Here’s the interview taken from hurricane-game.net:

VIBE: What was the difference between working with Dr. Dre on the first album [The Documentary] versus this one?

I’m a lot more polished. I think that I’m close to my prime, as far as my lyrical content… just the development of my pen alone. And then Dre, you know, we’re both a little older and a little wiser. Now it’s not like polishing off the rookie, its like he gets in he knows what to do and I know what to do and he knows me and we just gel. What comes out is nothing short of classic.

Compare that to the Pharrell experience.

We worked for 40 days and 40 nights. Long hard nights, until the morning. Mind you, Pharrell leaves the studio at 10 [p.m.], that’s his norm. But working with me, you don’t leave til’ the sun comes up. We grinded it out and we made smashes, man.

If you were to put a tour together right now to support this record, who would be on it?

I think Dre’s talking about a tour, so that would be dope. And me and Pharrell talked about going on a tour together, which would also be dope. So I think just the benefit of getting up on stage with new music for my fans, it don’t really matter who I go out with. I can go out by myself and get the job done all the same. I just cant wait to grab the mic hit the stage and hear those cheers again.

Talk to us about working on that Detox album.

I’ll let you know that right now it’s definitely, definitely going to come, and Dre’s been working harder than ever. Everybody’s been in and out the studio. I’ve been in grinding with him, I’m going back in tomorrow to actually work some more, and get it to where we can all come to that happy medium where we’re like. ‘Damn, we finally got Detox and man it’s crazy.’ I can definitely guarantee you that however long he makes us wait—he can push it back for eight more years and it’ll just be that much bigger, man—’cause Dre’s not gonna put it out until it’s 100 percent the idea he had when he started, and hopefully he picked the dates. I don’t pick the dates but I just can tell you I’ve been working on it.

You talked to Shyne while he was incarcerated, and he gave you some advice. Have you had a chance to talk to him since he’s been released?

I had a chance to talk to him real closely since he got out, not about music at all, mostly just about his head and standing up and just checking up on how he’s doing. He’s just a good friend of mine, sort of like a brother to me in hip-hop and, you know, doing all that time, everybody expected him to just come out and be like the old Shyne, but it’s gonna take a while. I’m sure he’s rough around the edges. It’s kinda like if Kobe just decides to sit it down, and you come back out your first three, it’s probably gonna be an airball, you know? You just gotta give him a little room, a little space, let him breathe and I’m sure you’ll get the old Shyne back.

He kinda came of left field with that 50 Cent diss.

That’s him man, and I’m glad he can take that 50 Cent beef with him. I’m slowly but surely phasing it out, and I might poke a little fun here and there but for the most part I’m over it.

How do you feel about the new artists out West?

I think it’s just the evolution of the West. Everybody likes to talk about the “New West” and you sort of taint those young guys when you tab them like that. You gotta give them room to breathe and let them do their thing. The most prominent out of all the new ones, I think, is probably Nipsey [Hussle] meaning that he’s gotten around the world faster than the others, and everybody else is still regional, everybody else is still on the uprise.

Okay, let’s talk about basketball. I know you’re a gamer, not just a rec player.

I really play man I still go out there 3-4 days a week and shoot it out with my boys. You know we get it on Sundays with the offseason NBA players. Now that it’s the playoffs, players from the teams that didn’t make it are available to hoop with us. A couple of cats out there from the Clippers and—

You and Baron Davis grew up together, right?

Yeah me and Baron grew up together, me and Gilbert [Arenas] grew up together. Shout out to my boy Gilbert in the halfway house doing his time for the mistake that he made, but he’s gonna get back out and ball on them next year. I’ve been talking to him and we’re gonna send him some music so he can hold his head while he’s uptown and yeah we get it in on the court, and anybody can come on out.

What do you think about Kobe Bryant and the Lakers this year?

We good. I think I could see a Denver or maybe a Dallas getting a game on us, but everybody else we going straight through. We going straight through to the championship, and I think we might catch LeBron [James] this year, and that would be beautiful, ’cause everyone wants to see Kobe and LeBron this year. Everybody wants to see that, and you know we’re gonna win that. Ain’t got no beef with LeBron, he’s a monster, but that Kobe, man, he’s that Black Mamba not to be played with.