First off, all talk about having words with other rappers aside, Shady/Interscope’s Yelawolf has been working.
The Alabama MC and renowned word flipper recently sat down with AllHipHop.com at DJ Skee’s infamous Skee Lodge in Los Angeles, California, to give us a firsthand breakdown of the concept behind his most recent effort Heart of Dixie,produced by Alabama’s own M16 and hosted by DJ Frank White.
Yelawolf says he spontaneously put out the collective of songs for fans earlier this month, and has since stayed busy also working with Travis Barker on their dual effort called, Psycho White. To boot, in addition to the aforementioned projects, Yelawolf has also been putting touches on the follow up to his acclaimed Trunk Muzik, dubbed Trunk Muzik Returns.
“Me, M16 and DJ Frank White are all from Alabama, so the name [Heart of Dixie] was fitting, and we just ran with it and the title; it’s just us coming together,” Yelawolf explained. ”This was just a burner for me to get in there write and just get some sh*t off lyrically; you know, M16 flexing some beats, Frank White, just having fun. I mean, really, [M16] shot me some beats, and I recorded it on the back of the bus while I was touring. And we dropped it just’ cause I really just want to rap. “
Heart of Dixie may be Yelawolf’s personal therapy, coming amidst recent comments that he made about his label Interscope not releasing as many singles as he would have liked. In the aftermath Yelawolf says that while he is still happy with his label situation despite the release issues, he felt the MC urge to give the fans something, given the lull of released material:
“I just wanted something to – well, I feel like I hadn’t dropped anything, and I didn’t want to put just anything out there. But at the same time, I didn’t want to f*ckin’ work on something for two months. I wanted to just go knock some sh*t out and put it out, not caring about sh*t but the statement of I’m still around, like, ‘I’m still around motha f**ker.’ Like, I’m still here and I’m writing.”
The music is priority number one, still there were questions to be answered about recent beef, and “Catfish Billy” as his fans call him, reluctantly and yet candidly offered a few answers regarding the purported beef with Cleveland rapper MGK.
“Where does our September run start? Alabama? Huntsville, Alabama? “Slumerican” tour begins. It’s an amazing tour; it’s gonna be incredible and breathtaking, circus tricks and all that sh*t,” Yelawolf said jokingly. “All that other sh*t can…I’m exhausted with nonsense. I just don’t know how to f*ckin’…everybody’s f*ckin’…if anybody, man, I don’t have any problems with f*ckin’ nobody in the world.”
But, there was more.
“Man, I put it like this, I wish MGK the best. I hope his career pans out, and I wish the best for him, like period. I don’t want problems with nobody. And, you know, outside of MGK, or to MGK, this is for anybody, if you f*ck with me, you’re f*ckin’ up, like for real. Like, just don’t f*ck with me, because I don’t f*ck with nobody. I’m like the old man on the front porch not f*ckin’ with nobody – with the loaded shotgun.
“I’m not f*ckin’ with nobody, so don’t come over here with that sh*t. Keep it over there, because, the team…it’s just… There’s nothing to say, if there was something to say, then it would be said, and it would be handled. But I wish that dude the best; I wish everyone the best.”
Yelawolf and tour mates will hit cities such as Jacksonville, Memphis, New Orleans, Brooklyn, Las Vegas, Nashville, and more, before wrapping the tour up on November 17 in Atlanta, Georgia.
T-shirt designs during the first season included a deer hunter patterned shirt, as well as a trucker T-shirt that says “Let’s Roll”, an ode to his hit song featuring Kid Rock.