Interviews Have Been Moved To Newly  Redesigned Site.  Click Here To Go To New Site & View Interviews!!!

ThaFormula.com - How did the Aftermath album come about as far as you hookin' up with Dre?

King Tee - I was in a fucked up deal with MCA and that's who my last album came out with. It was called King Tee 4 Life. It was just all fucked up and they didn't really wanna do nothin. They brought in a whole bunch of new people like Hank Shocklee. When it was time to work on my new shit. I just wanted to leave and I jetted out and luckily Dre had jetted out from Death Row. We always wanted to work together so we got together and he signed me. So I came out with the most incredible album I think I ever did and it got caught up. It was about the time that all the labels were shutting down. It was a bunch of bullshit going on with Seagram's and things like that.

ThaFormula.com - When you came in to Aftermath who was there. Was it before the label got cleaned out?

King Tee - Yeah, way before. I think I worked on my album for about a year with Aftermath. It was done. We spent like $600,000 on the album and it was done and ready. It came up to the point where Interscope was critiquing what was comin' out because Dre had put out the compilation and it didn't really do what it was expected to do.

ThaFormula.com - Did the King Tee album getting 3 mics in the source have a lot to do with it not dropping?

King Tee - Probably. I don't know cause Dre he looks at things like that and he probably wanted to set me back, but I didn't know that back then. He probably wanted to set me back and be like, "Yo, let's put out Eminem" and you know when you got some hot shit going there is a lot of shit going through your head.

ThaFormula.com - Do you regret that. I mean do you regret not waiting?

King Tee - Yeah, I regret everything. I left. He didn't drop me. I left Dre. But you know, you live with regrets. Jay - Z said it. You know, I'm regretting it till this day, but we still good partners and you know he gave me my album.

ThaFormula.com - So what's the deal with that album. What happened to it?

King Tee - I got it, but it's so fucken out dated. I mean what you gonna do with it. But what we were thinking was that we might do a double album. We will still call the album Thy Kingdom Come, but the new and old testament. The old testament being the shit I did with Aftermath and the new testament being what I'm doing now.

ThaFormula.com - Is Dre cool with you droppin' that album?

King Tee - Yeah. Whatever I wanna do is straight. Everything is straight. Dre is not trippin on anything. He's like, "whatever you wanna do, I'm with you". He's tellin me he's gonna do 2 songs on the new album. Everything is straight, I have no beef, nothing!

ThaFormula.com - What's the deal with Step. What is he doing on the album?

King Tee - Step is basically the general manager of the new label situation I'm with. Plus he's got some tracks and he does a little writing. So I like him with me and he's a cool brother. He's good to have in a session because he knows what he's doing.

ThaFormula.com - For those that don't know, he did "I got it locked" right?

King Tee - Right.

ThaFormula.com - How many songs will he be doing on the new album?

King Tee - Probably about 2 or 3.

ThaFormula.com - So production wise, what's it looking like?

King Tee - Dr. Dre, Battlecat, Bud'da, Step, and basically the same as the last.

ThaFormula.com - What about mc's, because a lot of people never heard the tracks you had on the last album with MC Ren, Too Short, and shit like that?

King Tee - Well, I'm pretty sure you know in this game, you got to keep up with the times and give the kids what they want. So I gotta go do certain things like, I wanna be there with Dre when he do the next tour and things like that. I'm sort of in the works with Beanie Segal, Memphis Bleek, I already did the song with Xzibit. I got conversation about me Kurupt, Roscoe, Snoop. My crew The Alkaholiks. You know Defari already did a song. It's just basically gonna be that and the hottest from the East Coast.

ThaFormula.com - Do you ever see a Likwit Crew album happening?

King Tee - Not right now. We got to get our differences and the little problems that's going on squashed before there could really be a Likwit Crew album.

ThaFormula.com - Now I remember you were supposed to be going to Open Bar. Why didn't you sign with X?

