Former Death Row Records artist RBX contributed to six songs on Dr. Dre’s landmark solo album, The Chronic, in 1992. His deep, booming voice can be heard on songs such as “High Powered,” “Stranded On Death Row” and “Lyrical Gangbang.” He also received songwriting credits on “Let Me Ride” and several others. But contract disputes and issues with ex-Death Row CEO Suge Knight proved too much to tolerate, and he left in 1994. More than 30 years later, RBX has come to a place of peace with how things unfolded.
“I don’t cry over spilled milk though ’cause I believe in a higher power and everything that was done was done for a reason,” he tells AllHipHop. “That’s why we still here. And at the end of the day, they might have run out and did this and that, but they can’t take my name and they can’t take my voice. And I still got these pens and pads to write these rhymes and they didn’t write s### for me—I wrote for them.”
And RBX is writing again. Last week, he popped up on a new single from Hawaiian native Rory Redmon called “Mac Dre” featuring Sccit. With production by Junior Beats, Sccit and Siavash The Grouch, the track comes from Redmon’s forthcoming album, Tabernacle.
It also serves as a little teaser of what’s to come from RBX, who’s currently working on his first album since 2007, Hibernation Shivers. It’s expected to feature appearances by Spice 1, MC Eiht, (cousin) Daz Dillinger, Fatlip, Project Pat, Eligh, Cold 187um, Krayzie Bone, Butch Cassidy and Smoov-E, among others.
Despite how RBX feels about The Chronic today, he’s still proud of what he contributed.
“It feels good ’cause we did work hard on it,” he says. “It wasn’t like it was a cake walk. Even though Dre didn’t make us walk to Harlem to get him no cheesecake or some balloons, we were out there because we had that Death Row on our back. At that time we was pushing the line, it wasn’t a nice thing. It was real Death Row. It got a lot of respect from some people and got a lot of hate from others. You walked the fine line any day you went anywhere.”
He continues, “Dre was my loved one. We have grown apart or whatnot, but me and Dre never had no problems. My problems always came from Suge. And then Suge would put pressure on them. Knowing that, I thought it would be best for me to fall back.”
RBX, who is truly a breath of fresh air in an industry often wrought with egomaniacs, is optimistic about the future. Hibernation Shivers is scheduled for an August release. Until then, check out “Mac Dre” above.