Crooked I has a lot in store for 2010 and he says he doesn’t want negativity to be a part of it. Yesterday (January 6), Crooked spoke with HipHopDX about his forthcoming project, Million Dollar Story and more including possible tracks with DJ Premier and The Alchemist. He also went in on why you won’t be hearing him speak negatively about Benzino in the media anymore.

Speaking on what he’s got planned for the new year, Crooked noted that it would be a huge year for him and his Circle of Bosses crew.

“I’ve got to have some sort of humungous impact, man. I think it’s going to be a great year. I’m doing a full length album, Million Dollar Story. I want to have half of it complete before we go on tour and then have the other half complete when I get back from Europe. I’m really, excited about the album, though. It’s been a journey, without a doubt, with my career and with my life. I’m just trying to put some inspirational music together as well as just classic Hip Hop and put it all in one package,” he told us of the album.

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He’s got a lot in store for this project, including a folder of beats from DJ Khalil and possible cuts from DJ Premier.

“Ah, man, I got a folder with some beats sent over to me from DJ Khalil. So, I’ma definitely go in with him. He’s one of my favorite producers right now. There’s some new kids out there and I make it my business to get with some of the new talent. There’s a kid named Quest out there who’s real hot. I’m gonna reach out to Alchemist. Then, I’ve talked to DJ Premier already so I wouldn’t be surprised if Premier has a few slappers on there, as well.”

Knowing that some fans have been anticipating a Premo/Crook collaboration for some time, he added that he couldn’t wait for it to happen.

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“Aw, I can’t wait, man. I can’t wait for that combination right there. Hip Hop needed to see that a long time ago. I can’t wait to get with Premier.

Finally, he addressed the Benzino issue, a feud that has already included video replies back and forth and some bars exchanged. Crooked was candid about the feud before letting us know that he would not be speaking negatively of Benzino any more in the new year.

“To be honest, man, it’s 2010. I don’t want to start the new year off with a lot of negative energy, if I could help it. I don’t want to do that. I think it’s going to be a great year for me and for my organization C.O.B. (Circle of Bosses) and I got my little brothers out there [The Horseshoe Gang]. They just dropped Gangsta MC’s, available on iTunes, Amazon and everything. My cousin Saucy got a project we’re working on. My cousin Zack; we’re a family of musicians, man. C.O.B. Digital is what I’m really pushing. It’s just so many positive things going on with that, this Million Dollar Story I’m preparing and with Slaughterhouse, I don’t want that negative energy.”

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“With Benzino, he kind of was baiting us for a minute, trying to get us to respond to some of the things he was saying and some of the things he said in his raps. Speaking for me, maybe I should have just continued to ignore the dude. It seemed fake. It seemed like he was just trying to get something that we have at Slaughterhouse.  We have a cool Internet presence. Some of these older rappers, they don’t understand that they can have an Internet presence, too, if they put out quality stuff, leak it and build relationships with different sites. You could build up your own. You don’t have to attack somebody who has good Internet presence just so certain blog sites will put up all your beef raps and articles and stuff. That’s a negative way to try to get online presence. If Benzino had a true problem with me, I like to do the real man thing. Let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about any problems you might have and let’s try to resolve it. If we can’t resolve it and the disrespect is to a level that we can’t resolve it, then we’ll go in the backyard, you know what I’m saying? Then, we’ll square up man to man.”

He went on to speak on the guns being in Benzino’s videos, saying that it doesn’t need to go that route.

“All the guns and trying to take it to the streets? Man, we all got homeboys. You don’t want your homeboys getting involved with this and I don’t want my homeboys getting involved because they might be somewhere with him and something might go down and they might risk their freedom to get at this dude. That’s just nonsense. It’s not worth it. Now, if it’s friendly competition, then let it be known that it’s friendly competition. Say, ‘Slaughterhouse, I happen to think that you guys are wack and I think I could take on any one of you individually in the booth. Let’s do this.’ Alright, cool, let’s do it. Competition is good for Hip Hop. Some of the greatest records ever are diss records: Ether’ [by Nas], ‘Takeover’ [by Jay-Z and] ‘No Vaseline’ [by Ice Cube]. Let’s get it. But, when it goes into ‘We’re going to go to the streets and the rah-rah.’ It’s like, c’mon, man. You own a company. I own independent companies. We’re trying to advance. We all got families. Do you really want to go there? Because, we can. We can absolutely go there. But, it’s not worth it so personally, you won’t hear Crooked I saying anything about Benzino in the media. Nothing. When I get a chance to see him, me and him, we can take it from there. But, you won’t hear me saying anything negative about him in 2010.”

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For part two of this interview with Crooked I, we spoke on the forthcoming Slaughterhouse tour through Europe and what the next Slaughterhouse album might sound like.

Purchase Mr. Pigface Weapon Waist by Crooked I