Slaughterhouse: The Sum Of Its Parts

Joell Ortiz

Royce Da 5’9: I was saying earlier with Joell, I kind of stole a little bit of his introspective style. Like how he brings his personal life to the table and how he kind of opens up. I’ve been around Eminem all of this time and Em does it, but I always looked at him like, “Ah, I can’t do that!” because he does it in a way to where he’s the only one telling that story, so he kind of like puts himself on his own island. But you know when I heard Joell do it, I could kind of relate a little bit more, even though we don’t have the same story. Maybe it’s just the way that he puts it. So he kind of inspired me to bring a little bit more of my personal life and just basically speak about things that’s on my heart as opposed to just always coming to the table trying to be the best lyricist that I can be. It’s lyricism…it’s extreme lyricism…in telling a story. You know talking about true things, talking about things that are on your mind so that’s one of the things that I got from him and implemented into my own style.
Crooked I: Word, I just kind of learned a lot about showmanship on the road with Joell. You know what I’m saying, because he could make the crowd hype. And that’s one thing about an emcee that cuts back to the beginning of hip-hop. You have to be able to control the crowd, you have to be a microphone controller as well and that’s what we aspire to always continue into that tradition and that legacy so to speak. So to see Joell, it reminded me if I could have been around with people like KRS-One and if I could have been around with people like Big Daddy Kane and all them dudes was just rocking crowds before it was all this big internet stuff and all that. He’s just a tremendous showman and I definitely learned a few pointers from him.
Joell Ortiz: Yo what I learned from Joell man, that nigga’s just ILL!