I'm saying. Me personally, if they want to uphold it and they want to put it on a pedestal, they could do that all day and they're not gonna hear a peep from me, you know what

I mean. But me personally, I had to get it out of my life because every single time we spoke about it, talked about it, try to do it again, and it did happen, And all the interviews and the post a fucking piece of toast on Instagram and people still like, Yo, what's up That toast is cool? But what's up with slaughter House? You know? It's just too much. Man, I'm over it. It needs to go, you know what I'm saying. I mean, listen, I respect it, man, I respect it. I think. I mean, like I said, I

understand everyone's kind of side. I think that you know, the one thing I saw, I just saw Rory. Did you see Rory and Maul? And so they kind of talked about what's going on in their podcast and Mal was like, now, fuck that they can they they should be able to do that album, like you know what I'm saying. And the one thing that like they said, and I know that they're probably closer to the situation than a lot of people are, right, absolutely, especially Mall.

You guys weren't friends, is what they said. Them guys ain't friends. They were in a group together. That don't mean that they're friends. Yeah, I was friends with it was it was odd. I was friends with Joe, Joel and Royce. You know what I'm saying. Royce was friends with me, and Joe saying Joel was friends with me and Royce, and then some happened to that dynamic between him and Royce. So it was just like me and Joel was friends. It was just really really really odd man.

And it's just it might be the oddest concoction for an actual group that toured together, that put albums out together in terms of like how it was formed. Right, there was really no you guys never had a real origin story. It's not like you guys grew up together. We think of Grizzela, we think of Wu Tang. All these people grew up together, so you know the downfalls of those groups. It was a lot of emotional family based shit with you guys. It was listen, man, the

fans wanted this. We did it. Would you say you start? Because I think, like I always talked to groups. There's a group out of LA called Shoreline Mafia. Yeah, shout out to h o Gez And he had said that like when they did their first tour together, he started to kind of notice the cracks in the foundation because they had to be around each other a lot, Right, your guys' first tour was it the Tech nine tour?

I think that was our first victory. Yeah. Did you notice back then, just being on the road together that there was that there was some red flags? Well, when I first we first did our thing at best Buy And I don't want listen, I'm not here to assassinate Joe character, So i'ma I'm gonna get off Joe. You know what I'm saying. I'm gonna just say this. We did our when we did our our first n story at best Buy on the East Coast. You know, somebody told me, whatever you do, don't let Joe be Joe.

And I didn't know what that meant because we were relatively brand new to each other. You know, I didn't know what that meant, you know, but I found out, you see what I'm saying, yeah, rather quickly, and and you just got people who have two different types of vibes, two different types of mindsets, two different types of you know, what their moral compass is and things of that nature. It's just, you know, it is what it is. So it was very hard for us to even you know,

rock like that. And it was almost like a lot of times, dog, I stayed I stayed silent because I had love for Royce, you know what I mean. So a lot of times I was like, yo, I'm a chill because I had love for Royce and I understood that Royce had a different relationship with Joe. But Royce knew because sometimes I was like, Yo, this dude, this dude wilding right now, you know what I mean, And me and him have a conversation. Glue. He was the group for between that between Joe and the rest of

the group. Yeah, yeah, I mean and the and the and the thing is now, don't get me wrong, Joe brings a lot to the table. Of course, he rose in his bag. He's one of the one, he's one of them one. So he brings, he brings, he brings all that to the table, you know what I mean. But you know that's dope from a fan perspective. But when you have to be inside a group of someone

you have to be doing business. You have to do business with somebody, you have to be you know, shared the same quarters with somebody, it's different, you know what I mean. And and uh, it wasn't gonna work. It just wasn't gonna work. So where did you, like, at what point in time did you reach your break because you had said earlier that you had already had you had already reached your breakup point with Joe when you would kind of okay, I'm gonna give it one more go.

