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Yelawolf and Shooter Jennings talk to HipHopDX in an exclusive interview about their new rock album 'Sometimes Y.'

Yelawolf is cruising around Tennessee where he and his wife Fefe Dobson have a home in Hendersonville, about 25 miles north of Nashville and near Johnny Cashs old house. Shooter Jennings, the son of country royalty Waylon Jennings, joins the Zoom conversation from his home rocking sunglasses and a cowboy hat. The unlikely duo is currently doing press in support of their new group Sometimes Y, a full-on rock band primarily devoid of Yelawolfs Pop The Trunk rap style fans grew to love in 2010. Yelawolfs Hip Hop roots but a powerful reminder the former Shady Records artist can actually sing and by sing, he can really sing. One of the first singles from the project, the hard rock anthem Make Me A Believer, finds Yelawolf showing off his vocal prowess and its almost shocking, especially to those unfamiliar with his catalog. Just like there are moments on Sometimes Y where it sounds like hes rapping (Moonshiners Run), there are moments on songs such as 2015s Best Friend featuring Eminem that he was singing. Its this versatility that continues Yelawolfs musical evolution. Ive done a lot of singing that kind of went under the radar, so to speak, because of the musical palette that I was doing it over, Yelawolf tells HipHopDX. So if you listen to Rock & Roll Baby where I sing, Ruby red lipstick is sunny, that is the same thing as, Aint never been much of a church type, but I believe in the last days, as Best Friend that I did with Marshall . The same thing goes along with Hip Hop as well. Theres been a lot of Hip Hop that Ive done a lot of rapping, so to speak that goes under the radar of the Hip Hop community, because it was too rock. Because the musical bed is too rock and roll, they dont hear the verses. The bed allows the appreciation, and thats what Shooter gave me. He gave me a platform to be appreciated with my singing voice. Because I think that because he knew me and he studied what I did intently. He knew exactly, he had no questions about my abilities, even more so than I, I was actually really scared because the platform had been set for me and I had to fucking step it up, and he put me in the studio with the greatest musicians in the world. At one point in the conversation, Yelawolfutters the word transition as if hes shedding his old rap persona for an entirely new one. But thats not necessarily the case. I thought about that, and although I felt that way, I knew better than to tell myself and to tell people that this was the end, he says of his Hip Hop career. You never know. You just dont, and I love and will always love Hip Hop music and what it gave me in my relationships and my friendships and my career and all the opportunities and traveling the world. How could I ever turn my back on basically a family member? Its not something you can just turn and off, but in order for me to do this at the best of my abilities, I have to compartmentalize and to just not really close the door so to speak, but Shooter said something that made all the sense, hes like, If you think about it like a house, you just built another room on the house.' He continues, And I was like, Dude, yeah thats it. That helped me make it makes sense. I was even talking like, Dude, should I just run with Michael Wayne? Should I even carry Yelawolf into this? Should I run my name? Hes like, No, no, no dude. To carry that, youre going to introduce your Hip Hop fans to something they never thought was coming.' A post shared by Shooter Jennings (@shooterjennings) Thanks to long talks with Jennings who Yelawolf says talked him off the ledge Yelawolfstuck, and the pair moved forward with Yelawolf x Shooter Jennings. Jennings, who recently made the jump from touring frontman to producer, felt having a rock album under the Yelawolf moniker would only enhance his career. Hes given me a lot of credit, but we had a lot of talks, Jennings says. The whole house analogy was like, Look, youre just adding to your toolbox. Once you accomplish this, the next project could be a mix of all of it; it could be something in a different direction. The fact hes so versatile and thats the comment that I see the most about this stuff with people. They appreciate how versatile he is, because like you cant do that. I couldnt go cut a Hip Hop record convincingly. People would literally throw me out of the building if I did that. Read more