Royce da 5’9″ & his father talks about the first call from Dr Dre.
For those unfamiliar with Detroit icon Royce Da 5’9’s background, it may come as a surprise to find that he began his career as a Dr. Dre apprentice. Following a co-sign from his Bad Meets Evil partner Eminem, Dre took it upon himself to reach out to Royce and invite him to participate in his sophomore album, 2001. Royce da 5’9″ recently sat down with Marisa Mendez for an interview on HipHopDx where he talked about connecting young artists with Eminem. On the show, he was also surprised by his father as well as fellow Slaughterhouse member Joell Ortiz. Royce’s dad talks about the first time Dr. Dre called at their house and he mistook him for an actual Doctor.
This phone call did actually open new doors for Royce and catapulted his career to new heights. According to a HipHopDX interview with the parent and son, the call circumstances were fairly mundane. Greg, Royce’s father, began the story by saying:
“I remember when I told Royce, ‘You’ve got a phone call,’ I asked him what was wrong with him,” says Royce’s father. “He’s like, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘You’ve got a phone call from your doctor.’ He said, ‘The doctor?’ I said, ‘Yeah, somebody named Dr. Dre.’ By the time he got out of the shower, I heard all the slipping and sliding and falling into the toilet and on the floor trying to get to the phone. I didn’t know who Dr. Dre was and once I’d found out who Dr. Dre was I was like, okay well my son is onto something. Somebody recognizes him for what he is because, at that point, I wasn’t quite sure.”
“I caught Dr. Dre’s voice immediately,” says Royce. “He was like ‘I like your s**t man, Marshall played me your s**t, man. I wanted to see if you wanted to come out here and rock with us. We working on some stuff.’ I was just writing stuff. As much as I could. I was just excited to be in the environment. I thought he was a genius, that everything he did was classic. I walked in a Stan.”
Watch it below.
[VIA]