When did you initially reach that break up point with Joe? Well, Royce wanted everybody to come to Heaven in Detroit, his studio and do some joints for Glasshouse, and we all scheduled it, said, I will be there. You know. This was some years ago too, and I flew out there and I was the only one that showed up. Wow, you see what I'm saying. And I'm like, where, what's going on? Where's everybody else? So I called Joel where are you at? He was like, oh, crook man, you

down there. I should have called you before you jumped on the plane. Joe told me he wasn't going, so I didn't get on the plane. I'm figuring, if he not going with me, waste your time. And I said, but why did he say that? And he was like He's like, I don't know. He just said he wasn't going at the last minute. And I was like, wow. So now here I am in Detroit. It's snowing like

a motherfucker. It's cold as shit, and I'm standing outside smoking a fucking cigar with fucking snowflakes on my beard, and shit, like, what the fuck am I gonna do now? So me and Boyce ended up doing like nine or ten joints ourselves, just using the time to create, you know what I mean, songs you might not never hear, you know what I mean? And uh, that was it for me. On my plane ride back. I was like, you know what, I'm never doing this. I'm not doing

this with that type of energy. And I was only willing, like I said, for Royce and funny enough, you know, I know, I know how Royce feels. I'm very considerate of other people's feelings, but sometimes you gotta consider your own feelings and it was time for me to shut down shop and move on. Yeah, I think, like I said, like, I understand the perspective of like Joe and Royce saying, hey,

that's our logo, Slaughterhouse is ours too. You're kind of putting out this album kind of you know, telling his story, telling our story for us, and also using telling this using the group's imagery, using I'm not telling this story, kind of using Slaughterhouse as like the focal point of

this project. So I understand their perspective. Like in my like like I'm sure if I had a fucking the bootleg Head podcast and my producer Cook started a podcast talking about the behind the scenes and it was like my name, my my logo X style, I'd be like, yo, what the fuck? But it wasn't. Maybe there was no disrespect intended, but I could understand that perspective. But on the other hand, it's like if you guys knew, like, look,

fuck it, whatever happens happens. We're lighting this bitch on fire, and I need this shit off of me. I gotta get this ship off me. It's like both I think both sides. Okay, So tell me this. If you do a documentary on Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen's gonna be in that bitch true. And I think that it's kind of a similar thing to where you think of like how Scotty Pippen got mad about the last dance. Yeah, so I understand why he was mad because he didn't really

get to fully explain what happened. So that's what Scottie Pippen goes and makes his last dance. Joe Royce go musically, go talk to the fans, right, do do whatever you want. Maybe that's what their IG life was. No, man, that's not gonna work. It's it's it's art over over live, over lives, his art over IG lives. Bro, what did you think of IG live in terms of because a lot of were making I think a lot of people took some of the stuff out of context in terms

of the headlines. I saw right like Joe saying that album can suck my dick. Some people were like, yo, he told Joe Ortiz, the suck is dick. Yeah. Well yeah, even though he said the album, I just feel like that's going too far, you know what I'm saying, Like there's certain shit you just don't do. But you know what I think of it, I wanted to get in there,

land landed. I'm in their pressing requests, let me different conversation. Yeah, it would have been a different conversation because at that point they were saying that there was no deal, and then I could have probably got them to admit that there was a deal and that point they were saying they never said no. And then you know, later on Joe did an interview with one of the guys who I watch all the time on PSA Hip Hop, and he said, you know, it all boiled down to Crook

wanted to do a deal that Joe didn't want to do. You know, Joe didn't want to do the deal, so he did say no. He's admitting now that you know what I mean, he didn't want to do the deal, and we it got caught up in semantics like I never said no, there was never a deal, that's all I felt like. It felt like themantics. You know there was a deal. You know you didn't want to do the deal. Let's get past that, because we can't find common ground if we don't start off with honesty and truth.

