Slim: 112 Percent
While Hip Hop is a genre that notoriously disrespects its veterans, R&B is a little more considerate. But it’s not like Slim needs the help: the lead singer for veteran quartet 112 has always been about staying ahead of the curve. The group teamed up with the late Notorious B.I.G. and Mase
to put together the “Only You” remix, which was a club-ready single
that managed to keep people moving without coming across as contrived.
More than a decade later, “So Fly”—the first single for his new album, Love’s Crazy—utilized Yung Joc and did the same thing, catapulting near the top of the Billboard charts. Slim’s rolling solo now (yes, the group is still intact), and he’s pushing his own M3 label under Asylum Records instead of rocking with Bad Boy Entertainment or Def Jam, but otherwise, ain’t nothin' changed: he’s still making timeless R&B music that everyone can relate to. In a candid interview with HipHopDX, Slim talks about balancing integrity with keeping up with current sounds, and how he lives his music.
HipHopDX: This is your first solo venture. I’ve seen songs from other members of the group, but this is the first actual album. What’s that like for you?
Slim: Being out on stage without my brothers with me...really, I never intentionally wanted to do a solo project. But I look at it just like the rest of my investments; it’s easier for me to put out a solo project and get the balls turning a little faster, because I already have the sound, the brand, and I’m in the system with Asylum. All I have to [do is] make sure is the song is incredible, and make sure that everyone’s feeling it, so I can build equity in my label that much faster. So I can already have a foundation set for my label and for my artists.
DX: What is it like in the booth, though? You’re going from working with three other cats to being by yourself…
Slim: Some songs, we write together; other songs, we do them by ourselves. There are songs I did all by myself, but they’re still 112, because I’m in the 112 movement. In the booth, I’m very comfortable, because I dominate tracks anyway. I think it’s more of the actual performance, because the group 112, with the steps and stuff like that, it’s a different type of system and a different formula in presenting a project. With my situation, how I would probably treat that situation as if it were 112, were if I was about to go on tour or something like that. If I had three dancers in the back, it’s probably going to feel the same way.
DX: Your last two 112 albums haven’t really popped off as much as the previous ones have. Plus, it’s the first solo. What kind of pressure do you feel as the first solo artist from the group, and having to continue—or revive—the 112 legacy?
Slim: First of all, I’m very proud of our accomplishments. We’re one of the only groups in this situation where every album came out, we have a plaque for. … We’re proud of it, especially when you have people that’s coming out today who sell 20-25,000 in the first week. I’m very proud of that, and being a proud of that. I feel that we’ve been consistent, no matter what.
But as far as this album is concerned? Naw. If I sold 5,000, I did it my way. The good thing about having this whole thing right now is that I’m trying to show people. Hip Hop artists do independent stuff all the time. There are artists that y’all don’t know that stay inside of their state, and are millionaires. They don’t care nothing about their billboards, or their flashes, or what y’all might think. I’ve been to their cribs, and I see how they live: mansions, Phantoms, all kinds of wild stuff. My grind is a little different. I’ve been under major [label] systems for a while…and I thought, why can’t an R&B artist do the same thing [as independent artists]? So I said, “Let’s flip the script. Let’s do it, let’s try it.”
I’m trying to show people, motivate them. Own yourself, be the boss of yourself, CEO of yourself. Don’t put your life and your future in someone else’s hand. I’d rather take failure very easy if I did it myself, and if I try hard myself. And if I didn’t get to where I wanted to, I’ve got one hell of a story to tell. These are my boys right here, and I created ways and avenues for them to eat and do it positively. This bus right here costs over $1 million, and it’s my bus. I’ve never done that in 112, but my whole grind approach is different, transitioning from an artist to a CEO and seeing how you can elevate your life and elevate your situation.
DX: What did it take for you to that point?
Slim: Bored. The thing with 112 is that every time we get together, we put out the album, it sells great numbers, but everything becomes stagnant. If everything’s stagnant, it starts getting boring. I want to do something that I haven’t done. We’ve been in the game for 12 years, and when you look at the artists that have propelled their careers to a whole ‘nother level—Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent [click to read], P Diddy, Jay-Z [click to read]—they start out one way, but they didn’t stay there. They put themselves in a situation where they could reach back and help other people, and that’s what I want to do. And I wanted to do it a different way; take a chance! That’s why most of the people who left legacies have done stuff, when they first started doing it, people looked at them crazy. Can you imagine the creator of Coca-Cola? … But it worked, so now it’s not so funny anymore.
