An awe-inspiring story, Royce gives us a detailed background on how he came to meet Dr. Dre for the first time. Hit the jump!!
Frankie Zing: Instagram ll Soundcloud
As the story goes, Royce was 19 living in his parents house in Detroit, Michigan, when his friend Marshall Mathers was out in LA working with Dr. Dre. Eminem gave Dre Royce’s demo before Royce shot to rap stardom:
“My father comes walking in the room and says, ‘Somebody by the name of Dr. Dre is on the phone for you. I had sent my demo to [Eminem]. He was in California. He played it for Dre but he didn’t tell me that Dre was gonna call me. I guess that was gonna be a surprise. I’m like, ‘Dr. Dre?’ People used to play on people’s phone back then, so I knew that it ain’t the Dr. Dre that I’m thinking. I get on the phone like, ‘Hello?’ He was like, ‘Yo, what’s up? This Dre.’ Automatically it sounded exactly like the N.W.A record. I knew exactly who I was talking to. I was like, ‘What’s up, man?’ I wasn’t mature enough to be like, ‘To what pleasure do I owe this phone call?’ I just froze. He just kind of navigated and said, ‘Yo, man. I really like your music, man. I wanted to know if you’d be interested in kind of coming out here and help out working with the album.’ I was like, ‘Would I?’ Then he put me on a plane and that was my first time coming out here to Los Angeles.”
After landing in LA for the first time, Royce took a car straight to Dre house with the two linked up to collab:
“I remember walking through his garage. It was this huge house. First time I’d ever seen a mansion. I go in there. There’s an entrance that goes straight into the studio. I’m sitting down and biting my nails waiting on him to come in because Marshall wasn’t there. He comes walking in and he’s like ‘What’s up?’ Dog, when I tell you… I’ve met a lot of people during my journeys in the Hip Hop business. He went out of his way the most to make me feel comfortable knowing that he’s a celebrity and I’m just a kid. We clicked immediately. I got into my comfort zone so fast because there was no pressure, no opinions. He was like, ‘Just write. Have fun.’ He was picking beats, picking drums, real hands-on. That dude is a producer. I just started writing as much as I could, just coming with ideas.”
Crazy how things work out right? Peep the interview below:
