SS: I last spoke to you in 2009 before ‘Special Reserve’ dropped and I asked why you departed from Shady Records. You said we’ll talk about that when ‘Bottoms Up’ Comes out. Well ‘Bottoms Up’ is here, so let’s discuss you leaving Shady Records.
Obie Trice: At Interscope my management had issues with Jimmy Iovine. We couldn’t come to terms on some business things that we wanted to further with Interscope. It just didn’t work out for us so I had to continue on. It wasn’t a Shady Records thing. Marshall [Eminem] tried to save the situation as well as Paul [Rosenberg]. I truly wanted to be over there. I thought I was going to be over there for the rest of my career. It just didn’t work out. It’s just business. I was a little hurt from that situation because I wanted to be over there but life goes on. I’ve got my own imprint now so that’s what’s up.
SS: You have a joint on the album with Eminem called ‘Richard’. Talk about how that song came together.
Obie Trice: I was in New York and my man Dro from Shady took me to Brooklyn to hear some music from a guy named Statik Selektah. He played me the ‘Richard’ beat and I was feeling it. I laid a verse to it but I had an early plane to catch so I took it home and doctored it up. I called Em and told him I wanted him to jump on the track. He wanted me to come in so we just got in there and vibed. It worked out to ‘Richard’ and I’m a dick!
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