I really like "Apologize." How did you come up with the song's concept?
Sometimes you're in a relationship and it's not like you're fighting over something negative. You can just be arguing over little things, something small. Sometimes you can just apologize and it will wipe away the whole thing. It'll help the situation. You might not feel like you're in the wrong. Sometimes you lose that battle on purpose to win the war. Just like when you play checkers – to win a game, you have to give up a few men as a strategy so you can win the game.
I thought it was interesting that you started Love's Crazy with the 23rd Psalm. On an artistic level, what does that passage mean to you?
I'm glad you asked that question. At a particular time in my life, I was about to give up music altogether. I had a lot of people telling me what I couldn't do. "You're doing it too late. Nobody's going to take you seriously. You're too young to be a CEO." All kinds of craziness, you know what I mean? I had so many of them around me that I started doubting myself. Can you imagine that? Even though I had been standing on my talents for the last 10-12 years… I was like, "Man, maybe I'm reaching too far. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe no people would want to hear from me. Maybe nobody would want to hear anything, period. Maybe the game has changed and it's on to the new whatever. Maybe I need to find another hustle or whatever." I was blessed I have great investments making money otherwise. I have the passion for music. I wanted to start my own label and I wanted to do it on an independent scale. You can draw up R&B records and you'll have the same punch as a major label but still make the independent money and still touch everybody worldwide. Independent-wise, you're looking at mostly hip hop artists that run their regions. If they've done really good in that region, they make a lot of money. I say, "Why not do it all across the world? Why not R&B artists? Why limit it to just that?"
When I started, a lot of people said no. I got a lot of that. So anybody who knows me, I'm spiritual. It's the way I live. One of the Scriptures that I hold very dear to me is the 23rd Psalm. Once I got my mind in the right direction, I started putting people around me who were really for my best interest – not just business-wise but personally cared about me. When I started reading the Bible, I started reading the Scriptures and really just grounding myself back where I need to be. I was just building myself back up because I got torn down a lot. The one thing that struck me was the 23rd Psalm. Usually when I hear those naysayers, craziness and negative stuff going on, they could be screaming negative stuff and people would be like, "Why is Slim smiling? Every time we see Slim, he's smiling. He's always positive. He's always happy." Welcome to my world. The Lord is my Shepherd, I should not want. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's bigger than man, it's bigger than me. Every night, I put all my problems and all that I'm going through in God's hands. I put it on His shoulders and I feel like as long as He got my back, I'm so good. I felt like I wanted people to understand not just great music but how Slim is as a person also. You're learning the music but you're learning how Slim is, too. That's why I started with the 23rd Psalm.
Article comments
1 - MissTheda
Clayton, Thank you so much for your great interview and the support of Slim