When life suddenly sideswipes us with a heavy blow of unfortunate tragedy, we find ourselves re-evaluating our strength, our endurance. Though we know that there is a season for everything – a time to laugh and a time to mourn – it is the perception that hard emotional times never end that make the pain so unmanageable. It is in these times, however, that some see the mission as a chance for redemption and others as a chance for escape. It is in these times that soldiers are produced…
Only two short years ago, the members of D12 found themselves on the receiving end of tragedy’s clenched fist, losing both a family member and a friend when Proof was brutally murdered in a Detroit nightclub. The momentum of the blow sent them into a season of hibernation, but as a rap collective who has learned to live their life under the gun, they have regained their strength and are back to reclaim their power.
Swifty McVay explains to Dubcnn how the group has since mended old wounds and united forces with some heavy hometown Detroit emcees, such as Royce Da 5’9”, to deliberate a mixtape that will generate the first show since the death of Proof. Though their pieces may never again add up to a dozen, the Detroit Twelve dust themselves off and return bruised -- but never broken -- showing proof their worth as soldiers.
Make way for the Return of the Dirty Dozen…
As ever, you can read this exclusive interview below and we urge you to leave feedback on our forums or email them to [email protected].
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Interview was done in May 2008
Questions Asked By: Jonathan Hay
Excerpts from the Swifty McVay Interview. Listen Here
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The Return of D12
(The Swifty McVay Interview)
By Jonathan Hay
http://www.myspace.com/jonathanhay
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Dubcnn: Hey man… this Is Jonathan Hay AKA Haywire for Dubcnn and we got a whole lot of people who really love and support you on the website and, you know, you have a strong fan-base of people everywhere who really love what you’re doing.
Swifty McVay: Wow, man, that’s a blessing, man, that’s a blessing.
Dubcnn: Yeah, Definitely. So what has been going on?
Swifty McVay: Man, we just got finished working on the D-12 Mixtape CD, called Return of the Dozen. Just finished it, man, you know. Look for that to come out toward the end of the month, the end of May. You know, we been in the studio for about a good two and a half almost three weeks working on that and we’re formulating a mix CD release party, too, the end of May also, you know what I’m saying. So, I’ve been in work-mode, man, doing the mix CD and about to put out this solo stuff on my own at the same time.
Dubcnn: Where will people actually be able to get the Mixtape?
Swifty McVay: You will be able to grab the Mixtape off of Napster, iTunes, iTunes London, iTunes Japan -- all the big major stores, you know what I’m saying, and maybe the MySpace. And there’s gonna be a big website campaign network with it. All the information will be on http://www.d12world.com
Dubcnn: Okay, so it will actually be commercially released to the public everywhere.
Swifty McVay: Exactly.
Dubcnn: Yeah, that is great - so, how many songs are on it? Do you have the track listing available and any other info?
Swifty McVay: The track listing will be available soon, man. There’s about 18-19 songs on there. Mostly are all original tracks, you know what I’m saying, so we giving you a nice little mix.
Dubcnn: Cool, that’s great. So it will be the D-12 collective. Are there any, like, features or guest appearances from anybody else on the Mixtape?
Swifty McVay: Oh yeah, we got features with a lot of Detroit artists; we got Royce Da 5’9” on there, you know, we got Guilty Simpson from Detroit, we got Young Miles, we got T-Flame & Famous, you know what I’m saying, we got King Gordy on there…
Dubcnn: So it is going to be Motor City classic…. So Royce Da 5’9” will be on it?
Swifty McVay: Yep.
Dubcnn: Yeah, that is good man because you know how everybody has been talking about how that whole Royce Da 5’9”/Eminem beef being squashed…. So that’s a good thing…
Swifty McVay: Right. Yeah, that was about 5 years ago, man. So, you know, we all from the same city, man, it’s time to do some unifying...it’s time to unify, man, and bring the city together so we can have a powerful fist, you know, and without that fist, man, the CD really ain’t nothing. A lot of other cities are uniting and it seems like Detroit is hard to keep it tight-fist, man. So, that’s what we doing, we’re bringing all the emcees together so we can go ahead and unify, so it’s professional.