You know, we got to start at honesty and truth and then try to find common ground. If you're going to say you know there was no deal, where's the paper? Of course there was no paper because I said, have Joe hit me? And he never fucking hit me? So how can I even put his desires for the deal in paperwork for him if he's not even gonna call me? So it's impossible. When was the official release of you Guys as a group from Shady It was over a year ago. Over a year ago. Yeah, and again, who

do we do that for? For Joe? Right? I mean, because really I feel like when Joe was on Everyday Struggle talking about Eminemli, obviously some of the things he said I didn't necessarily disagree with, right, But you know, but if you're Joe Budden and you're signed to your group, signed to the label, you you might want to make the business decision to just gotta hold hold back a little, you know what I'm saying, But especially if if your brother Royce is over there trying, you know, to hold

it together. I was over there too, but let's just put it on Royce. If Royce was over there trying to he was trying to put Glasshouse out under the Shady umbrella the same day when Joe was throwing those grenades at everything. He was working during that time period to try to get Glasshouse out. Do you think Joe knew that? Probably because if he knew that, and yeah, I know he probably knew it. You know what I'm saying. He probably knew it. He wanted off Shady. Let me

know if I'm wrong. Glasshouse was supposed to be executive pretty Jess Blaze or was it executive produced by just Blaze? And we kind of like formulated this slaughterhouse of producers of all amazing producers, you know, Justice League, Illmind, Cardiac was there, you know, man else was in there. It was it was crazy to see them all making beasts

together like it was just it was amazing. I don't know if have any of those songs leaked, Some of the songs we've played pieces bits and pieces and things like that. But for the most part, there's a whole album that nobody really ever heard, you know what I'm saying. And it was easy to finish. Yeah, like you had enough joints to you could go into what we recorded and create an album out of that, you know what

I'm saying. Hopefully somebody leak conveniently leaks that ship up. Well, I thought about the leak man, but it's like, you know, those producers worked hard, they didn't get paid, you know what I'm saying, and I'm sure wouldn't mind. Well if they could reach if they Yeah, if the producers are on board, then absolutely, but that's on it, you know. But you know, we don't want to We don't want to harm anybody business wise. You know, because one of the beasts went to Ross. You know what I mean.

The song is called I Forgot Suggests Blaze Ross Ross Song. Okay, you know what I'm saying. So it went one of the beats went to Ross. So you know, if those producers can still find a way to eat off those beats, I would just say someone conveniently who has access to the album give it to someone else who just conveniently leaks it and honestly online, and then it's on Reddit, and then you know, the people who want to hear it can hear. Hey, it might leak tonight. They might

try to They might try to leak. They might try to leak it before me and Joel shit drop. Hey got some real ship? I could see that. So they could change the subject and ship. Yeah, you can't change the subject. The fans want closure, bro. I talk to them every single day on turn Now you're super active. They want closure, bro. They want to know why. How you know if we put the fans are the fifth member of Slaughterhouse. If we ever put them first, Glasshouse

would have came out. Everybody put egoing prior first. That's why Glasshouse never came out. It's that simple, like if you had to really it sounds like and again it's just sounds like if it weren't for Joe Budden, the album would have been out. Hey, am I crazy? Yo? Listen? Joe retired. He said it on his podcast. I can go and do whatever I'm trying to tell you. I think see. Royce is a music He's a heavy, heavy music guy, so in his mind he probably has this album.

This this crazy album that he knows that we can achieve as a group, that he wants to, you know, help, He wants to paint this picture. He just probably has so many ideas when it comes to Slaughterhouse that he wants to do, But what he doesn't understand is is that it's not gonna get done. Bro. Yeah, I mean it's ten years. Bro. I feel sad every time I see him talking about he was gonna get Joe to rap. I'm like, dude, he was never gonna rap. I mean, listen,

race is one of the greatest of all time. Yes, absolutely, I think when you're Royce and you put out I mean the Book of Ryan and The Alligatory got nominated for Rap Album of the Year, probably the two best bodies of work of his career. Absolutely, I'm not sure like if your Royce like The Headache or the it's just a lot, Like it sounds like the whole Slaughterhouse thing is a lot. It is and anything when there's four moving parts for four people. Ever, you got a manager.