I truly believe in myself. If I stop right now, I’ll say I have a label, I did it independent, and “So Fly” is Top 20 in the United States. It was a lot of people doubting me from the rip, but the talking’s a little quiet now. But I’m making it into a fact.
DX: As 112, you guys have made timeless music. What do you think it is about your music that’s made it so timeless, and how do you look at being timeless now against the likes of Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, and others?
Slim: The artists you named, who are really good friends of ours, think the same way. That’s why Ne-Yo [click to read] is having the success he’s having right now: he’s an incredible writer and an incredible artist. As far as me being solo, it’s the same mindset. As 112, our legacy has always been to create timeless and classic music.
When we first came out, we were 15, 16 years old. That’s cool, but our competition was Boyz II Men, Jodeci and Mint Condition. So bump that age, we gotta do what we gotta do. We’re best known for our up-tempos, but we’re best loved for our ballads. But truth be told, if we would’ve come out with a ballad with Jodeci, Mint Condition and Boyz II Men, we had to put our egos aside. I don’t think we would’ve made that type of an impact. So what we did was capture our own lane and go straight to the clubs. And we chose to say, “We’re going to talk about things that everybody could relate to, and write songs that way.” So when you heard [emulates percussion at the beginning of “Cupid”], you know who you were with, what you were doing, and what you weren’t supposed to be doing. Those songs, regardless of what’s going on in the atmosphere, people take that song and put it with their everyday life.
So going to this album right here, the title of it is Love’s Crazy. Love’ll make you do some crazy stuff, to where two or three years ago, you would’ve been like, “I wouldn’t do that!” Yes you will. I’m coming the same way, and that’s what it is. “So Fly” was a leak that went very, very good. I promise you if it wasn’t coming in the summertime, you probably never would’ve heard the song. The songs you’re going to be hearing, I’m still going to go in that same way, so all the fans are used to and accustomed to those types of songs that’ll stand the test of time, that’s what you’re going to get with a Slim project. I had to run the fine line between what sound current with what’s going on, but at the same time, don’t conform to something that you’re not. I love the vocoder, I liked it with Zapp & Roger. But would I run it through my own project? No. it takes the character of your voice out, so how is someone going to know who you are? … One of my greatest aspects is my voice, the fact that I don’t sound like anybody else.
DX: That was actually my next question: how difficult is it to walk that line? I saw that the single had Yung Joc and Shawty Lo, and I was thinking that some people are going to think that you’re just trying to keep up. But your first song was with Biggie and Mase.
Slim: Exactly. You have people that are our age…that’s not our fault what’s coming out in Hip Hop. You’re going to hear a whole bunch of remixes. You’ve got the [Yung] Joc’s [click to read] and the [Shawty] Lo’s, but you’ve got the Jadakiss’ [click to read], the Freeway’s [click to read], the Busta Rhymes’ [click to read]. P Diddy and Cassie [click to read] are jumping on joints. You’re going to hear all kinds of wild stuff. But as far as remixes, pick which one you like. But the meat of my album is what it is, and I’m probably going to fix that with my second single. The second single is probably going to be an incredible ballad. … Don’t get it twisted, Slim is Slim.
DX: I’m not sure if everyone knows the situation that happened with 112 and Bad Boy, but apparently, you’re on good enough terms to work with Diddy and Faith Evans on the album.
Slim: Yeah, that’s my homeboy. It was a situation where we were stuck in a production agreement that wasn’t cool with 112 financially. We were never signed directly to Bad Boy; we were signed to a production company to Bad Boy. So when we filled the obligations to the production agreement, we were off Bad Boy. The people who owned the production agreement tried to buck, and we tried to get Puff to erase the production agreement, because we didn’t want to leave Bad Boy. But think of a team: when you have a star player on the team, and he falls out of the contract, you’re a free agent. … So labels started coming after us. We couldn’t reach an agreement with Bad Boy because of the production agreement and what they felt they were deserved, so we ended up on Def Jam/Def Soul.
DX: What is it like working with Diddy and Faith, thinking back to working with them in the '90s?
