Very few emcees can hold their own on a track with Eminem, Royce Da 5’9” is one of them. The Detroit native has had an enviable music career which has seen him release 5 solo studio albums, and 5 collaboration albums with Slaughterhouse, Eminem (as Bad Meets Evil), Dj Premier (as PRhyme), and various Shady Records artists on the Shady XV album.
Not too long ago Royce announced that he’s planning on releasing a new album in 2016 titled Layers. In fact the first single titled Tabernacle dropped a in mid March 2016 and it’s nothing short of phenomenal. The track is deeply personal and takes the listener through an overview of Royce’s life story, covering topics such as his first meeting with Eminem, the birth of his son, and the death of his grandmother. The rapper explained that the album title is a reference to the many different sides of him which we will get to see on the album. He also stated that it’s a deeply personal album, and if Tabernacle is anything to go by the album will indeed cover topics we’ve never heard Royce rap about before.
Despite not having dropped Layers yet (it’s scheduled for release this month – 15th April 2016) Royce announced that he’s already working on his next album, titled Book of Ryan, and it’s nearly complete This guy has been putting in some serious work! Royce mentioned that Book of Ryan is going to be even more personal than Layers. A release date hasn’t been mentioned though, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Royce also recently released a free 12 track EP titled Tabernacle: Trust the Shooter. On the reason for releasing the EP he said "my original concept was to release a B-side record to coincide with the release of 'Tabernacle, but it turned into an entire EP that was inspired by a photo my man JD took at the 'Tabernacle' video shoot. Trust the Shooter is his brand and we both thought it would be dope to give fans all new music not available on the album." Some of the artists featured on the tape are Styles P, Smoke DZA, and Westside Gunn. You can download the mixtape on DatPiff.
Trust the Shooter’s track list is below. You can also listen to one of the tracks from the EP titled Dead President Heads in the SoundCloud widget below.
Tabernacle: Trust the Shooter (track list)
01 Black History (snippet)
02 Savages
03 Dead President Heads
04 Mind Right (interlude) [ft. Kid Vishis]
05 Which is Cool
06 The Banjo [ft. Westside Gunn, Conway & Styles P]
07 Wait
08 Rap on Steroids (snippet) / Black & Nickle [ft. Assassin AKA Agent Sasco]
09 Universe (interlude)
10 Tabernacle
11 Trust the Shooter [ft. Smoke DZA]
12 Digest It [ft. Tiara]