He's got a manager, he's got a manager. We all got four lawyers. It's just it's a lot and and and you know, for me, like I just had always assumed this ship was a rap forever. When Joe retired, I was just like, oh, well, now see you assume that. Yeah, well now you you're like, no, we're gonna put an

album out and let you know it's a rap. Yeah. Yeah, I mean because because there's your guys' fans are a certain type of cult following where they're they're letting until they get the final No, They're going to keep harping on the situation. They're very invested in two Slaughterhouse. They are very invested, you know what I'm saying. And I don't think in this whole Debaco nobody is. Nobody's caring about it. I mean, I even heard Joe say the

fans are idiots. I'm like, Doug, listen, I'm when we was on tour, I'm the last man on the tour bus, first man off. I'm out there with the fans. We get off the stage, I'm taking pictures with them, I'm signing art the grounds, I'm doing shots with the fans were talking rap. You know what I'm saying, That's just who I am. These are the people who love what we love. These are the people who put us where

we are, you know what I mean. And I'm out there showing love, having fun with the fans at all times. So I've always been that type of person. And it doesn't stop because slaughter House stops, you know what I'm saying. So when the fans hit me and they're like, yo, you we you know I was listening to your song Goodbye, and you know my uncle died of cancer too, and man, it just really it saved me from wanting to harm myself and just know that you're going through the same

thing and all that. I take that shit to heart. That shit ain't just a comment on my fucking script on my screen. That's fucking real shit. And I take that shit to heart. And when they tell me they want to know what the fuck is going on with the music and why we ain't putting out no records and what happened to Slaughterhouse, I want to give them that closure to look, this is what happened. Now. I'm not gonna go super deep and dig up all kinds of shit and show you where the bodies are. I'm

just gonna be like, yo, this is what happened. And you know, thank you for all your support over the fucking years. I'm sorry to be the bad news. I'm sorry to be that guy, but this is what the fuck happened. It's over and some of the best motherfucking movies are based on a true story. This is a true story period. Did YO ever feel a type of way when you started to do Crook's Corner? Uh? And you're like, your your platforms and by the way, you're

not doing that anymore, are you? Yeah? The YouTube channel? Yeah? Are you still like cause I feel like I feel like you did. You slowed down a bit on doing it. We started doing because you were doing it. Started for a while, right, I was doing it with hip Hop d X, and then you know, I moved it to another to my own channel. I got the eminem interview, and you know, my channel got taken deleted for some some other stuff. Right, so I started a brand new channel.

And you know, I started a brand new channel. I have a brand new location. We we do Crooks Corner and a new location now you know what I mean. We got it's a beautiful location. Least that out for a year. And you know I've been having guests coming in and out shoot man, all kinds of people. So yeah, we still we're still doing it. It's still rocking and rolling. The new channel is growing right now, you know what I mean. I'm very happy at where we are with

Chris Corner. I think my next episode is gonna be with Ice Tea. He dropped some jewels, you know what I mean, and uh yeah, shout out to Ice Tea. He came in. He killed it, you know, and uh you know, I had Chamelionaire on there. He was talking, you know, business, he's killing on the tech side. So it's going now. To answer your question, I don't know how he felt, but I had c Ob Radio before he still started the Joe Button podcast already had Cob Radio. Me and DJ Ski had I remember, you know what

