Exclusive: Cashis details what to expect from his upcoming full-length, "The Art Of Dying," and says it's a shame that fans never got to hear Eminem's shelved album, "King Mathers."
Five years is a lifetime between albums, especially in the Internet age. Yet in the case of former Shady Records artist Cashis, those five years brought about plenty of much-needed life change and insight. Once a hard-partying gangsta rapper addicted to pills, Cashis has since come clean and found himself liberated from his former addiction. He's also starting fresh musically, having recently been let go of his Shady contract. The focus is no longer on being a great artist, he admitted; it's now about being his own boss.
October 30 will see the release of his debut full-length, The Art of Dying, an album that was originally set to drop in 2009 but was held up for a variety of reasons. Even then, he understood the major label game, but he now admits he was frustrated with the hold up. However, he was quick to point out that there is no animosity toward Shady Records or Eminem. As he told me, “I still got big Shady tattoos on me. They ain't going nowhere. That's forever.”
I caught Cashis by phone while he was down in Austin, Texas last week, and during our conversation he relived the moment Eminem offered to help him go to rehab, explained that breaking ties with Shady helped him grow as a business man and artist, and admitted that delaying his album until 2012 has set him up better for sustained success.
Cashis Discusses The Patient Creation Of The Art Of Dying
HipHopDX: I wanted to start off with The Art Of Dying, which is set to drop October 30.
Cashis: Yeah, that's my baby right there.
DX: Yeah, man. It's been a long time coming. What can the people expect from this upcoming album?
Cashis: I think they can expect a definite well-rounded, more universal approach. With The County Hound, I was a kid. I was just angry at everything, and that's what you got. [With The Art Of Dying], I've been really on my money, so that's what it's about. Like I did with The County Hound, I talked about my kids. I talked about my battles with depression and thoughts of suicide and all of that. If I was to get killed or something right now, I would be proud that the world could listen to and know who I really was with this album. There's a different approach to each record but they all go together. I get to showcase all the stuff that [Eminem] was proud of me doing that I didn't get to do because I only dropped an EP.
DX: How has that transition felt for you? County Hound dropped back in '07 and you're now getting a chance to drop your first full-length five years later. What's it been like trying to let fans know you're at a different place since you last dropped a project? Has it been hard to bridge that gap?
Cashis: Yeah, a little bit. Certain people, they wanna just hear my style in the same vein the whole time. It took a while for people to just understand and even view me and hear my style different. I used to record and do like seven, eight stacks on every vocal. I don't even record the same way now, so people have to adapt to my new sound and my new approach. Now, people actually know that I got bars. Before, everybody thought I was a gangsta rapper. I'm definitely from the street and have a street vibe to me, but I'm a rapper. I listen to lyrics and punch lines and all that stuff just like everybody else.
I think people got to hear that more from me leaking records, but on this project, The Art Of Dying, it's a whole new world. I'm more than just a new artist off the block now. You can definitely know that I was taking my time, [that] I know what I'm doing musically. I'm impressed with it from beginning to the end – the intros, the outros, the skits. Everything is 100% authentic and it goes together and dictates the story of my life.
Subscribe to email feed
