Evolution
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Credit: PR
If you could compare yourself as an emcee and as a man from when Success is Certain came out in 2011, to now in 2016 with Layers, how would you?
R59: I think I’m more evolved now. I think I’m going to the studio now with a little bit more of a purpose. When I did Success is Certain, I went in there just cutting songs. You know, the overall message was success is certain, but everything involved with my rollout and things that were going on outside the music, was what gave me that vibe. I would go on my timeline and people were like, “Man, I’m so glad that you’re finally getting the respect that you deserve and the attention that you deserve.” It just kind of started feeling like the opposite of what it was when I did Death Is Certain. So that’s why I called that album that. During that album, I was too drunk all the time to really be able to express that sentiment. The album was good. I liked that album. It just ended up sounding like songs. It wasn’t really driving a particular message home. As a fan, you want to listen to it and walk away from it taking that message. I always told myself, especially now that I’m sober, that that will never happen again. Whatever the message is of the album, I want people to walk away feeling like that was the message that they got.
A lot of rappers would hang it up once they notice their skills diminishing, but with you, you kind of have a Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki skill-set, where longevity is your best friend. What do you accredit your longevity to?
R59: I think I was a late bloomer. Around 95-96, I went to the Hip Hop Shop. I rapped in there one time and I got GONED. I thought I’d never rap again. Then, I went to the Ebony showcase and that’s where I started getting my confidence. The element there is different. You stand on a stage and the people watch you from the crowd. The Hip Hop Shop, you stand in the middle of a circle like a cipher and they pass the mic around. I immediately learned how to pick the right lines that fit that crowd. It’s basically the same concept as picking the right music for the right time. It’s like picking the right things to say over the right beat at the right time. It’s the same as making music. You learn these things through trial and error. If you put an album out and it doesn’t do really well or you don’t hit your mark for whatever reason, you learn from that. You figure out what you may have done wrong, or what you did right, and you factor it into the next sh-t. That’s basically what I was doing on the local scene with the open mics. So before I could even get into songwriting as a whole, Marshall [Eminem] had already pulled me into the game. When I was doing my Tommy Boy album, I was just scratching the surface. I didn’t start really learning until I started putting out music. It takes time. It’s a process. It doesn’t happen fast. There’s a lot of things that I’ve learned and it shows now in the music. It’s not just because I’ve been so good for so long. I really don’t think that. I’ve just been learning and been existing. I’ve been good enough to exist in the past, but I’m getting better because I’m evolving.
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