‘LL: What do you want people to really take away from House Slippers?
House Slippers is my third album; it’s my favorite album because of the person I became. It’s the clearest album because of the life changes I made. It’s the first time I ever locked in with executive producers like The Heatmakerz, and worked with Illmind – people that make great music to match what I’m talking about. And this is not to take away from anyone who has been there and worked with me in the past, thank you everyone. There are really good songs on this album. The album is well put together.
‘LL: Do you have any advice for up-and-coming artists?
Just do everything! What I mean by that is stay in the studio as much as possible. When you are tired push yourself. If you meet people smile, be happy that they are even interested in meeting you. If somebody hollers at you and says, “Hey, I got a mix tape,” don’t try to figure out if he has 100 followers or 100,000, just do it. Because you are no one in this game until you are someone. Then as fast as you became someone you can be no one again. So, always just remember you don’t know what anyone could be or what they will, but you can control you. You can always have people say, “Man I like that guy, he’s a workhorse.” You only make first impressions once. Just focus on being the best artist you can be.
‘LL: After a decade in the game what’s your legacy?
When it’s all said and done and they mention Joell Ortiz in a Hip Hop setting, I just don’t want anybody in the room to be able to be like “meh.” I want it to be unanimous, like that dude was serious. There are only a handful of people that get the unanimous vote, I want the unanimous vote.
House Slippers is set to release on September 16th via Penalty Entertainment. Follow Joell Ortiz on Instagram and Twitter: @JoellOrtiz.