Dubcnn: Now will this release be through Shady Records?
Swifty McVay: No, this is gonna be our own release. We are still dropping an album up under Shady Records but the mix CD is put together D-12 style, with the distribution of Shady.
Dubcnn: Okay, cool, man, that is great... Now you mentioned that there would be a release party for that…is there any kind of confirmed date or venue for that?
Swifty McVay: The release party is going to be on May 21st at the Magic Stick Hall in Detroit, Michigan on Woodward Avenue. That’s the mix CD release party. (Info below)
Dubcnn: Okay, that’s beautiful. So all the members from D-12 will be there in attendance, too?
Swifty McVay: Yep, the members of D-12 will be there performing, along with T-Flame & Famous, along with [King] Gordy, Guilty Simpson, Team Truly and a couple other artists.
Dubcnn: That’s has to be exciting to bring out this new music…
Swifty McVay: Yeah, man, it will be the first performance party we had since the Super Bowl when big homie Proof was living, so you know, it’s real special man, we bout to put it down again.
Dubcnn: Yeah, will there be any Proof verses on the mixtape?
Swifty McVay: Oh yeah, most definitely.
Dubcnn: On a personal note, how are you all still dealing with the loss of Proof, as your friend?
Swifty McVay: Man, you know, to be honest, man, we will never be completely patched up again from that, man. There’s a void missing and we will never be really up to par with it but I know each day that goes by we’re getting stronger and stronger each day, you know what I’m saying. And we’re dealing with it, but that void is gonna always be gone so it’s gonna always be a part missing from us that won’t allow us to stand firm like we want to because, you know, that void is gone, but we learn how to deal with it by getting stronger and stronger every day by keep going on and doing the day-to-day, it’s these situations that gets us stronger, you know.
Dubcnn: That is very deep…
(moment of silence)
Dubcnn: So you have the upcoming release party for the mixtape…are there any other tour dates on the horizon for this summer?
Swifty McVay: Right now, we’re working on tour dates right now, we don’t have any dates that’s carved in stone at this moment, you know what I’m saying, but we going step-by-step. So, we going to go ‘head and promote the music first and then we’re gonna get all the tour dates and the shows put together afterwards and follow up - - we will have all that up on http://www.d12world.com
Dubcnn: Well, I don’t wanna keep a whole lot of your time. Is there anything else that you wanna promote or let people know how to find you…
Swifty McVay: Oh yeah. You can find Swifty McVay at swiftymcvaysfyredapartment.com where you can go ‘head and hear, you know, snippets and samples of the Forest Fyres CD. I got a solo EP coming out, you can be able to purchase it online, called Under-Estimated Volume 1 -- got about 5 or 6 tracks on there -- and I’m also working on a Swifty McVay mix CD myself that I’m halfway finished with. So at the end of the day, you can get the solo Swifty McVay, you can get the D-12 mix CD, called Return of the Dozen ,-- and we puttin’ it down -- and the CD release party’s gonna be on the 21st of May, so it’s gonna be a big month.
Dubcnn: Yeah, that’s definitely exciting. So, you definitely got your support with Dubcnn. We’ll definitely be talking to you again real soon.
Swifty McVay: Hey, thank you, man, I appreciate you, man, for putting me air, man, and you know, giving me the time to let you know what’s going on, man. It’s definitely a blessing and I will talk to you soon, man, thank you.
Dubcnn: Alright, thanks a lot...
Swifty McVay: Alright, peace and love Haywire!
Source: http://www.dubcnn.com/interviews/d12/
. looking forward to return of the dozen! at least their giving proper guidelines as to when their realesing their upcoming album, unlike some.....
