Slim the Mobster Interview - discussing Dre

In this exclusive interview, Slim the Mobster steps into the Booth to discuss the importance of visuals in music promotion, his relationship with Booth-acclaimed cousin XV and the extent of his contributions to the long-delayed Detox LP.

Your brand new mixtape, War Music, is set for release on November 8. What was your goal going into this project?

My goals were to establish myself as more of an artist than a writer.

What do you think your fans are looking forward to the most with this release?

I think the people are looking forward to me delivering some quality street music. I think that’s what the people want from me. I don’t partake in the creation of the corny rap that’s going on right now.

Several videos from this project have been serviced to all of the major blogs and websites. In this Internet age, how important is it to give fans visuals?

That’s a big part of it. That’s why you’re seeing the videos that you see right now. That’s why I’ve released songs already with Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar. I’m doing these things for that exact reason.

Hip-Hop fans have been familiar with your name ever since Dr. Dre first mentioned your work during a radio interview, but you’ve been relatively quiet up until now. Why is now the time? Why not two years ago?

Who else’s time is it? There’s no better time than the present. In terms of why not two years ago, my focus was in other places at the time. I’d say I’m fully focused right now.

I am sure Booth-goers will be happy to hear that XV - a buzzing rapper out of Wichita, Kansas - is your cousin. Why haven’t we seen heard a collaboration from the two of you?

I taught him how to rap man. That’s my first cousin right there. Besides music, of course that’s my family. You’re definitely gonna’ get a collab between me and XV. I have another cousin that raps too – Mic Phenom. He’s big on the battle scene. I’m here to help him make the transition to songwriting.

Of late you've been mentioned in the same sentence as Kendrick Lamar, since both of you are Dr. Dre protégés. How would you describe your relationship with Kendrick?

We know a lot of the same people. I knew who he was before we both went under Dre. I look at Kendrick like my little brother and as an emcee; he’s hard on that mic.

In a recent interview, Dr. Dre (it seemed) intentionally didn't mention Detox. Instead, he was talking about a lot of the advertisement deals he has going on. Any status update on the project you can report on?

You see me right? Ok. That’s all I need to say. I’m gonna’ let the people figure that out. We’re here as a team for a reason right now.

How much writing have you done for Detox?

I don’t know how much writing I’ve done. I can only tell you that it’s a lot and that I’ll also appear vocally of course.

How would you describe the overall experience of working with Dr. Dre?

I don’t think they have a word for that yet. In the light of the experience that is working with Dr. Dre, it doesn’t have a definition yet. There was one track that leaked with me and Glasses Malone over a Dr. Dre beat. That track was called Motherf**kin’ Streets.

You’ve worked with a lot of producers outside of Dr. Dre – Nottz, Chocolate and DJ Silk to name a few. Has there been one producer in particular that you've vibed with the best?

My answer for that would have to be Eminem.

Why Eminem?

Because just on different occasions, I know that throughout the course of his day, he listens to my sh*t all day (laughs). That right there was big to me. I would see him and he’ll be singing one of my songs to me – that’s crazy. And its music that I haven’t even released yet, just something he’s had an opportunity to hear.

Any last words?

War Music drops November 8. Without a reasonable doubt, it will be here on that date. There were a lot of things I had to do to make it as classic as I could. Not just as a street album or mixtape, I want you to be in tune with me as a person so we had a lot of artwork created for the project. I’m gonna’ be in the places where most people don’t go and I’ll be handing out hard copies. I have a special exclusive t-shirt that I’m doing with Crooks & Castles I have a lot of things that I’m doing with this project to make it memorable. It’s not gonna’ be just a regular mixtape because if you’ve been paying attention, there’s a lot of different things we’re doing like behind the scenes videos and what not. I’ve done so much work to make it something different to where it requires more attention than just putting out a mixtape. I wanted to make this big.

Source - http://www.djbooth.net/index/news/entry/slim-mobster-in-mix-10261112/

Detox expected in 2012 - 12-20 tracks?

The following was tweeted by The D.OC

@WESTCOASTDOC "Dre and Snoopy finding time to get things perfected but their schedules are a bitch. Far as how many between 12-20 is my guess."

Earlier he mentioned that they "...on the west trying to get the Dr out the gate right now".

Answering queries from fans, he also stated that a 2012 release is more likely than this year and that 'psycho' wont be in the final tracklist.



http://twitter.com/#!/WESTCOASTDOC/status/127449286278512640

http://twitter.com/#!/WESTCOASTDOC/status/127092400077287426

Slim The Mobster interview, talks about Dre, 'War Music' Mixtape, Meeting Eminem

So after that initial call what came next on your journey to Aftermath?