Slim: It was like a great reunion, to tell you the truth. The great feeling with the Diddy situation is that it wasn’t something like, “I just hear him working in the studio.” He heard me on the radio, he’s still in my movement. He knows I’ve got a label, and a movement I’m pushing. And he knows, I learn from one of the best. I know what mistakes not to make, because we watched him, we were one-on-one with him. Bad Boy is a boutique label, so it’s real easy to see what he did and what he didn’t do. Being with him for so many years, you learn from it. So now when I do what I’ve gotta do—check this out. He’s really helping me. So I’ll call him, and I’ll say, “I’ve really got to make this pop. I have a situation like this, how do I handle this?” And he really helps. And this is how you can tell that it’s real family: no money involved. It’s just love.
DX: What’s the status of 112?
Slim: We’re still together. We’re still doing shows worldwide, and you’ll probably be hearing another 112 project next year. We’re free agents right now, because we’ve fulfilled our contract with Def Jam. It was a great contract with a lot of money, and short years. Great look, we did what we’re supposed to do, and we’re here. And it’s great, because 112 is a group where we’re called touring artists. It’s a group that’s known for great stage performances and a long catalog. And that’s where artists want to be at. We can travel forever. We were groomed with the likes of Isley Brothers, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, and New Edition. We were on tour with them when we first came out, so we watched them, and now we sort of emulated ourselves to be just like them. That’s what we’re in the middle of doing.
DX: I've heard that your music is really you, that you walk it like you talk it. What would you say are songs that you think have really captured relationships that you were in, and how you handled it?
Slim: When you listen to “Cupid,” I’m singing it all sweet. But if you could turn the sweetness off of it and look at the words? “If I ask you to trust me, that doesn’t mean I don’t care.” That situation right there really happened. I’m a nice dude, I’m a gentleman, and the person I was dealing with at the time, that person thought … you know when you do something nice, sometimes you want to do something just because! But this particular person was on some, “If you’re being nice, you must’ve done something, and you’re going to tell me what you did.” That song was a straight up letter…that really, really explained the situation I was going through. I’m glad people could relate to that.
DX: How did that woman react to it?
Slim: Well…when she heard the record, she was just laughing. When you try to talk it out, [she’s like], “You’re trying to come down on me” or whatever, even though I don’t raise my voice or anything like that. But when you hear it another way, like through a song, it’s like she got it. I guess we’re not together now, so I guess it really didn’t pop off the way it was supposed to. She should’ve listened to it some more. [laughs] But she knew what it was about. Basically, she knows how I am too. Anyone who gets with Slim knows who I am. What you see is what you get. I come all the way out, I’m 112% man. That’s how I come out.
DX: Word. Any other songs that really capture it?
Slim: I have a record on my album called “Sweet Baby.” I’m just really telling a person exactly how I feel. I’m single, and what I did was, I put myself in a situation where if you’re feeling a certain way about a girl, and you had a pencil and paper, how would you say it to this particular person? Just be straight up and real with her, off the rip. … So she’ll know, at the end of the conversation, she’ll get who you are from the first time around.
I have another song called “Don’t Say It,” which really describes how I am. I’m a very non-confrontational dude. A dude like me, I’m always about finding a solution to the problem. Let’s say that your girl got up on the wrong side of the bed. … Sometimes when you’re in a relationship, one thing leads to other things. Sometimes if you bring your problem home from work, it affects your personal life inside of the home. So when I see something like that, I would say things to just totally squash the whole situation. If I see an argument about to pop off, I’ll stop it before it starts. So I have a song like that, called “Don’t Say It.”
It’s hard, because every song, whether it’s 112 or this Love’s Crazy album, I took pieces and parts of my life. Even the records like “What If,” where you know you messed up, but we were still cool enough to talk. Not as lovers anymore, but as friends. I’m a real cool cat, so when you reflect on your relationships, it shows growth. Even though you let go, but you’re cool enough to let that girl know, “If I would’ve did this instead of doing that, or went here instead of going there, we’d probably still be together.” … Records like that, where I feel like if I’m as real as possible on a song, I feel like a lot of people can relate to the songs that I’m writing.
DX: Talk about the classic “Only You Remix.” How was that put together?
