On August 9th, Detroit, Michigan emcee Royce Da 5’9 is scheduled to release Success Is Certain. The solo work is a companion album to Royce’s sophomore 2004 album, Death Is Certain. In a new interview at KevinNottingham.com, the Slaughterhouse and Bad Meets Evil member explained the relationship those two works share.
“[Death Is Certain and Success Is Certain are] not that different musically. I actually tried to keep the same darkness, and I just wanted the actual content to be a 180,” explained Royce. “[Death Is Certain] was my most critically acclaimed album, so I tried to keep it on that same level, and try to relive it. But, I’m also — I feel like I’m 360 degrees different from what it was then, career-wise.” At that point, Royce had left major label Columbia Records to work with a burgeoning independent in Koch Records, known today as E1 Entertainment. Now, Royce’s two group projects are big budget major label works, while the emcee vet still releases his solo work at an indie level – now with Gracie Productions.
Nickel Nine continued, “I tried to show that in the music. I speak about triumph, overcoming obstacles, adversity, just doing better than I was before. That whole album was just negative, it was about dying. I mean, it was called Death Is Certain; the whole album was about dying, about me getting killed, you know what I’m saying? I don’t feel like that no more. I’m not angry, I’m much happier, so it’s basically just the opposite of that.”
Read the full Royce Da 5’9 interview at KevinNottingham.com.