I'm saying. So I've always been in this space. It's just that I've been juggling shit, you know what I mean, because I got a lot of different ventures and businesses that I'm a part of. So it's like I have to always juggle my time and shit. But now I'm planning to you know, I'm in the middle of making my retirement album. So once I get that retirement album done, I'll be able to focus on Chris Corner. Multimedia and we'll be able to just start taking on. So you're

retiring next Yeah, so you're done. Yeah, I mean I don't mind to come out to play for a future. I'm not one of these I'm saying, yeah, but making making solo albums and you know, and that was another reason why this album was so necessary to me, man, with me and Joel, because I want to say all the things I need to say to the people before I turn the mic off. You know, that's such a large part of your legacy, man, it's a large part. This is you know, people like, well, why did you

rap about that? Listen, I've been rapping about my life, my whole fucking life, and this is something that happened in my life. That's why I get when people are like, hey, why are you rapping about it? Oh? When I left death Row Records, I rapped about it. You know what I'm saying. I left Shady Records in Slaughterhouse, I'm rapping about it. I'm entitled to rap about it, you know what I mean. That's what I've been doing my whole fucking life. Some of my fans know my life better

than people in my family. Would you ever write a book for sure, because I feel like you're one of the few artists that could say you were a part of Death Row and Shady and then also just some of the walls you broke down in terms of when you were dropping a record every week, that was something that you were the first to do. Yes, then everybody everybody,

I mean that blog era. You were early, like I remember like early blog era shit, and you were there, but not Rights and the two Dope boys dropping a record every fucking week, Yes, sir, And then everybody else did it. Everybody else did it, and I think once everybody else did it, it it ultimately changed the way all fans digest music. It kind of if you think about it, you're kind of right because now everyone we used to think if I got an album from our favorite artist

every year and a half or two, I'm that's I'm good. Yeah, So now your favorite artists gotta be super active because you got it on your phone and yeah, now that's some real ship and some real ship. We shifted the game with that. So yeah, dog, I'm down to write books. You know. I started on a book I had. Actually

we have this mini series called Foreclosure. Me and Joel that's you know that we're advertising the album, how we're rolling out the album, right, And that that actually comes from a book title because I actually wrote a book about Starterous. He wrote a whole book, but I ain't finish it, but I got I got hella chapters. It's dope too. It's it's really dope. It's a dope ass book. Man. It talks about you know, how it all was in the beginning, and and and and the the creative process.

It's just really dope. I just never I haven't finished it. But it was called Foreclosure, you know what I'm saying. So this is something that's always been on my mind, Like you know this, this is something that I needed. I needed to get out there and you know, I needed that therapy. I needed that medicine. I needed group therapy with the fans, the ones who built it with us. I needed to tell him what was going on and hear feedback. I'm not always right, you know what I'm saying.

I'm open to the feedback, but you know, just don't don't try to don't try to assassinate my character by saying that I'm lying about something, because I'm not lying about anything. Every time I speak, I want the truth to come out. I'm not lying about nothing. There's nothing that I've said so far that's false. You know what I'm saying. I said that I brought a deal to the table. I did. I said that Joe didn't want to do it. He didn't. I said that Royce didn't

want to do the three man group. He didn't want to do the three man group. I haven't told one lie yet. I don't understand how they can call me a liar. Does this album permanently fracture your relationship with Royce? In my mind it shouldn't. But you know what I'm saying. All I could do is speak for myself. I just think of his IG post, you know, like what he said, any ig post. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's like, you know, in my mind, No, it shouldn't, you know

what I'm saying. In my mind, it shouldn't. You know what I mean, because I got love for Royce. You know, me and Royce have similar beliefs. You know, we live by a similar code. You know what I'm saying. So it's like I got love for Royce, no doubt. But this is something that had to happen, and you know, if he wants to continue to wrap do business with Joe, you know, that's great, you know, And I'm just saying, yo, bro, I had to get off that bus. I can't. I

can't be on the bus no more with that. That's it's a wrap on that. How close was the reunion on the West Side gun Ship from happening? Like, how close was that actually going to transpire? Because it seemed like everyone was like was everyone on board to do that for for Gun? Like? How close? Like like how far did those discussions get? Because I think if there's anyone who embodies the energy you guys had, it's it's