Slim: That was a straight conversation. “Oh I need to know where we stand. Do we share this special thing called love? I know I do, what about you?” It’s a straight-up conversation with a girl. “I’m feeling you, and I’m ready to take it to a whole ‘nother level with you. We could’ve been just cool or friends or whatever, but I’ve been around you, I’ve made up my decision, and that’s what it is.” That’s another song that was about what was going on in my life. When the group sat together and wrote that song, we thought, “We’re going to make this as real as possible.” I love writing those types of songs, because as those songs go on, the fans feel like they’re growing with the artist. I can help them in their relationships, but it’s therapeutic for myself too, to know that they can relate to it, that helps me as an artist and a person.
DX: What was it like making that song with Biggie and Mase?
Slim: That was incredible. People didn’t know that Biggie was actually in the room. We wrote the song four or five different ways, and the way you’re hearing it now was the best way. We wrote it right the first time, but Puff, being the perfectionist, wanted to hear other ways the song would go. Now even though the other song sounded right, the “Only You” that everyone knows and loves, it felt right. In the soul, it felt right.
The funny part is, I remember Mase. That was the first time I had met Mase. He was in the corner writing his joint. He was like, “Check me out, check me out. You can hum all you want to, come all you want to.” I remember Puff came in the room, like, “'You can hum all you want to, cum all you want to?' What is this?” And everybody put Puff out, like, “Leave him alone!” Biggie was like, “Leave him alone. He’s got this, I like it. Let him finish his rap, and we’ll be the judge of it then.” Mase did his thing on that, it was our first time being able to really see him put it down. It was magic.
Biggie smoked us out , he and his Junior M.A.F.I.A. clique. [Laughs] We had to walk in and out of the room, because we’re not smokers, especially me. Toward the end of the night, probably 12 or one o’clock in the morning, he looked up and said, “I’m ready.” And he just walked in there, no paper no nothing, and did the whole rap. Just ballish, like. That was amazing to see him sit there. He pretty much created the swag of 112. “Room 112, where the players dwell, stash more cash than Bert Fidel, inhale/make you feel good like Tony Toni Tone, get up in ya middle like Monie.” What? For the rest of our life, as 112, B.I.G. gave us our swag. … What B.I.G. did right there, he really launched us off right there. Everyone has their own line and their own swag, and he really put us into a situation of our own.
More than a decade later, “So Fly”—the first single for his new album, Love’s Crazy—utilized Yung Joc and did the same thing, catapulting near the top of the Billboard charts. Slim’s rolling solo now (yes, the group is still intact), and he’s pushing his own M3 label under Asylum Records instead of rocking with Bad Boy Entertainment or Def Jam, but otherwise, ain’t nothin' changed: he’s still making timeless R&B music that everyone can relate to. In a candid interview with HipHopDX, Slim talks about balancing integrity with keeping up with current sounds, and how he lives his music.
HipHopDX: This is your first solo venture. I’ve seen songs from other members of the group, but this is the first actual album. What’s that like for you?
Slim: Being out on stage without my brothers with me...really, I never intentionally wanted to do a solo project. But I look at it just like the rest of my investments; it’s easier for me to put out a solo project and get the balls turning a little faster, because I already have the sound, the brand, and I’m in the system with Asylum. All I have to [do is] make sure is the song is incredible, and make sure that everyone’s feeling it, so I can build equity in my label that much faster. So I can already have a foundation set for my label and for my artists.
DX: What is it like in the booth, though? You’re going from working with three other cats to being by yourself…
Slim: Some songs, we write together; other songs, we do them by ourselves. There are songs I did all by myself, but they’re still 112, because I’m in the 112 movement. In the booth, I’m very comfortable, because I dominate tracks anyway. I think it’s more of the actual performance, because the group 112, with the steps and stuff like that, it’s a different type of system and a different formula in presenting a project. With my situation, how I would probably treat that situation as if it were 112, were if I was about to go on tour or something like that. If I had three dancers in the back, it’s probably going to feel the same way.
DX: Your last two 112 albums haven’t really popped off as much as the previous ones have. Plus, it’s the first solo. What kind of pressure do you feel as the first solo artist from the group, and having to continue—or revive—the 112 legacy?
