Yelawolf Interview With Word of South

WordofSouth.com: You have a love for old school rock and roll. How does that influence the type of hip-hop you make?

Yelawolf: I’m influenced by all music. As far as classic rock goes, my mom got pregnant for me when she was 15. She was a country girl from Alabama who was really into classic rock. I was raised on that sound. She was dating a boyfriend for years who was on tour with Aerosmith on the “Walk this Way” tour. He brought some of the road crew out to Alabama to stay with them. They brought me t-shirts and some Beastie Boys and Run DMC music. That’s actually how I got my first listen of hip-hop. To fast forward a few years, I was in Nashville just head first into hip-hop. My roots are definitely classic rock. It really is the melody that I get from classic rock. I love the concepts and story telling.

WordofSouth.com: Moving forward to what’s going on now, how did you hook up with Juelz Santana for “Mixing up the Medicine?”

Yelawolf: I have a band and my violin player Ashanti had been working with this producer named Kane [Beatz]. Ashanti introduced me to Kane [Beatz] and he’s the producer who came up with that record. He needed a voice for that Bob Dylan cover and I fit the bill. I had just recently put out my “Studio” mixtape which was a tribute to classic rock with DJ Ideal. You should check that out if you haven’t. People heard that I can pull off that sound so Kane as a producer, he just picked me out to come do it. I lucked out but there was really nobody else that could do it anyway.

WordofSouth.com: Speaking of knowing you could do it, it wasn’t the first time you were tapped to cover a predominant sample. How did the “I Run” record with Slim Thug & Jim Jonsin come about?

Yelawolf: I and Jim Jonsin became friends a few years ago when I was signed to Columbia briefly. During that time when I was there, we recorded an album and K.P. [Kawan Prather] introduced me to Jim Jonsin and he flew me to Jim Jonsin in New York to work on the album we were gonna’ put out with Columbia. We just became tight and kept in touch over the years. Fast forward a few years after working with Jim Jonsin and going out to Miami and just kicking it, being around, “Stereo” got nominated for mixtape of the year at the Ozone awards. We got 5/5 in the magazine. I was nominated for that award and I went out there for the Ozone awards with Jim Jonsin. It started getting crazy inside, people were whiling out so we went to the studio – me and Jim Jonsin. I didn’t even know what we were doing; we were just going to the studio. On the way to the studio, he was telling me had a record and was trying to work the sample in. I just put my twist on it. We went to the studio and laid it. Slim Thug came through and he loved it. That’s just how it happened.

Read the full YelaWolf interview here:
WordofSouth - Yelawolf