Shady Records alum Yelawolf talked to Steve-O about his skateboarding origins and the lessons he learned throughout his career. Of course, this conversation wouldn’t have been possible without Yelawolf reflecting on his relationship with Eminem and the label that released four of his albums between 2011 and 2019.
When Steve-O’s co-host implied that Yelawolf might have felt jealous and thought that Eminem was occupying a single available position for a white rapper in hip hop, Yela rejected that notion:
No. It felt like I had work to do. I looked at Marshall as an ally. Actually, when I heard him, I was like, damn, we’ve got one, finally. Because there weren’t any white MCs besides, well, I gotta give El-P his flowers from Def Jux, who ended up doing Run the Jewels with Killer Mike. El-P was a white MC that I really looked up to at the time, but there wasn’t a white MC that had broken through the mainstream. [Beastie Boys] delivered more musicality; they all played instruments. It was a different sensibility. Rick Rubin turned them into a hip hop group. 3rd Bass was tight. But as far as MCs go… You’re talking about Rawkus Records. Rap Olympics Marshall Mathers was killing MCs. There’s a different level.
He’s an incredible songwriter. There’s a difference between being able to write a great rhyme and putting together a great song, let alone a great album attached to a great story, which was very real.
That’s what Yelawolf himself was striving to do on his own albums. However, the pressures and excesses of life on tour took their toll. In 2016, Yelawolf cancelled the remaining dates of his Trial By Fire Tour, which featured Jelly Roll, Bubba Sparxxx, and Struggle Jennings, and disappeared from the public eye for some time. Yelawolf says he needed to get back to his roots and skate again:
Jelly Roll is one of my oldest friends at this point. He’s one of the first people with a Slumerican tattoo down his arm. I used to carry him out, and he would open up for me – a close friend. But we were at odds for a while, for almost a year, because I dropped a tour in LA one time, and he was on that tour opening for me. I just quit. I went and moved in with Danny Way. I cancelled the tour, and Jelly and Struggle were opening for me. I was like, “Dude, I just want to go skate”. And that made zero sense to anyone. Even Eminem and everybody were like, “You want to what?” I was like, “No, man. I just need to skate. I’m done”. I checked out completely. I was smoking weed and dabs, which made me like bipolar, schizophrenic. I’ve got underlying issues. That weed is no good for me.
Evidently, it took more than skating for Yelawolf to get through this rough patch. He dropped his stage name and spent time in psychiatric care until eventually he went back to Shady. This situation did not push him out of the label. He finished his run with Shady with Trunk Muzik III and released Ghetto Cowboy through Slumerican later in 2019. This album marked a new era in his journey as an independent artist. And the journey is going well, Yelawolf shares.
I didn’t start seeing money till I went independent. I was six years with Shady Records. I was still in an apartment in East Nashville. I had nice things, and I could take care of my family. I wasn’t broke. But I didn’t start seeing real money in my career until I became independent. You know, owning a clothing and apparel brand and a distribution company.
In this comfortable place in his career, Yelawolf has the freedom to make the music he wants and earn more from his own businesses. He feels no need to look back at his Shady Records years in anger, and he never does, showing nothing but respect for Eminem in any interview he does.