Slim: First of all, I’m very proud of our accomplishments. We’re one of the only groups in this situation where every album came out, we have a plaque for. … We’re proud of it, especially when you have people that’s coming out today who sell 20-25,000 in the first week. I’m very proud of that, and being a proud of that. I feel that we’ve been consistent, no matter what.
But as far as this album is concerned? Naw. If I sold 5,000, I did it my way. The good thing about having this whole thing right now is that I’m trying to show people. Hip Hop artists do independent stuff all the time. There are artists that y’all don’t know that stay inside of their state, and are millionaires. They don’t care nothing about their billboards, or their flashes, or what y’all might think. I’ve been to their cribs, and I see how they live: mansions, Phantoms, all kinds of wild stuff. My grind is a little different. I’ve been under major [label] systems for a while…and I thought, why can’t an R&B artist do the same thing [as independent artists]? So I said, “Let’s flip the script. Let’s do it, let’s try it.”
I’m trying to show people, motivate them. Own yourself, be the boss of yourself, CEO of yourself. Don’t put your life and your future in someone else’s hand. I’d rather take failure very easy if I did it myself, and if I try hard myself. And if I didn’t get to where I wanted to, I’ve got one hell of a story to tell. These are my boys right here, and I created ways and avenues for them to eat and do it positively. This bus right here costs over $1 million, and it’s my bus. I’ve never done that in 112, but my whole grind approach is different, transitioning from an artist to a CEO and seeing how you can elevate your life and elevate your situation.
DX: What did it take for you to that point?
Slim: Bored. The thing with 112 is that every time we get together, we put out the album, it sells great numbers, but everything becomes stagnant. If everything’s stagnant, it starts getting boring. I want to do something that I haven’t done. We’ve been in the game for 12 years, and when you look at the artists that have propelled their careers to a whole ‘nother level—Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent [click to read], P Diddy, Jay-Z [click to read]—they start out one way, but they didn’t stay there. They put themselves in a situation where they could reach back and help other people, and that’s what I want to do. And I wanted to do it a different way; take a chance! That’s why most of the people who left legacies have done stuff, when they first started doing it, people looked at them crazy. Can you imagine the creator of Coca-Cola? … But it worked, so now it’s not so funny anymore.
I truly believe in myself. If I stop right now, I’ll say I have a label, I did it independent, and “So Fly” is Top 20 in the United States. It was a lot of people doubting me from the rip, but the talking’s a little quiet now. But I’m making it into a fact.
DX: As 112, you guys have made timeless music. What do you think it is about your music that’s made it so timeless, and how do you look at being timeless now against the likes of Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, and others?
Slim: The artists you named, who are really good friends of ours, think the same way. That’s why Ne-Yo [click to read] is having the success he’s having right now: he’s an incredible writer and an incredible artist. As far as me being solo, it’s the same mindset. As 112, our legacy has always been to create timeless and classic music.
When we first came out, we were 15, 16 years old. That’s cool, but our competition was Boyz II Men, Jodeci and Mint Condition. So bump that age, we gotta do what we gotta do. We’re best known for our up-tempos, but we’re best loved for our ballads. But truth be told, if we would’ve come out with a ballad with Jodeci, Mint Condition and Boyz II Men, we had to put our egos aside. I don’t think we would’ve made that type of an impact. So what we did was capture our own lane and go straight to the clubs. And we chose to say, “We’re going to talk about things that everybody could relate to, and write songs that way.” So when you heard [emulates percussion at the beginning of “Cupid”], you know who you were with, what you were doing, and what you weren’t supposed to be doing. Those songs, regardless of what’s going on in the atmosphere, people take that song and put it with their everyday life.
So going to this album right here, the title of it is Love’s Crazy. Love’ll make you do some crazy stuff, to where two or three years ago, you would’ve been like, “I wouldn’t do that!” Yes you will. I’m coming the same way, and that’s what it is. “So Fly” was a leak that went very, very good. I promise you if it wasn’t coming in the summertime, you probably never would’ve heard the song. The songs you’re going to be hearing, I’m still going to go in that same way, so all the fans are used to and accustomed to those types of songs that’ll stand the test of time, that’s what you’re going to get with a Slim project. I had to run the fine line between what sound current with what’s going on, but at the same time, don’t conform to something that you’re not. I love the vocoder, I liked it with Zapp & Roger. But would I run it through my own project? No. it takes the character of your voice out, so how is someone going to know who you are? … One of my greatest aspects is my voice, the fact that I don’t sound like anybody else.
