I recently talked to the lyrical beast that is Joell Ortiz and he dropped some Dr. Dre jewels on me. And when I say beast I mean like of gargantuan proportions. Just wait for Joell’s KOCH joint, The Brick, and you’ll see. Check what he had to say below.
On his Aftermath singing:
“I got my CD to Dre’s assistant. She called us back saying, ‘Listen Dre really likes this kid a lot.’ One of my managers is real cool with him so that’s how the connection happened. She was like, ‘Nah. You don’t understand he wants to fly y’all out here ASAP.’ We were like, ‘What!’ So two days later we doing dinner with the whole Aftermath fam. Dre’s not there because we gotta go to the studio to get up with Dre the following day. So I get to the studio and he walks in. [I was like], ‘Oh shit! It’s Dr. Dre.’ He was like, ‘What’s the deal, yo?’ I was like, ‘What’s the deal?’ (Laughs). He was like, ‘I listened to the records I like them.’ I was like, ‘I like your beats.’ (Laughs) It was the first thing I could think of. Then he was like, ‘I actually flew you out to make sure you weren’t a knucklehead. That you had a good head on your shoulders. As you know I’ve lost a lot of friends due to rap beef and stupidity.’ I was like, ‘Dude, I’m a humble guy who just likes to do music and who better to do a venture with than Dr. Dre. Being that I’m from the East coast that would be a huge boost to my career.’ Then he said, ‘With that said man, welcome to Aftermath.’ I’m like, ‘Oh shit! Did he just say that?’ Ten years of blood, sweat and tears for a ten-minute meeting. But shit I can’t complain.â€
On being the second underground spitter (remember Eminem) Dre signs:
“First you know he’s a hip-hop fan by who he signs. Second, your big records he makes big records of you. Em’s biggest records were Eminem records. You don’t have to direct records with him like, “this is the club one.†You just do your records. He’s gonna put Joell Ortiz on a bigger stage.â€
Uno,
SOHH Goya
