Though his next album, tentatively titled "Love Story," will likely come later rather than sooner, Yelawolf still has plenty of music on the runway.
The Alabama rapper tells Billboard.com that a combination of circumstance and creative desire has led him to delay the planned June start of work on "Love Story," the follow-up to "Radioactive," his 2011 debut for Eminem's Shady Records. Yelawolf is currently making up shows he had to cancel after suffering a ruptured spleen in March, which is pushing the schedule back, but he also feels that the additional time will result in a better album.
"I did 'Radioactive' in two weeks, and I don't want to feel that rushed ever again," Yelawolf explains. "I felt like we definitely did a great job on 'Radioactive.' I'm very proud of it. But just looking up to people, the pioneers who put out great albums, I'd like to put a few months into a great album. I know what I hear and I know what I feel as far as making an album; even if I record it in two weeks, I want to sit with it and f*** with it and see what I can do -- not overthink it and be weird, but just put more time and thought into an actual album."
We won't be at any loss for Yelawolf music until then, however. For starters, he notes, "we're still in full 'Radioactive' mode," riding the momentum of its first single, the Kid Rock-featuring "Let's Roll." "Animal," with Fefe Dobson, is a potential follow-up, Yelawolf says, while he's also shot an 11-minute "horror film" video for the track "Growin' Up in the Gutter" that he says is "really over the top, really... intense. It's super controversial. It was supposed to be out a couple months ago, but there's a lot of legal bulls***, clearing footage and stuff. That's put a damper on it, but it'll be coming out soon."
Meanwhile, Yelawolf has finished work on an EP called "Psycho White" with blink-182's Travis Barker. An outgrowth of Country Fresh, his signature line for Barker's apparel company Famous Stars and Straps, the set includes five songs the duo recorded "on and off. Every time we would get in the lab we'd knock something out. We just collaborated and... had a meeting of the minds. There's a lot of cool stuff we came up with." The EP also includes a guest appearance by Rancid's Tim Armstrong, Barker's bandmate in Transplants, on a "punk-reggae" track called "Can't Push Us Around." Yelawolf says "Psycho White's" release details are still pending, however. "I don't know Travis' situation fully, the legals of it, whether it's going to be free or sold or whatever," he explains. "It'll be available. As artists, hopefully we can get it on the shelves, but we'll get it out there somehow. I'm just hyped for people to hear it."
Yelawolf, who also joined British troubadour Ed Sheeran on his song "You Don't Know (For F***'s Sake)" earlier this year, has also recorded a mixtape called "The Heart of Dixie" with M16 and DJ Frank White. And he continues to eyeball a collaboration with Big K.R.I.T. that's been dubbed "Country Cousins." "It's been like a two-year thing, man; I'm busy, he's busy, and it doesn't get done," Yelawolf says. "We know that when we get together, it can't be half-assed. That's my homey for life, so it could go down at any moment. There's no definite date, no definite time. I'm such a huge fan of his. I really want to do music with him, so I know it'll happen."
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