Hungry Like The Wolf

“Can we smoke in here?” drawls Michael Wayne Atha as we sit deep in the bowels of Dublin’s Olympia. The 32-year-old rapper is an hour away from supporting Wiz Khalifa and I haven’t a bull’s notion about the venue’s smoking policy. With a mullet mohawk, copious tats and a face like Elvis, he doesn’t seem to care. A pile of ash has settled on the dressing-room floor between us by interview’s end. He seems at home. “I’m just appreciative. Crowds are so respectful over here, they’ll at least give you the opportunity to showcase music whereas in some places in the States it’s like immediately, [snaps fingers] ‘Fuck that shit, who the fuck is this dude?’ Lights out.”

Active since ‘05 but only just building a mainstream buzz and coming out with his first major LP, the frantically inventive Radioactive, it’s likely Yela never imagined winning over Dublin fans when he was making rhymes on the streets of Gadsden, Alabama.
“I’m learning more about geography through music then I ever did in school. I never imagined going to these places, but then I never really knew them to begin with. I had television and shit but... I knew that I wanted to do something that impacted the world in some way, y’know?”
It seems he’s about to do just that. This is his third tour opening for fellow high-flier Wiz and his Taylor Gang (“they’ll always have my back, we’ve just became a crew, man”), but a support slot for the Wu-Tang Clan was even bigger on a personal level.
“Culturally for me, that was a huge deal but the shows weren’t at all easy man. It shows you the different kind of fans that a different group will carry. If you open up for Insane Clown Posse in the States, you’re going to have to deal with their fans, who are so extreme. Wu-Tang Clan are the same. I’m definitely a hard pill to swallow. Stepping onstage, looking like I look? I understand that. I come from Alabama. I talk about some country ass shit. I was raised that way and I’ve adopted the ability to be a chameleon as best I can, without compromising my own art.”
Art is something dear to Atha and the concept of the album is a large part of that.
“I’m so ready for the hip-hop version of Pet Sounds, super ready for that. That’s where my soul and heart is at. I take a piece out of Outkast’s book by saying that anything’s possible musically. You just have to find the balance. I think that Radioactive’s the most legit first step I’ve taken towards that. It’s broadened everything. It’s really patriotic in a sense but there’s this slum, gutter side. For every mainstream, pop-feeling record, there’s a very dark record behind it. ‘Let’s Roll’ with Kid Rock obviously has mainstream appeal and broad, positive vibe, but then we put out ‘Throw It Up’ with Gangsta Boo and Marshall Mathers.”
The mere fact of being white and signed to Shady brings inevitable Eminem comparisons.
“I think Marshall completely laid the groundwork down on how to do this. I’ll follow the footsteps of my boss, but it’s about carving my own name out of what my elders and inspirations have done before me. At the end of the day I just want to make classics. Try to make timeless music. I’m playing guitar now, writing a lot more melody. I watched this Willie Nelson special the other night and I was just so inspired. If you’re able to even live that long, what are you going to be doing? Because I’m definitely not going to be doing [club song] ‘Good To Go’... Or I might! But it’ll have to have a maturity. I want to grow up gracefully. I’m coming of age and I want to take advantage of that.”
One place he won’t be charting that evolution, however, is on the internet. After a Twitter spat during the summer over a leaked single, he soured to the medium, though Eminem has interviewed him on it since.
“It’s way, way over the top. It creates this deprecation for surprise. You don’t always want to meet your heroes, man. There’s some things about me that should only be my business. I just keep my head out of that space so that I’m not affected by it musically. Just press play. You don’t need to scroll down and check my tweets to get what I have to say, just press play.”

Yelawolf’s Radioactive is out now on Ghet-O-Vision