KXNG Crooked was a guest on #DXLive for a second consecutive week on Thursday (December 21) where he divulged his true feelings on Revival,Eminem’s ninth studio album. While he admitted he was still “soaking up the album,” the Good Vs. Evil MC had already listened enough to be able to name his favorites (and not-so-favorites).
“Right now, I’m only playing the songs that I really like,” he told HipHopDX’s Editor-In-Chief Trent Clark around the 29-minute mark. “I’m playing ‘Untouchable’ a lot. I’m getting a lot of push back on the internet from my liking ‘Untouchable.’ Everybody’s like, ‘That’s just ’cause you on Shady.’ Look man, we ain’t drop a record on Shady in five years. I don’t got nothing to gain by … Em rocks with us regardless, so that’s not it. I just think he really said some things in that particular song that not only needed to be heard but needed to be heard by the types of fans that he has. That right there makes that song valuable to me.
“Now, the first part of the beat is not my favorite,” he added. “When the beat switches, I love it. Like I could loop that part and just ride to it. So, I’m loving ‘Untouchable.'”
He also mentions the song “Framed,” which (along with “Offended”) seems to be a fan favorite as well.
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“I love ‘Framed,'” he said. “‘Framed’ sounds like the old Slim Shady. After you grow and mature in the game, it’s not easy to step back and say, ‘I can still do that. Watch this.’ It’s kind of like fade away Jordan taking it to the hole again. ‘Cause once he got to that phase, it was over. It wasn’t just fade away Jordan. Every time he took it to the hole, it was like oh, he can still. ..you know so it’s like that’s how I felt about ‘Framed.’ The wording was perfect, the cadence was perfect, I liked the beat. I really think he did his thing on there.”
The pop-heavy Revivalonly came with one rap feature from a relatively unknown MC, Phresher, who pops up on the cut “Chloraspetic.” It’s another album highlight on the Slaughterhouse vet’s list but he confesses he’s not feeling the dominant pop flavors.
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“I like the Phresher joint,” he said with a shrug. “I like it. I like the Phresher joint because I like to hear Em do different things. I like the rap songs. I’m not a big fan now of the pop songs because, you know, I’m just not. That’s not where I’m at personally. Right now, I’m in hoodie mode. I’m in grimy mode. I wanna hear grime or I wanna hear rap, but who’s to say?
“Albums grown on me,” he continued. “Songs grow on me. I’m moved to different spaces in my life and I might play a song and be like, ‘Yo, this is it. This is hot. How did I miss this?’ It just depends on our moods and the spaces we are in our life when the album drops. Every album is not going to fit into the space that you’re in your life. But I do like the rap songs because I like to hear Em rap. That’s what I’m here for.”
When the Shady Records affiliate is told his comments on Revival were “PC,” he snaps back, “You think this is PC?” before explaining why he won’t go as far to say Shady’s album is “trash.”
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“I’m telling you right now, I don’t like the pop records,” he said. “I mean, what do you want me to say? That it’s trash? The reason I can’t say it’s trash is because I disagree when people overuse the word trash … it might not be to my liking and it might not be my kind of music but there’s a difference between trash and ‘I don’t like this.'”
Crooked is also quick to dispel accusations that a lot of the album was a copy and paste job.
“One thing I can say about Em in the studio is he’s a mad scientist,” he revealed. “He will stay in there for nine hours on one hook. He will stay in there for 10 hours on one verse. I’m not talking about laying the verse. I’m talking about listening to it like, ‘What can I change? What can I make better?’ … I’ve seen him slave over the board. Some people have said that on my Twitter like, ‘Yo, it sounds like he’s copying and pasting.’ That’s absolutely not happening. Not in an Eminem session.”
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Watch the full #DXLive interview above and check out KXNG Crooked’s recently released album, Good Vs. Evil 2: The Red Empire.
