Royce Da 5'9" has been saying some pretty candid things in the run-up to his album The Allegory, which drops next Friday, February 21.
In an interview with Level magazine, Royce went against the grain it says he doesn't have the energy to police people's feelings, even if those feelings are racism.
"We need to start being okay with not agreeing on everything. It’s all right to not agree," he stated. "It’s even all right to be racist. I’m not the racism police. I’m very aware that I have to guard my energy. I can’t put myself in the position where I’m getting upset all the time at the way that somebody views me. The only thing that I demand is respect. That’s it. I can have dinner with a racist person as long as you’re not disrespecting me. People just get so uptight when you want to start talking about the tough topics. Everybody ignoring it is not going to make it go away!"
He went on to say the best way to learn to live with people of different races is exposure, using both him and his good buddy Eminem as examples.
"We talk all the time about how tough it was, him being White and into hip-hop, and Black people thinking he’s trying to act Black. They used to beat him up all the time, just jump him. He couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t until he met Proof and Proof took a liking to him [and] started vouching for him that he got accepted at the Hip-Hop Shop. It goes both ways. I talked to him about a lot of things that I went through in Oak Park, the racist shit that happened to me that started when I was young and didn’t understand," he explained. "We both came to a very clear understanding. I feel like God put him in my life to teach me that it’s not cool to generalize. Because if it wasn’t for Marshall Mathers, I don’t think I would like Whites — and on the flip side, if it wasn’t for Proof, I don’t think he (Eminem) would’ve liked Black people. He assumed Black people didn’t like him, because they used to beat him up. God places people in your life for a particular reason. Marshall restored my faith in people. It’s not really about converting people; it’s just about gaining understanding."