Griselda right now. Well, they said that they were going to do it, but it became one of those slaughter house things. You know, nobody, nobody ended up turning in what they had to turn in. And I think I think Gun changed his mind or something, and he ended

up using the same beat that we all got. He used that song with us for our Money, Caesar, him and Miney Caesar did a joint on there, and once that floated out, I threw my verse out as a freestyle, and I told my fans and supporters you know, this was supposed this was supposed to be to Griselle, the joint that we were all gonna do at Slaughterhouse. But you know, once again, as soon as they asked me to rap I rap, I was, I had a joint

on there, you know what I'm saying. And it was funny when Roy said that because my my fans and supporters were in the comments, like, dog, we've been knowing that that ship wasn't gonna happen. He was. You know, you're pretty transparent with I'm super transparent now now that I'm on Discord on Discord at the Discord. Yeah, now

that I'm on Discord lip, Yeah, it's lit. I got the I got the Chris Corner server over there, and we we inside our chat room talking all kinds of ship to each other, you know what I mean, Like we we talk about everything man and and and and that's I think that's what separates me from you know a lot of people out here, is that we're not We're we're on equal footing man with with people who

support us. Man, unless some people think they rap stars and ship and they think they too good to talk to people, you know what I mean, even too good to return phone calls. But I ain't. You're not that guy. I you go do that? Yeah, I'm not that guy. This album coming out, your guys, the second album together just Hewling and Joel. Is this, uh, something you guys are gonna continue obviously the next if you guys do.

I'm assuming not every album is gonna be based on mur Rising Falls Slaughter at all, because the first one wasn't. But is this something you guys are gonna keep on doing or just yeah? I think me and Joel might make another one. I'm not sure. I don't want to really, you know, I don't know. But when we did the first one, the pandemic just I was in New York. We did it Rest in Peace, Fred to God's Son. He was He was in every session with us, and

the pandemic had just hit. So after we I came back home, it was very hard to move around because the country this was something new to us. People quarantine early on. It was impossible. It was impossible, so we couldn't really roll the album out like we wanted to. So, you know, we took this opportunity to be able to really, you know, put our vision out there and show people

that you know what we do. I mean, shout out to my man, Herb, the our true team, our visual our visual game ain't playing either for sure, you know what I'm saying. So it's like, you know, we we have a great team, you know, in place to do whatever we want to do. If if he wants to, we could do some more music, you know, if not, I feel it, you know what I mean. But I'm definitely after I'm finished with this album, the retirement, Yeah,

after I'm done with that. You know, I'm I'm transitioning, man, you know what I'm saying. I'm transitioning, but I'm gonna leave with a bang, like like this last album, the first four joint it's just ridiculous. So I'm like, yo, I'm gonna make sure I get out of here and say something, you know, the right way, the right way, Yes, sir. How's your current relationship with m That's good? You like, I feel like if you have a retirement album, I feel like Eminem kind of has to be onder. Hey man,

come on, Marshall. Man, you know I'm getting out of here. Baby, I'm just saying it's gonna happen. You know, this is the last I talk to him about it. He was like, Man, don't retire because he ain't. Because he ain't, you know what I'm saying. But I mean, and that dude has a hard job, boy, because he's a word smith. He gotta go in there every time and try to top that last one. You know what I'm saying that that's

that's what he does. Though he's a gunner. Somebody like Ross who kind of used the same blueprint in terms of like what you were doing in the early blog days to kind of get on just dropping the record every week, reaches out to you, get you on the

chomp ep the first one Stockholm Syndrome. We I mean because Russ, I think what he's done with these two Chop projects is like pretty special because like, if you didn't know better, you would be very surprised to hear Russ, who's known for his melodies, and you know he'd be saying some fly ship popping and ship but he's really throwing punges with the best of the best of these

