Complex: Artistically, it seemed like it would have been a real good look for you to be in the video. I met him through KP. There were some boats that went down during our season. YelaWolf: Well, most people do, but I didn't get paid shit. Complex: You signed to Sony, and literally four months later Rick Rubin came on. YelaWolf: Nah, when I was younger, I snorted it though. That's why we did the A Flock of Seagulls record for Slim Thug. YelaWolf: I don't even know. My mom was wild. Always was really slick. The team I went to Columbia with, I left with. That's why the boat made sense for me. My mom is 'bout it. Screw that! Complex: Was there something that happened at 18 that made you feel like you had to stop doing drugs? There was just a lot of classic rock that I was absorbing at an early age. Done. Complex: After "I Run," were a lot of people reaching out to you to do hooks? I can't really consider any of that shit anything real up until '07, when I pursued it as a professional career. It was not until 2010's Trunk Muzik EP that Yelawolf started to gain mainstream attention. I was always surrounded by it. He was bloody. I knew right away that I wasn't gonna cut it, skill-wise, on a professional level, even though I'm completely comfortable on a skateboard, and I got tricks. She's calmed down a lot obviously now, but it was wild times. I had been doing shows for him for a while. The album debuted at number 27 on the Billboard 200. I remember writing a rap to the Crooklyn Dodgers beat. That was off of this shit called "pyramid," which was like these gel caps... liquid mescaline, just some crazy "white boy" shit. [Laughs.] I don't even keep up with basketball. That was actually one of the first times I sat down and tried to write to a beat. They were really fucking good. You just make music that feels good. It's pretty similar to the racing thoughts that keep me up at night as a father. I kept getting hurt really bad. 's first label) at the end of 2007, but Yela ended up leaving the label shortly after when Rick Rubin took over. That was my first look with a major artist, so that really kicked the door wide open for me at that point. Thankfully, intense and belligerent rhymes, smooth melodies, and a musical sensibility molded by growing up on everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to N.W.A. That song sounds like a random fear I would come up with at 3:00am, when I can’t sleep because my mind just races to everything that could possibly go wrong in life. Black Moon, Souls of Mischief, and Digable Planets. YelaWolf: You fucking name it. 21 comments. I was with a homie of mine named Will Loach, and we had been skating a long time. Fuck that. One thing I never liked doing was being in front of people, because I wanted to definitely do this music shit. How old were you when you started rapping? Complex: Sounds intense. YelaWolf: I had a long relationship with Pill. Complex: I heard it's dangerous, but you get paid well, right? I've had that attitude up until I signed with Interscope, which was a couple days ago. I know that I am personally really superstitious, and doing something like that would almost guarantee my own child bad luck. And Yela DOES NOT have a daughter name Sabrina. YelaWolf: Yeah, I tried that shit a few times, but I just smoked it all up. YelaWolf: Yeah, we kicked it. I literally bought a Dickies suit when The Chronic dropped. Complex: So you were in bars if your mom couldn't find a babysitter. Complex: You had Pill and CyHi Da Prynce on the remix for "I Wish." I think we met in '07. I saw my moms beat up people. Then we followed up with the Raekwon record ("I Wish"), and then after Raekwon, the Bun B record ("Good To Go"), so it was just a really good time for me. We were just talking about music, and where we thought it should be going, and family and friends and really just chilled. I was just trippin' that I was sitting there on the floor, drinking beer and eating pizza. Did you ever meet with Rick Rubin? Including KP. save hide report. Complex: Were you at some point signed to Jim Jonsin? I was like, "I'm telling you man, last time I had a fucked-up experience." I cashed out at 18. Complex: What did you do once you got back? Born and raised in Gadsden, Alabama, Atha embarked on his career in 2005—releasing independent solo material from then until 2010—he released one extended play (EP) and four mixtapes. Guessing the track is explaining a fear he's always had as a father. I called my mom like, "Buy me a plane ticket home for Christmas." I was with my babies. Thank God nobody lost their life. And then I took these fucking things. And I was only six years old. © 2020 Complex Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. You ain't about to be able to see me. YelaWolf: Well, most people do, but I didn't get paid shit. I'm an average skateboarder, compared to a Paul Rodriguez. Anyway, I got off bad off them, and then I went to Alabama, and my boys were like, "Do some mushrooms!" She was really into classic rock, and she dated men that were in the music world. I came out to L.A. and met with him, and we went to his crib, and had a discussion about the angle, how serious everybody was, the way everybody wanted to go about doing this, and it just all made sense. Just rock and roll man. I had got nominated for an award for the Stereo mixtape around '08. They said, "They ain't the same! But it just wasn't the case. I saw my mom beat up her boyfriend! I'm not a father myself but that shit sent shivers down my spine. I was really attracted to the East Coast sound, even though I was from the South. I never got caught. There was something about the Premier-style beats or the Hieroglyphics-style beats, Digable Planets... and then I had this obsession, too, with DJ Magic Mike. They ain't the same!" I ain't about to wait no fucking tables. Complex: With surroundings like that, did you grow up seeing a lot of ill stuff? Throughout his childhood, he moved often, but he spent most of his time in Antioch, Tennessee. I was G'd up! All of 'em. But I can't speak for the man, who knows. YelaWolf: Well, I was always super smart with my troublemaking. YelaWolf: Yeah, I ended up signing with Ghet-O-Vision, and with Columbia. They will come. We're cut from the same cloth. Nothing's more important than that. YelaWolf: Yeah, I've done that a few times actually. I make it clear to people when they come at me like I got dropped, let me make it clear, this was a collective decision. Nothing was coming, but I moved out to Atlanta to meet people and start doing shows, and I had recorded some music in Alabama. You're free to go to them, New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, Press J to jump to the feed. But I didn't really stand up and say, "I really wanna try and pursue this shit" 'til later in life. He just became a good friend of mine. Dude, he doesn't have a daughter named Sabrina. He invited me out there, but it was Christmas, and I hadn't seen my family for like four months. Cookies help us deliver our Services. On Christmas. I was in Huntsville in this trailer park, and not doing much. The Alabama native first started getting attention after signing to Columbia through Ghet-O-Vision (T.I. YelaWolf: Nah, it was Christmas. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive. I mean I still got flip tricks and grind tricks. YelaWolf: I started writing in 5th grade, and then just with my homies, skating, in the car, and at a skate spot. My mom used to be real short-fused. The talent was hard to ignore especially after Yela dropped his stellar mixtapes, Stereo, which was chock full of classic rock samples, and Trunk Muzik, which featured Bun B, Raekwon, and Juelz Santana, and the "I Wish (remix)," which featured hot newcomers like Pill and CyHi Da Prynce.