Royce Da 5’9″ Talks Past Eminem Beef, Dr. Dre Support

Detroit rapper Royce Da 5'9" is experiencing a career renaissance. The highly regarded lyricist is part of the Slaughterhouse supergroup -- with Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz and Crooked I -- and under the moniker Bad Meets Evil will be dropping an EP with Eminem titled 'Hell: The Sequel' on June 14. The Shady Records affiliate -- he has an independent solo album, 'Success Is Certain,' due out July 26 -- spoke with HipHopDX about some of the drama that has shadowed and at times stalled his career.

Although Eminem and Royce are back on good terms, they famously fell out years ago. After going into some details of his ongoing feud with Canibus, Royce explained that the Bad Meets Evil project came about after he and Slim Shady got back into the studio together again.

"Normally, if you gonna do an LP where Em is involved, you start with a plan and then you go in and you do records," Royce explained. "This didn't come together like that; it just happened naturally. We just started cuttin' songs, just to be working with each other again, with no intent in mind. We didn't even know we were gonna do that many songs, so at around five or six songs, we lookin' like, 'Yo, man, we got these records, I think we should do something with 'em.' That's when we decided, 'You know what? We can just do this as Bad Meets Evil and just make it an EP.'"

At one point, Royce Nickel Nine was working closely with Dr. Dre, but found the bulk of his contributions to 'The Chronic 2001' removed after his manager Kino made remarks to Vibe Magazine that the producer didn't take kindly to. Nevertheless, Royce has contributed to Dr. Dre's forthcoming 'Detox' album and insists he and the Doctor never had a problem.

"Me and Em, we had a falling out," said Royce. "Me and Dre never fell out. We never had a problem with each other -- no words, nothing. I think people confused the comment that [my manager] Kino got accused of making and Dre's reaction to Kino; I think they confused that with me and Dre having a problem. If a grown man said something, or he's accused of saying something, that a grown man doesn't like, he has a right to react how he wants to react. If he decides, Alright, I'm not f--kin' with him though, then that's that. It is what it is. But me and Dre, it's always been love. I've seen him since that, even when me and Em wasn't really talking like that, and he showed me love."