King Tee - Oh, it had nothing to do with any of that. What I was looking for and what I got was way more. I had to really just go with the money because a lot of people ain't knowing out there, I got families that I'm taking care of. Not just mine. People that have been working with me for years and things like that. I gotta take care of them to. So I had to go for the money up front and this person gave me this money up front, so I had to stay down with that person. Xzibit knows this and were still family. Were trying to combine this now. Were still trying to make a Open Bar, Blast, and all that on this album. It was just a thing about money. Open Bar just couldn't give me what I wanted at the time. That's all it was. It was business, that's all. It's all gonna come together though. We all need to just sit down and have a meeting as far as The Likwit crew thing goes. The album could have happened, but money is an issue. Niggaz is greedy now. It ain't a crew when you start thinking about, "Ok, who's funding this". I came with the idea let's do the Likwit crew album. I just need you all to rap on this shit. Come on crew. I started this shit, so let's do it. But niggaz wasn't down with that, so we takin different measures now. We gotta get contracts, money, and all this type shit for each artist and things like that.

ThaFormula.com - Why did you stop working with DJ Pooh?

King Tee - Nothing stopped. Pooh started doing Ice Cube, Snoop, and things like that. I just felt I needed to get some different type of flavor with my albums, so that's when I branched out with "At Your Own Risk" and "Tha Triflin Album".

ThaFormula.com - That's when you did the Marley Marl remix for "At your own risk". How was it recording with Marley?

King Tee - Classic man. I wish I could do it all over. I wish I could do a whole album with Marley, Pete Rock, and things like that. It's what really got me established on the East Coast and out here cause there really wasn't nobody but NWA and Eazy - E. I was proud and real thankful for that shit.

ThaFormula.com - What are you hoping and expecting for this album. When do you hope to drop it?

King Tee - I expect to drop in the summer. It will probably be my last album, that's why I really wanna do a double album, but I just wanna come and do my last thing. I just wanna supply the fans with what they want, even though it's hard as fuck. I'm strugglin to get it, but I'm gettin it. I'm gonna do it man. I'm gonna give the fans what they want. It ain't gonna be all Likwit. We gonna go back to the "Act A Fool days". We gonna start it from there. We gonna bring it to 2002 and it's gonna be live.

ThaFormula.com - So will Pooh be on the album this time?

King Tee - Yeah, I'm doing something with Pooh, Dre, Battlecat, and were trying to do a movie, not a video. When the shit is finished were trying to do a movie like Michael Jackson do. Even though I ain't never went platinum or nothing like that, but we gonna act like it. I'm with Ruthless now. I'm gonna try and make them spend some money. It's gonna be lovely man. I'm just blessed really to still be in the fucking business. Still have my foot a little way in the door where I can help young artist and keep going. That's all I really want to do. I don't even wanna rap no more after this. Not to sound like that, but 15 years man. I had fun with it. I ain't never went Gold or Platinum and I'm satisfied. I done helped niggaz become successes and that's about it. That's all I care about. I'm cool man. My niggaz is making movies and shit like that.

ThaFormula.com - Does the props that you receive on the streets make up for what you never got sales or star wise?

King Tee - Of Course man, because you got to see where I come from. A nigga wasn't shit, but it's all about my sons and my daughters that when they see me, Xzibit, Alkaliks on T.V., they know because them is like there godparents and there god brothers. That's what it's all about. Dre and Snoop too. That's what it's all about, making our kids happy..

ThaFormula.com - So in between your last album to now, how were you getting by?

King Tee - Old money. Buried money. Print that! (Laughs)

ThaFormula.com - What was up with the album that dropped called King Tee's greatest hits?

King Tee - I don't know nothing about it. It wasn't me. It was kind of wack to me too. They didn't even put the right songs on there. Capitol did it. They owned all that. Back then artist like me was taking publishing deals. Were not doing it no more.

ThaFormula.com - Was your album done by just Dre or Dre and Mel?

King Tee - I had 2 songs produced by Dre. Everybody else was Bud'da, Step, Glove, Ant Banks, Quik, and Battlecat. Dre did 2 songs.

ThaFormula.com - Why was the Aftermath compilation going platinum not good enough?

