4 Things I Want From Royce Da 5'9's Layers

For such a long time Detroit emcee Royce Da 5'9 was living in the shadow of Eminem, but in just the last 2 years or so (still with no new Slaughterhouse album in sight, we're getting impatient guys) Royce has stepped into the limelight by himself with some incredible guest features, and not to mention the critically acclaimed joint album with DJ Premier, PRhyme. With Royce's new Layers album on the horizon (which is set for an April 15th release date), Royce's first solo album in 5 years, it's going to be interesting to see how Royce has evolved from Success Is Certain to now, because the title Layers can only mean one thing; we haven't quite gotten to know the real Ryan Daniel Montgomery yet. Here's 4 things I want from Royce's newest Layers album.

Competitive Rapping
https://soundcloud.com/royceda59/01-dead-president-heads-prod-by-streetrunner-add-keys-by-tarik-azzouz

"Niggas dissed Marshall after they copy his whole reference, like we won't send an actual firing squad to they studio, that'll Basquiat they whole session"

Now seeing as it's Royce, obviously he's going to bring the bars, and if you know Royce you know DAMN WELL he's going to keep the riff raff in check (not the rapper, obviously, although I'm sure he'd have no problem saying something if it came down to it). Royce is already creating a buzz around his newly released song "Dead President Heads", with rumors that he's dissed J. Cole for mentioning Eminem's name in Cole's song "Fire Squad", but if you've ever heard Royce speak of the newer young guns that he respects in the game today, Cole would be one of the first names to come out of his mouth, probably right next to Kendrick. Royce wasn't dissing Cole, it seems all Royce was doing was keeping the competitive riff raff alive in hip hop that he and his Bad Meets Evil brethren Eminem love to do so much.

Great Story Telling


By the looks of the track listing for Layers, we might be getting a story telling type of album from Royce. It's probably too early to tell, but when the album starts off with the very descriptive and narrative-like first single "Tabernacle", we might actually get to really know Royce a bit more than we've gotten to know him in his last albums. And seeing as "Tabernacle" is just a taste of his story telling abilities (see also "On The Boulevard" and "Security" off of Royce's last solo album Success Is Certain), Layers could be quite an informative listen for fans.

Better Production


Now the real hip hop heads would tear me to shreds once they read what I'm about to say, but I'm really hoping for some better production on Layers. Obviously Royce is always one to do his thing no matter what the beats sound like, and working with DJ Premier is a win for a lot of fans, but I wasn't entirely impressed with the beats on PRhyme. With the newest Royce leaks ("Tabernacle" and "Dead President Heads") I'm already sensing that this album's production will top Royce's last 2 (PRhyme and Success Is Certain), so Royce is stepping in the right direction. Go ahead and call me crazy for not being impressed with PRhyme's beats, but we all know that Royce and Premo are hip hop to the core. Sometimes the DJ scratches and the old vocal samples (not to disparage sampling altogether) can be too much for albums, I say bring in the 808s and do your thing over those Royce! (It's a horrible guilty pleasure, but I do love it, and I'm sure nobody else could argue; 808s get people moving.)

LET'S GET SOME GOD DAMN SLAUGHTERHOUSE MUSIC!

           (*I do not own these songs, videos, or the rights to them*)

Okay so this last point might be a bit of a lashing out by yours truly, but I WANT SOME FUCKIN SLAUGHTERHOUSE MUSIC! HAVEN'T YOU MADE PEOPLE WAIT LONG ENOUGH?  WHAT'S THE POINT?!  The last little bit of news dropped about the mythical Glass House album was around January, and Crooked I was quoted as saying that Slaughterhouse will drop the album "when the game needs it." WHAT KINDA PROPHETIC BULLSHIT IS THAT?!  Even a collaboration every now and then is good to hold people over, but this is starting to get really Shady guys (pun intended). New Royce, Joe, Joell and Crooked solo albums are great, but they just don't compare to the chemistry that all 4 have on a track. This "Voltron" crew looks like it's starting to fall apart, but I really hope I'm wrong. No word on whether the album is coming this year, all that they say is that "it's coming." Don't let this become another Detox situation fellas. Anyways, Layers looks to be another solid project from Royce, and we'll get to see how he's going to shift the game again on April 15th.