Denzel Curry caught up with NME backstage at Reading 2024 to talk his latest collab album, which features TiaCorine and 2 Chainz, his upcoming comic ‘Hell Trials’, the difficult decision to pull his massive gig with Korn and how he always represents the South.
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00:00Hello, you're watching NME, I'm Jordan Bassett, we're at Reading Festival with the brilliant
00:09Denzel Curry.
00:10Yo, what's up?
00:11What's up Jordan?
00:12Very good, thank you for being with us.
00:13Hell yeah.
00:14So you're here fresh off your amazing new album, King of the Mischievous South, Volume
00:182.
00:19Yeah, definitely.
00:20So it's just over 10 years since Volume 1, which was kind of like a real big calling
00:25card for you.
00:27So why did you want to go back to that world now?
00:30Well, honestly, I told every interviewer this, pretty much when I was making the project
00:35I wasn't even thinking about the name or being that, and then when it came down to the project
00:39being completed, my manager hit me and was just like, yo, everything's tight about this,
00:43but you just gotta change the name, because originally it was called Blood In Blood Out
00:46Reloaded, because I was making another Blood In Blood Out after the mix I'd done a couple
00:51years back.
00:53And they was like, yeah, this doesn't feel like Blood In Blood Out.
00:56This feels like one of your old tapes.
00:59And I was like, oh, you want to name this Volume 2 of King of the Mischievous South
01:02Volume 1?
01:03And he was like, yep.
01:04And then that's how it turned out.
01:05That's so cool.
01:06It's like an action movie franchise or something.
01:08It's like the different franchises.
01:09Oh, nah, nah.
01:10I wouldn't say it's like franchises, because I don't really like doing part twos to anything,
01:14but this one was an exception, and maybe in the future there'll be a part two to something
01:18else.
01:19Well, I guess maybe it was organic.
01:20Maybe there's something going on that's making you want to go back to that world even if
01:24you weren't conscious of it.
01:25I mean, I was trying to do this album several different times, but they all turned into
01:30something else.
01:31So that's why it wasn't able to get off the ground years prior, but it got off the ground
01:3612 years later, which is very symbolic, because it's 12 years, and the first time it came
01:41out was 2012.
01:42Well, yeah, I mean, so much has happened in that amount of time.
01:45But whatever the title was, you've got some amazing rappers on there.
01:47You've got Tia Kareem on there.
01:48You've got 2 Chainz on there.
01:50So obviously there is a theme, because these artists are representing the South.
01:56Was that aspect of it something you were conscious of?
01:58Yes, of course, because when I did the first King of the Machina, a lot of them did come
02:02from the South, but the majority of them either came from Miami, North Carolina, or Virginia.
02:11And when it came down to this one, you've got people from Georgia, you've got people
02:15from Texas, you've got people from North Carolina, you've got people from Florida, and the people
02:23that weren't from the South, either they had something that was directly related to me
02:28in some way.
02:29Or you even had people from Tennessee, from Memphis, you know?
02:33And it was like blending the old with the new.
02:36And having ASAP Rocky and ASAP Ferg on there, which is like a callback to like, okay, back
02:42in 2012, we used to have beef with them when I was in Raider Klan.
02:45So now having them on a tape, it just brings everything full circle.
02:49That's amazing.
02:50Was that quite healing to do that?
02:51Huh?
02:52Was that quite healing to close that circle?
02:54I mean, you're supposed to, you know?
02:55Yeah.
02:56That's awesome.
02:57You know, I was talking to another musician who's from North Carolina recently, and I
03:00was asking about how the South had influenced his music.
03:03And his thing on it was like, well, you can't, he didn't want to put it all together.
03:06He was like, you know, you can't say that North Carolina is the same as Georgia, it's
03:10the same as da da da.
03:11And he picked out Florida in particular.
03:12He was like, Florida's like, almost like it's a world into itself.
03:16And I wondered if you agreed with that, and if your music could only really have come
03:19from that place.
03:20Yeah.
03:21I mean, it's a world within itself, because you got several different parts.
03:23And the part I'm from, it's like a melting pot.
03:25So you have people that's Caribbean, you know what I'm saying?
03:29Or South American.
03:30You know what I mean?
03:31Yeah.
03:32So it's like, it's different.
03:33It's really is a melting pot, because it's just like, all right, you got people that's
03:35Dominican, Bahamian, Haitian, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan.
03:42Yeah, you just have too many, too many varieties down there.
03:46Yeah.
03:48And it definitely reflects that eclecticism, you know, but we're here at Reading, which
03:56you played before.
03:57Yeah.
03:58I wonder what your relationship with this festival is and how it feels to be back.
04:00Well, the first time I played it was two years ago.
04:03And I remember when they went off to walk in and I brought a kid on stage to do Ultimate
04:06and like, they really like Ricky, like they showed out, like they showed out in both cities,
04:11Reading and Leeds.
04:12Yeah.
04:13And that year, I think Willow Smith played that year.
04:16Wow.
04:17Wow.
04:18And you, on this leg, you were going to be supporting Korn at a show, and unfortunately
04:24you had to...
04:25My voice went out.
04:26Your voice went out.
04:27So I wondered, you know, was that a hard decision to come to?
04:31Yeah, because they were trying to see if I could still do the show.
04:33I was like, I can't do it.
04:35Like, if I can't, it was like, it was a choice.
04:39Try to do the show and mess up my voice even worse, and I can't tour, or skip the show
04:46and rebuild my voice so I can't tour and then come back here.
04:49I mean, you possibly could have got away with it.
04:51Like some of the people may have tried to get away with it, but was there a sense of
04:54trying to not want to shortchange the fans?
04:56It was more so like, man, my voice was messed up.
04:58I couldn't talk.
04:59Like, I really couldn't talk.
05:00Wow.
05:01And with Korn, like, was that a big deal for you to be playing with Korn?
05:04Because I know you liked metal when you were younger.
05:06Yeah.
05:07I mean, of course it was a big deal.
05:08I grew up listening to their music and everything.
05:10So how do you feel when the call came in, like you're playing with Korn?
05:13Oh, yeah, I was down to do it.
05:15And then, like, when it happened, it was just, couldn't talk.
05:20And you did a big, amazing MMA cover story a couple of years ago, and you were talking
05:24in that about how you have these ambitions to branch out into films and TV.
05:30And I wonder what's going on in that world with you.
05:32I mean, yeah, I'm drawing this book right now and everything.
05:36Hell Trials.
05:37Yeah, Hell Trials.
05:38Okay, let's talk about Hell Trials.
05:39What's going on with Hell Trials?
05:40Yeah, I can't tell you the story because, you know what I'm saying, I would much rather
05:44the first book be completed, then I put it out.
05:47But yeah, Hell Trials is still in the works right now and stuff like that.
05:51I'm finishing up this last volume so I can put all the volumes together and make it a
05:54graphic novel.
05:55Okay, so it's coming.
05:56Yeah, for sure.
05:57It might be next year.
05:59Holy moly.
06:00Okay, well, watch this space.
06:01Denzel Curry, thank you so much.