Yelawolf sat down with VIBE to discuss signing with Shady Records and how the deal came about.

On how he got signed:
“Keeping quiet was the hardest shit in the world, honestly. I was just so excited for a while. And everyone from my team who did know was really responsible about not letting it out. But I met with Eminem about four to five months ago in Detroit. Paul and Em flew me and my manager out to just kick it and get acquainted. From that meeting, I had no idea it would turn into this situation. I remember Paul was asking me about the meth problem in Alabama and I told him that I wrote ‘Pop The Trunk’ based off that issue. Next thing I know, Em starts rapping some of my lines from the song. I can’t even describe how that felt, I actually got super nervous. Em’s a real hip-hop fan, he knows about everything that’s going on.”

On breaking the news to his mother:
“When I called my mom to tell her—she straight started ‘boo hoo’ crying, she was just so happy for me. She knows how big Eminem is and she never imagined that I would get to this level. My team actually even surprised me with the news and literally just said ‘the Shady deal is done’ one day. I remember five years ago sitting in my cousin’s car and asking him ‘would Eminem get this, would he sign me?’ We even went through what the meeting would be like and all that. So I can’t say that I never thought about it. Then, a few years later when we were shopping my demo to different labels in New York, I told KP lets take this to Marshall and he just kind of laughed at me. But I always had a feeling he would fuck with it.”

On recording with Eminem and his upcoming album:
“We kicked it a couple times but we haven’t laid anything down yet. But I think we’re supposed to go to Detroit next week, so it’s coming. Just wait. I already know the pressure is there but if I let that shit get to me, it’ll affect my music. A lot of rappers have this obsession with staying underground, but I want to take it to the stadium level. We’ve been sitting on records for like four years that we knew were too big for a mixtape. So I’m just focused on writing a great album right now. That’s why I’m calling it Radioactive because I want to personally challenge myself and the industry. It’s a metaphor for my version of radio records. Now, it’s just time to put out a major album and let everyone know why I’m Shady.”

I’m listening to these guys talk about this deal and as much as I want this to go well for them I’d be lying if I said I thought it will. The homie Meka touched on the subject over at his XXL spot and makes a number of good points. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read it, take a minute and do so.

I do think Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf will move a few extra units with this deal, largely due to the die hard Eminem fans who support anything he’s involved in, but I don’t think it will be a significant amount.  Those sales won’t represent the building or strengthening of their own fan bases either, rather its piggy backing on Eminem’s and to me that doesn’t really count.  These are raw emcee’s who focus on lyricism, their talent or type of music these guys make is not being disputed by anyone. Unfortunately for everyone involved from the artist all the way to the consumer a record label is about making money not raw lyrics or quality of music.  The mainstream that purchases music is on some other ish that barely includes hip hop these days let alone raw and lyrical hip hop.

The thing that bothers me the most about this deal is Shady Records has never put out an artist that has been able to stand on their own feet.  It would be easy to point to 50 Cent (and they are certainly padding their stats with his numbers) however, 50 Cent’s projects were marketed and worked largely by Interscope Aftermath, not Shady Records.  50 also had a very strong team of his own pushing him, and the timing and marketplace was much different than it is now.  Obie Trice and D12 sold numbers, but without Eminem where are they now?  No shots to them, but they only sold the numbers they sold because of Eminem’s fan base and  you can’t blame them for it, that is how they were marketed by Shady Records.

It seems like this is the only type of marketing that Shady Records knows how to do, and it appears it is the same formula they are following now.  I believe it was Einstein who stated “The true definition of insanity is to do the same things over and over again and expect different results”.  When Eminem took his break so did the entire roster, and I would bet my life Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf have started down the same boulevard of broken dreams as the artists before them.

If Eminem releasing a project,  taking a break, or whatever is going on in his career effects your project chances are you’ve signed to the wrong record label.  Can you imagine if Kanye had to take a back seat because Jay wanted to put an album out or Rick Ross needed to sit on the shelf a minute because Rihanna is in album cycle?  This has been the Shady Records reality.

The entire coulda, shoulda, woulda argument the mainstream should be supporting lyrical raw hip hop is irrelevant.  They are not. Rap fans who appreciate that type of music largely do not support by buying music, they support by buying tickets to live shows and merchandise. This is why Slaughterhouse should have stayed indie where they were in charge of their own destiny, with less hands in the profit. They didn’t need Eminem nor this deal and I will forever be confused as to why they took it, let alone made it a strategy. They had the perfect set up.

Yelawolf on the other hand has very little buzz,  the ability to construct good songs and he can rap.. yet no-one has ever survived in Eminem’s shadow, let alone his shadow as a white rapper.  Every white rapper that has had to battle this comparison has lost, and lost badly.  The world does not want another Eminem, and Eminem doesn’t seem intent on passing the torch anytime soon.  All in all, Shady Records is incapable of replicating Eminem and to a lessor extent 50 Cent’s success in large part because they didn’t create it in the first place.  So while I sincerely wish Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf well, I can’t help but have a nagging feeling it won’t go as they hope.  If something seems too good to be true it usually is and if you want to know what your future is in a situation take a good hard look at its past.  History has a funny way of repeating itself.

No artist should need to rely on another artist to reach another level and if you do or set yourself up for that, you’ve done it wrong. I hope Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf take a good look at how newer artists like Bobby Ray have used their big name co-signs to propel through a door without clinging and relying on their mentors involvement to push them.  That is the true strategy for success.

I sorta went on a rant there.  Don’t taze me.. debate me.