Stat Quo recently detailed his experiences working on Detox with Dr. Dre. In an exclusive conversation with HipHopDX, the former Shady/Aftermath artist says that he became frustrated with making songs that would never be released.
“I just felt like Detox was just not going to come out,” Stat Quo says. “I was writing so much music and doing so much shit and my frustration with it not coming out began to effect me and Dre’s relationship. I became frustrated to the point where I had become bitter about working.”
Stat Quo says that Interscope CEO Jimmy Iovine considered Dr. Dre’s Detox team “The greatest practice team of all time.”
“I remember Jimmy Iovine said, ‘It’s like the greatest practice team of all time,’” Stat Quo says. “’Imagine a team that just practices and never plays the game. That’s what you guys do in here. All these great songs, nobody’s ever going to hear them.’ It was true. It’s so much music. I started getting frustrated with it. The mental strain on me and not having my album come out, shit started hitting me. I just distanced myself and stopped coming around.”
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Stat Quo decided to leave Shady/Aftermath and return to his home in Atlanta, Georgia. While in the South, Dr. Dre reached out and asked him to return to Los Angeles, California and continue working on Detox.
“Thank God he called me back because financially I was fucked up,” Stat says. “We went to Hawaii to work. Game was working with him. We’re just working and doing all this music and it feels like I came back into the same shit I left and we’re just recording new songs everyday. It’s like, ‘Yo, this shit is never going to come out. It’s never going to come out. Why am I doing this?’
“At the same time, he was making so much money doing the headphone thing,” Stat Quo continues. “I’m watching him and he’s telling me stuff about the business—the other side of it. I found myself losing my love for rapping. I didn’t want to rap anymore. That’s why that Statlanta album was kind of not good to me because I didn’t really want to rap. I was just fulfilling that obligation because [Sha Money XL] had gave me that opportunity. I didn’t really want to rap because I’m watching Dre make all this money and he’s talking about, ‘You gotta get into the business. You gotta get into the business.’ I’m just losing my passion for music like, ‘I don’t want to rap.’”
Stat Quo Says Top Dawg Reunited Him With Dr. Dre
Stat Quo also says that he later fell out of touch with Dr. Dre and that TDE CEO, Top Dawg was instrumental in reuniting them.
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“It wasn’t until recently that I was talking to Top Dawg one day and he’s like, ‘Yo, you talked to Dre,’” Stat continues. “I’m like, ‘Nah.’ He’s like, ‘Man, you need to call that man, dude. What you doing?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.’ He said, ‘You need to call that man. He looked at you like a little brother. Y’all was close.’ And we was. I called [Dre] and I was like, ‘Yo, I just want to tell you I love you. I don’t know if you know it or not.’ He was like, ‘What? Man, come to the studio, man!’ I went to the studio and he’s playing the Jon Connor shit and we just caught up.”
Stat Quo was signed to Shady/Aftermath/Interscope from 2003 to 2008. He is the only artist other than 50 Cent who was signed to both Eminem’s Shady Records and Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment.
Stat Quo’s latest EP, ATLA (All This Life Allows) is currently available on iTunes. The project is also available for stream exclusively through DJBooth.
Related:Stat Quo: How Long Was 50 Cent Going To Stay Under Eminem & Dr. Dre
