Hungry Like The Wolf
His debut on Shady Records just released, Alabama’s Yelawolf has been tagged of late as a countrified Eminem. Talking to Craig Fitzpatrick, the Southern gent reveals he just wants to make ‘the hip hop Pet Sounds.’
Craig Fitzpatrick, 16 Jan 2012
“Can we smoke in here?” drawls Michael Wayne Atha as we sit deep in the bowels of Dublin’s Olympia. The 32-year-old rapper is an hour away from supporting Wiz Khalifa and I haven’t a bull’s notion about the venue’s smoking policy. With a mullet mohawk, copious tats and a face like Elvis, he doesn’t seem to care. A pile of ash has settled on the dressing-room floor between us by interview’s end. He seems at home. “I’m just appreciative. Crowds are so respectful over here, they’ll at least give you the opportunity to showcase music whereas in some places in the States it’s like immediately, [snaps fingers] ‘Fuck that shit, who the fuck is this dude?’ Lights out.”
Active since ‘05 but only just building a mainstream buzz and coming out with his first major LP, the frantically inventive Radioactive, it’s likely Yela never imagined winning over Dublin fans when he was making rhymes on the streets of Gadsden, Alabama.
“I’m learning more about geography through music then I ever did in school. I never imagined going to these places, but then I never really knew them to begin with. I had television and shit but... I knew that I wanted to do something that impacted the world in some way, y’know?”
It seems he’s about to do just that. This is his third tour opening for fellow high-flier Wiz and his Taylor Gang (“they’ll always have my back, we’ve just became a crew, man”), but a support slot for the Wu-Tang Clan was even bigger on a personal level.
“Culturally for me, that was a huge deal but the shows weren’t at all easy man. It shows you the different kind of fans that a different group will carry. If you open up for Insane Clown Posse in the States, you’re going to have to deal with their fans, who are so extreme. Wu-Tang Clan are the same. I’m definitely a hard pill to swallow. Stepping onstage, looking like I look? I understand that. I come from Alabama. I talk about some country ass shit. I was raised that way and I’ve adopted the ability to be a chameleon as best I can, without compromising my own art.”
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