DX: That was actually my next question: how difficult is it to walk that line? I saw that the single had Yung Joc and Shawty Lo, and I was thinking that some people are going to think that you’re just trying to keep up. But your first song was with Biggie and Mase.
Slim: Exactly. You have people that are our age…that’s not our fault what’s coming out in Hip Hop. You’re going to hear a whole bunch of remixes. You’ve got the [Yung] Joc’s [click to read] and the [Shawty] Lo’s, but you’ve got the Jadakiss’ [click to read], the Freeway’s [click to read], the Busta Rhymes’ [click to read]. P Diddy and Cassie [click to read] are jumping on joints. You’re going to hear all kinds of wild stuff. But as far as remixes, pick which one you like. But the meat of my album is what it is, and I’m probably going to fix that with my second single. The second single is probably going to be an incredible ballad. … Don’t get it twisted, Slim is Slim.
DX: I’m not sure if everyone knows the situation that happened with 112 and Bad Boy, but apparently, you’re on good enough terms to work with Diddy and Faith Evans on the album.
Slim: Yeah, that’s my homeboy. It was a situation where we were stuck in a production agreement that wasn’t cool with 112 financially. We were never signed directly to Bad Boy; we were signed to a production company to Bad Boy. So when we filled the obligations to the production agreement, we were off Bad Boy. The people who owned the production agreement tried to buck, and we tried to get Puff to erase the production agreement, because we didn’t want to leave Bad Boy. But think of a team: when you have a star player on the team, and he falls out of the contract, you’re a free agent. … So labels started coming after us. We couldn’t reach an agreement with Bad Boy because of the production agreement and what they felt they were deserved, so we ended up on Def Jam/Def Soul.
DX: What is it like working with Diddy and Faith, thinking back to working with them in the '90s?
Slim: It was like a great reunion, to tell you the truth. The great feeling with the Diddy situation is that it wasn’t something like, “I just hear him working in the studio.” He heard me on the radio, he’s still in my movement. He knows I’ve got a label, and a movement I’m pushing. And he knows, I learn from one of the best. I know what mistakes not to make, because we watched him, we were one-on-one with him. Bad Boy is a boutique label, so it’s real easy to see what he did and what he didn’t do. Being with him for so many years, you learn from it. So now when I do what I’ve gotta do—check this out. He’s really helping me. So I’ll call him, and I’ll say, “I’ve really got to make this pop. I have a situation like this, how do I handle this?” And he really helps. And this is how you can tell that it’s real family: no money involved. It’s just love.
DX: What’s the status of 112?
Slim: We’re still together. We’re still doing shows worldwide, and you’ll probably be hearing another 112 project next year. We’re free agents right now, because we’ve fulfilled our contract with Def Jam. It was a great contract with a lot of money, and short years. Great look, we did what we’re supposed to do, and we’re here. And it’s great, because 112 is a group where we’re called touring artists. It’s a group that’s known for great stage performances and a long catalog. And that’s where artists want to be at. We can travel forever. We were groomed with the likes of Isley Brothers, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, and New Edition. We were on tour with them when we first came out, so we watched them, and now we sort of emulated ourselves to be just like them. That’s what we’re in the middle of doing.
DX: I've heard that your music is really you, that you walk it like you talk it. What would you say are songs that you think have really captured relationships that you were in, and how you handled it?
Slim: When you listen to “Cupid,” I’m singing it all sweet. But if you could turn the sweetness off of it and look at the words? “If I ask you to trust me, that doesn’t mean I don’t care.” That situation right there really happened. I’m a nice dude, I’m a gentleman, and the person I was dealing with at the time, that person thought … you know when you do something nice, sometimes you want to do something just because! But this particular person was on some, “If you’re being nice, you must’ve done something, and you’re going to tell me what you did.” That song was a straight up letter…that really, really explained the situation I was going through. I’m glad people could relate to that.
DX: How did that woman react to it?