King Tee - I don't think that's what the people wanted to see coming from Dre. I don't think they wanted it, because there was a lot of R & B on there. Dre just left Death Row and I think they wanted to see him come back with some Snoop or gangsta shit.

ThaFormula.com - What's up with that "Fame" track with RC. How did that happen because a lot of people don't even know your on that track?

King Tee - Messing with Dre, you just come in and you rap on whatever he tells you to rap on and you never know what it is.

ThaFormula.com - How was it working with Dre man?

King Tee - It's beautiful. It's another experience. You know you fucking with a professional man.

ThaFormula.com - What do you think of everybody saying Dre isn't a real producer and that he took credit for people's beats?

King Tee - That's bullshit man. Yeah, they did some beats and Dre came in and added his shit and made it phat and he took half of the fucking credit. So What! So fucking what! Timbaland do the same fucking thing, Teddy Riley do the same thing!. So what! Everybody does that. Everybody once they down, they go get little producers around that's making hot shit and come help. And they pay them the best.

ThaFormula.com - So these guys that were complaining were getting paid really good?

King Tee - Yeah, I mean niggaz were getting fired so that's why niggaz went. Once you fucking with Dre, you can't do nothing else. Don't go do nothing else. Niggaz was doing outside shit and that's why they got fired. So that's why they want to come and say certain shit about Dre.

ThaFormula.com - How is everything going with Ruthless. Are they treating you good?

King Tee - Yeah. When we got the deal, we asked for all the money up front. So we control the money.

ThaFormula.com - I really hope you can drop that double album.

King Tee - Dre said he will go along with it. It's just about Interscope getting their money. They want like 5 points.

ThaFormula.com - So Interscope has to get paid for that album?

King Tee - Yeah, because that's Jimmy's shit and he paid for it. And that's go back to when Dre was gonna lose the deal with Interscope and that's why he put Eminem out and that saved it. Cause a lot of shit was going down. All the labels started coming together. A & M shut down and all that shit. My shit got caught in the middle of it. It wasn't nobody's fault though.

ThaFormula.com - So did Dre come at you like hold up Tee, we are having problems with the label?

King Tee - Yeah, he did. He was like, "Hold up". "Let's do some more songs" and my ass was like well could I step. I was pitching to him starting my own label, and I wanted to put my album on my own label. He said, I'll help you do that if you wanna do that, but if you wanna stay, you can stay. I chose to leave.

ThaFormula.com - From what I hear, he treated every artist good?

King Tee - Yeah. I mean come on. You ballin' over there with Dre.

ThaFormula.com - Did you ever approach Dre about coming back to Aftermath?

King Tee - Nah, I mean were still cool. He calls me to video shoots and shit like that. I got to kick it. He shows me beats that he wants me to fuck with.

ThaFormula.com - Are you gonna be on the Detox album?

King Tee - Yeah, we got the beat already. Dre is the type of person that wouldn't put out another album for like another couple of years, but he's trying to come quick with this one.

ThaFormula.com - So how is the beat you have been given for Detox?

King Tee - Bangin, everything is bangin. Everything that nigga shows you is bangin.

ThaFormula.com - Are you gonna be messin with Quik anymore? 

King Tee - Yeah, we gonna do some more shit. Were trying to mess with Suga Free and you know how he is. I mean it's gonna be the same as the last album, but more updated. Were gonna try and keep some of the old songs. It's gonna be alright man, trust me.

ThaFormula.com - I think the industry just tried to label you Old School and put you to the side. 

King Tee - Right, and I'm not mad at that.

ThaFormula.com - But I'm seeing that things are changing and all the real mc's and producers are starting to come back...

King Tee - I don't have a problem with it. What's good is good and what's wack is wack. It's either gonna play or it's not. But I don't know man. I'm an Alkaholik. I'm a Likwit Nigga and I really try to keep the problems out of my head. I just go do what I do. I'm like Ice - T you know. Whatever man!

Be  sure to join the over 300,000 Industry Heads that have signed up to our exclusive mailing list!!  Click here to join and receive exclusive interviews only available to members. Leave contact info ( name & email address) at info@thaformula.com and we will contact you to confirm your membership.