two projects. What was that like, like him reaching out to you, did he just slide you in the DM or yeah, he just hit me on he just hit me online? Because you know, we always in the trenches. He see me, and a lot of times his name used to pop up in my timeline. People be like, yo, what do you think of Russ all this? And I'm like, yo, I like Russ. You know, Russ is out there doing this independent thing. You know, he's giving jewels the up

and coming artists and lots of jewels. I fuck with Russ, so you know, he hit me up and he's like, would I do it? I was like, shit, that's nothing, you know what I mean, sent it back to him. He's like, yo, you killed that shit. I was like, you're looking, bro, It's all good, you know. So it's real easy. I'm very easy to work with, and I liked I liked that kind of environment. I like that

people who are easy to work with. I like to be in good native environments where it's not a lot of you know, head button and some people like that because that's sometimes that brings out some of the best music, you know, super challenges and adversity and all that type of shit. But I don't like that. I like the good workflow, you know what I'm saying. I had that as a as a fucking kid. I've been in the game a long time you've been I'm too old for

all that ship now. I like the Google environment, you know, just out of bean bag over here, you chilling you sip and lemonade over there? Yo? Pull it beat the alright, cool, let's get it cracking. None of that other ship before we get out of here. Obviously, the album. By the time this comes out, the album will be out. Yeah, go get the album. Yes, go run it up, run it up. I'm sure is there going to be merch. There's merch available, you know, the merch the pre orders

is looking nice. You know what I'm saying. Run up the merch, run up. Maybe a book coming soon, Tireman album. What's up with the Horseshoe Gang? Yo? The Shoe Gang man? Like am he really loved him too? And you know, uh, is everyone Horseshoe Gang related to you? Yeah? That's my little brothers. Okay, yeah, yeah, they they masters that They're incredible, and you know, they're starting to turn the corner. A lot of people are giving them other people want to

work with them. You know, some super producers want to work with them now, so we we we in the mix with that right now. Also shout out to Uh. I want to shout out Raz Cast's sons because they're in a group called Post Contra. I'm trying to get them on the show. They they've been opening up on the cord A tour. Yeah, they're fucking crazy to those guys. I just saw one of their freestyles pop up on my ship and I was like, oh my god, who

are these kids? Yeah? Yeah, them kids dope. And I didn't even know I'd reached out d M. And then like I saw Raz like repost them and I was like, oh shit, those are his sons. The twins are his boys. Like that ship is crazy. I love it. Hey, listen, man, hip hop is aging, so we're able to see things we never seen before. It's a new genre of music, relatively new, so we've never got to see the lineage.

Then we had Chris Rivers sitting right here like a couple of weeks ago, and man, that motherfucker went crazy. Yeah that's what I'm saying, Chris Rivers, you know what I mean, Like, you know, it's just it's dope to see the growth. Man, everything is dope. But yeah, well look, man, I appreciate you pulling up and giving us some context on what the fuck is going on? Yeah, man, you know they throwing darts at me, keV. You know what I'm saying. I had to come in and set the

record straight, real quick list. I think it's just important to get all of the context, you know, to get as much of your side of what's going on. And you know, I think that that was a big thing that was missed about. You know, some of the headlines that were made off of that IG live was you really weren't able to speak. I wasn't able to speak, you know. I tried to get in there, so I did my own live, you know what I mean. And you know, I talk to the people myself. But you know,

it's it's all good. Like like I said, dog, it's just getting it out there. The story is out there, the fans are getting closure. Leave the slaughterhouse questions behind after just go press play for all the fucking questions. Yeah, that's all y'all got to do, man, And you'd be all right with me, you know what I mean. Here it is man, King Crook Crooked. I appreciate you pulling out.

Thanks for having me. Hey, shout out your YouTube channel that you that you know Brooks Corner, Come to Crook's Corner, Come mess with me. Man, We've got a lot of content over there's beautiful boom