Slim: Well…when she heard the record, she was just laughing. When you try to talk it out, [she’s like], “You’re trying to come down on me” or whatever, even though I don’t raise my voice or anything like that. But when you hear it another way, like through a song, it’s like she got it. I guess we’re not together now, so I guess it really didn’t pop off the way it was supposed to. She should’ve listened to it some more. [laughs] But she knew what it was about. Basically, she knows how I am too. Anyone who gets with Slim knows who I am. What you see is what you get. I come all the way out, I’m 112% man. That’s how I come out.
DX: Word. Any other songs that really capture it?
Slim: I have a record on my album called “Sweet Baby.” I’m just really telling a person exactly how I feel. I’m single, and what I did was, I put myself in a situation where if you’re feeling a certain way about a girl, and you had a pencil and paper, how would you say it to this particular person? Just be straight up and real with her, off the rip. … So she’ll know, at the end of the conversation, she’ll get who you are from the first time around.
I have another song called “Don’t Say It,” which really describes how I am. I’m a very non-confrontational dude. A dude like me, I’m always about finding a solution to the problem. Let’s say that your girl got up on the wrong side of the bed. … Sometimes when you’re in a relationship, one thing leads to other things. Sometimes if you bring your problem home from work, it affects your personal life inside of the home. So when I see something like that, I would say things to just totally squash the whole situation. If I see an argument about to pop off, I’ll stop it before it starts. So I have a song like that, called “Don’t Say It.”
It’s hard, because every song, whether it’s 112 or this Love’s Crazy album, I took pieces and parts of my life. Even the records like “What If,” where you know you messed up, but we were still cool enough to talk. Not as lovers anymore, but as friends. I’m a real cool cat, so when you reflect on your relationships, it shows growth. Even though you let go, but you’re cool enough to let that girl know, “If I would’ve did this instead of doing that, or went here instead of going there, we’d probably still be together.” … Records like that, where I feel like if I’m as real as possible on a song, I feel like a lot of people can relate to the songs that I’m writing.
DX: Talk about the classic “Only You Remix.” How was that put together?
Slim: That was a straight conversation. “Oh I need to know where we stand. Do we share this special thing called love? I know I do, what about you?” It’s a straight-up conversation with a girl. “I’m feeling you, and I’m ready to take it to a whole ‘nother level with you. We could’ve been just cool or friends or whatever, but I’ve been around you, I’ve made up my decision, and that’s what it is.” That’s another song that was about what was going on in my life. When the group sat together and wrote that song, we thought, “We’re going to make this as real as possible.” I love writing those types of songs, because as those songs go on, the fans feel like they’re growing with the artist. I can help them in their relationships, but it’s therapeutic for myself too, to know that they can relate to it, that helps me as an artist and a person.
DX: What was it like making that song with Biggie and Mase?
Slim: That was incredible. People didn’t know that Biggie was actually in the room. We wrote the song four or five different ways, and the way you’re hearing it now was the best way. We wrote it right the first time, but Puff, being the perfectionist, wanted to hear other ways the song would go. Now even though the other song sounded right, the “Only You” that everyone knows and loves, it felt right. In the soul, it felt right.
The funny part is, I remember Mase. That was the first time I had met Mase. He was in the corner writing his joint. He was like, “Check me out, check me out. You can hum all you want to, come all you want to.” I remember Puff came in the room, like, “'You can hum all you want to, cum all you want to?' What is this?” And everybody put Puff out, like, “Leave him alone!” Biggie was like, “Leave him alone. He’s got this, I like it. Let him finish his rap, and we’ll be the judge of it then.” Mase did his thing on that, it was our first time being able to really see him put it down. It was magic.
Biggie smoked us out , he and his Junior M.A.F.I.A. clique. [Laughs] We had to walk in and out of the room, because we’re not smokers, especially me. Toward the end of the night, probably 12 or one o’clock in the morning, he looked up and said, “I’m ready.” And he just walked in there, no paper no nothing, and did the whole rap. Just ballish, like. That was amazing to see him sit there. He pretty much created the swag of 112. “Room 112, where the players dwell, stash more cash than Bert Fidel, inhale/make you feel good like Tony Toni Tone, get up in ya middle like Monie.” What? For the rest of our life, as 112, B.I.G. gave us our swag. … What B.I.G. did right there, he really launched us off right there. Everyone has their own line and their own swag, and he really put us into a situation of our own.
one moment...
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