It’s been a long and bumpy ride for Joell Ortiz, seasoned New York MC’s MC and one quarter of the Slaughterhouse clique. His freestyles can be streamed all over the ethernet with bars crunching the worst pains of poverty with the prowess of punch line pandemonium. From being signed to Aftermath to being part of one of Hip-Hop’s most lyrical independent groups of our era, Ortiz has travelled to the extremes of the music industry and back. Currently on tour through Canada with his brothers in arms, I got the chance to polly with Joell about his bat signal (“yaaawwaa”), his career and his dreams.

Last book you were reading: Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsch
Last song you performed: “The One” with Slaughterhouse
Last song you heard: Trey Songz “Neighbors know my name”
Favorite album of the moment: I would have to say, uhhhh boy, that’s a good one…Trey Songz joint.

Narcy: Royce sounds vicious on Dj Premier beats. Project boy, your latest video and song with Preemo is heat! Can we expect more collabos? Slaughterhouse x Preem?

Joell: Ummmm, Slaughterhouse I can’t speak on because we haven’t locked in for work on the second album yet. As for Joell, yes. Preemo was happy with how it came out. It was a good match- his gutter element, my hood talk. The record and video made waves so, if somethings broke you don’t fix it. Definetely.

N: You’ve been through ups and downs with majors and the indy route. all spectrums in a short period of time. Which one do you prefer and why?

J: Well, I don’t think I have a preference between major or indy. One thing you have to consider is who is going to believe in you and what you do and really invest time, effort and money into you. If you’re on a major and they lose interest, you’re done. If you’re on an indy, they will drop your album and do nothing else. Wherever you end up, it’s all on you. I wouldn’t have it no other way, I saw both worlds. It taught me a lesson; you gotta do everything, excite people in higher places than you and have people believe in you and your project. Thats it.

N: It’s almost as if the lines between underground and commercial have converged. The music scene, since the digital age took over, has become really communal.  By that I mean, a commercially successful artist can collaborate with an upcoming one and the song gravitates somewhere in the middle. What would you say originated this and do you see it as beneficial?

J: It’s very beneficial. Underground artists used to think “shit man, if I collabo with them, then I’m gonna alienate my peoples and they’ll say I sold out!” But that doesn’t happen anymore. If two artists get it and respect each other’s craft mutually, then they can work together. The internet did that, it makes everyone feel like a neighbor.  You know, I can be across seas and feel like I’m in New York because of the blogs. Of course its beneficial, now underground artists work with major artists, they get to rock bigger crowds without them compromising their art. You can do what majors do on the independent grind now because of the net. On every level, you can sell things, hit up blogs to get noticed, you can promote heavily through twitter and sites like that- it’s a whole new age. I dunno, maybe the best thing for an artist is not a record deal anymore…it’s going underground right off the rip…

N: Speaking on collaborations, what producer would you like to work that you haven’t reached yet?

J: I don’t think anyone is unreachable, it’s about them being interested in working with you.. One of the dudes I want to catch up to is Just Blaze.

N: Yes! That makes sense…

J: Most Definitely Makes sense…

N: Where did the Joell Ortiz sound originate from? By sound I don’t mean your music but the ‘yaaawaaa’

J: ‘yawa’ originated in my projects. It happened on a drunk night in a staircase lobby where one of my boys was twisted and instead of saying “yaw yaw” he said ‘yawaaa” haha. It went from my project call to my block to my neighborhood to brooklyn call to people in new York saying it..

Catch Joell Ortiz, alongside his Slaughterhouse partners and Pharoahe Monch this Saturday April 10 at Theatre Corona, details and tickets are available here.

Also check out Joell’s newest video, and his other links below…

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Interview by Narcel X