With yesterday marking the release of Yelawolf’s second album as a Shady Records artists, the Alabama-born rapper chopped it up with HotNewHipHop about his prohibitive recording process for Love Story, what exactly Slumerican means, and his plans for an unconventional short tour this September.
Speaking about his switch in aesthetic as seen on Love Story, Yelawolf said he’s been hinting at the shift for years.
“I’ve alluded to this style for a long time,” he said, “whether it had been making a reference to it in a verse or at the B.E.T. Awards with Big Boi wearing a Hank Williams shirt. I’ve kind of planted seeds about where I was going or headed. Right before Trunk Muzik I had a full band. I was doing this project called Arena Rap. But it wasn’t clicking. It was a little ahead of its time. So we just went and we did Trunk Muzik and it got me all the way to Shady Records. This album was important to say, ‘Alright, we’re gonna close the door. This is artist only. No one is even allowed to have an opinion other than myself.’ When I decide I like it or not then I allow someone else to have an opinion about it that I was working with. It took five months to get that first song. Forty ideas before I had a song that I felt like was of the calibre. After that the album started flowing better. I’m really proud of it.”
Shooting down the prospect of him starting a Slumerican label, Yelawolf instead described the term as a loose identifier for fans of all walks of life.
“Slumerican is not a label,” he said. “It was never intended to be a label. It’s really just an idea. There’s tattoo artists and professional beer drinkers, it is what you make of it. It is what you make of it. It doesn’t really apply to a certain profession, music. Slumerican is just Slumerican. If I ever did do a ‘label’ I definitely wouldn’t call it a label. That’s just not our style, it’s not my style. It’d be more like a house for artists to come do what they do. That would be pretty much how I would see it happening. Slumerican, you know, there’s more Slumerican tattoos out there than we have sold shirts. So it’s a real connection with people. They get it.”
As for his plans of promoting the album, Yelawolf announced a short tour that will forego a tour bus for a group of Harley Davidson motorcycles.
“I got this really cool tour coming up in September where we’re gonna be doing the whole tour strictly on Harley’s,” he said. “So no bus. Nothing. We’ll be starting in Nashville and then we’ll go to Chattanooga, stay the night. Next day bike out to Birmingham. And then Montgomery. And then Atlanta. And then ending in Nashville for the first of Slumerican Festival.”
For additional Yelawolf coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
I like that short tour concept! That’s a good look for Yela!
Shame this album won’t do any numbers since there has been little to no promo for Yela. Oh well.
keith urban>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Yelawolf
Yelawolf killed it on this album it truly is a classic by far the best album of the year I like it even better than Kendrick’s album don’t sleep on this album hiphop heads go support it’s worth it!!!#SLUMERICAN#SHADY
Very dope album
too bad no1 cares about this irrelevent hasbin except the 13 year old emo white kids who are also fans of feminem and immortal technique. People wanna blast iggy for having a fake accent when this wigga does the same thing
She’s from Australia…he’s from Alabama. Niggas like you should never reproduce.
Def dont know what you are talking about with a name like that. maybe your mind isnt big enough
Man this album is dope. Good luck selling this but people are too ignorant and stupid to fully enjoy such a masterpiece
I’m 36 years old this year, I have been around Hip Hop since the 80’s. I have heard classic albums and my favorite is 95’s OB4CL by Raekwon amongst others.
The word classic gets tossed around a lot these days from every new release but what Yelawolf did with Love Story, it’s just that. It’s a classic album mark my words. Every single song is quality, quality, quality. I haven’t heard an album that is unskipable like this in a long time.
Love Story has a sound not found anywhere else but at the same time, it’s soothing, it’s hard hitting, it’s hip hop at its purest that only some can achieve. I hate country music but I love this album. I love the ideas it brings from the country side of things.
The production is top notch along with the lyrics. Good luck promoting this, but the true fans will love it and I appreciate what you are doing here man. You made a Toronto Canada man fall in love with the south that only Outcast has done before they went all weird on us, lol.
Exactly feel the same, the album is great and like you said i cant skip through any of the songs. i love the feeling this album gives off and for me it is a instant classic
I fuck with yela,But I cant stand this album.2 tracks I dug on the whole thing.Worse than radioactive….Yela sounding like hopsin on every track with that singin shit.I just couldnt get into it
definitely a classic.So far its the album of the year……its very addictive and thats what an album is suppose to be like.#RESPECT