We only talked for like 5 minutes and he asked if I was patient because he had a lot of things going on at the time—I think he was in the process of just working on Em’s album or something. I told him I had all the time in the world.

Was it a slow process after that?

I wasn’t signed until almost two years later.

So was it a trial process, were you in the studio with Dre and kind of feeling it out.

Yea from time to time I would be in one studio and then the other studio and that was that.

Was it a learning process for you? Working with someone like Dre isn’t an everyday occurrence.

Everything is a learning process but this was new to me so yea this was a big learning experience for me and all these things came into play later because when you’re dealing with someone as good as he is you have to learn and pay attention.

There’s no way around it, just be on your “A” game at all times, right?

Of course especially when you know he’s watching and I know he watches the [smallest] shit , like when we went out wherever and he wanted to see how I acted and how people responded to me and [vice versa] and I guess I did pretty good.

So it was like Dre wanted to get to know you as a person, as a well- rounded individual versus as just a rapper?

You know what the funniest thing is, for him to be like this big mogul but he knows everything that happens in the street and I don’t know how he knows about it. Like, how do you know that, who told you that? That’s the craziest shit to me, he knows things that are going on in the hood and it’s like where does he get this from.

That’s crazy. At any point on your Aftermath journey did you ever think ‘maybe it’s not going to work out”?

I’m going to keep it 100% real with you, and I’m probably not even supposed to say this—I make more money now than most people he’s put out for big tours.

Just off of working with Dre, you’re saying?

Yeah. Like can you imagine what Oprah gives to her friends and shit? Like c’mon man, knock it off, so I don’t know how they got frustrated. I’m not frustrated—I feel good about it, I’m comfortable, got all my little issues out the way. I’m more focused on my music, I don’t got to worry about the judges and the juries and all those people.

Dre even said in a recent interview that you and Kendrick were probably the last two artists he was going to work with ever. How does that make you feel?

I feel like a legend in the making. That’s a hell of a title, we the last, I guess they save the best for last.

Was Dre present for the whole process of recording War Music?

Nah, a lot of my recording I do on my own too. I really did this because people were wondering like can he rap? Can he do this or that so this is more for the people who really don’t know who Slim is, but there’s a lot of people who know I am and don’t appreciate the things that I’ve done.

Is there like one or two songs that are really personal to you or stand out the most that you can talk about?

Every song is personal to me but the one that’s more personal is something called “Falling Star.”

That sounds like it could have a deeper meaning?

The song is actually about me fucking up and not becoming successful like that’s what most people expect from me like ‘oh I’m surprised he even got this far.’ So I really like the song because it gives a different vibe, it’s not about guns etc. and some people say I always talk about guns but if you pay attention I’m not saying this to shit on anyone and I hope no one takes it personal but I’ve never heard Kweli compared to Jay- Z in light of, Kweli is hard, he’s good, but 9 times out of 10 when you say the greatest rapper you say someone hardcore.

Right, like Biggie, Pac, Jay…

I ask people this question and those are the names that usually come up so like when I made War Music—I wanted to keep it hard because I feel like that’s what people will really like because when you say the greatest people in hip- hop you only name hardcore artists that have an audience of people who [tend] to follow that type of music.

That’s interesting man. Do you feel like you kind of have to act, or make music a certain way to please people and give them what they want?

No, I feel like rap is not hardcore [right now] so if I was to please the people I would be doing techno- rap or something.

You’ve mentioned being Eminem being one of your favorite MCs, have you guys collaborated yet?

I mean we haven’t actually recorded together but I’ve been in the studio with him a few times and it’s heavy because he knows my shit. When I hear Em singing my songs and shit that gives me motivation. That’s someone I looked up to like I looked up to Dre so when I hear him saying like I like this song right here or when Em says this right here is my joint’ I take pride in those things.

http://www.vibe.com/posts/slim-mobster-dr-dre-war-music-mixtape-meeting-eminem-pg2

G.A.G.E. Assylum” produced by Dre

It’s been a while since former Aftermath artist G.A.G.E. dropped a new record.

that Dre beat from Encore studio session

The beat below was from the early 2010 studio session. Note that this is a loop of the skeleton beat.

Snoop and other westcoast cats Detox studio session PART 2 (video)

New Doggisode with Snoop Dogg,DJ Battlecat, DOC, DJ Quik, 1500 or Nothin & DJ Pooh in the studio cooking up classics.



Click here for the part 1 of this studio video.

Dr Dre session up at Encore Studios (mini video clip)

Dr. Dre previewed a song in the studio via a video clip shot by Lemar Guillary, a professional trombonist.

Guillary lensed the video before laying down the horns on the track. In the clip, the West Coast veteran presents the cut, which features plucked strings and a heavy bass.

The video and studio session is dated back to early 2010.