The second moment was when Marshall Mathers got a little too happy with his fountain pen, which resulted in signing his weed carriers D12, Detroit stalwart Obie Trice, and, of all people, Curtis fucking Jackson to Shady Records. Royce recorded some new tracks and retooled "Rock City" (by deleting the guitars from the original mix) and released Rock City 2.0, but at that point it was too late, as nobody bought the damn thing (everyone had already downloaded the original version), which led to Royce getting the boot and ending up downtrodden at the Koch graveyard. Right at the point when they realized the impossibility of the situation (not even having Eminem on the first single helped, although if you'll remember, "Rock City" sucked left nuts anyway), Rock City leaked, forcing Columbia to scrap a release in the States, instead offloading the album overseas. Columbia Records was having a hell of a time trying to sell an underground rapper to a mainstream audience anyway: in fact, they actually resorted to having Ryan fill the token rapper role on the first single from their newest (white) songstress Willa Ford (who was formerly known as the ex of one of the Backstreet Boys, but who is best known now for getting her kit off for Playboy after the music career stalled not that there is anything wrong with that), an experiment which failed miserably (although I have a clear recollection of Carson Daly on Total Request Live, who always reported with both elation and confusion whenever an artist he actually liked appeared on MTV's countdown, gratefully attempt to introduce Royce to an uncaring audience when the video dropped). The first moment was when Royce's debut album, Rock City, leaked to the Interweb. There are three specific moments in the life and career of Ryan Montgomery, also known as Royce Da 5'9", that influenced the recording of his second studio album, Death Is Certain.
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