Travis Barker laid down the initial tracks for his solo debut Give The Drummer Get Some over three years ago, but production on the album was derailed during the recovery period that followed his harrowing 2008 plane crash. The tatted drummer, one third of Blink 182, has finally released the completed project with features from Slash, Corey Taylor, and Tom Morello but it was the long-list of hip-hop artists that caught some fans off guard. However, after years of solo work with the late DJ AM, several hip-hop productions, and a monumental Grammy performance with Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Drake last year—it’s fair to say that all musical signs have been pointing toward hip-hop.

You’re well-known as the drummer from Blink 182. Does it surprise you that people are taken aback by the hip-hop lean on Give The Drummer Some? The people who slept on what I’ve been doing for the past six years are surprised. For the past seven or eight years, I haven’t been in Blink or in any band, so it comes as a shock to me. I was playing with DJ AM and doing remixes and production for a lot of hip-hop projects, so it surprises me when people still ask how it all came about. In a recent interview, you were quoted as describing those surprised people as “Nazis.” The problem with that interview, which I’m dealing with right now, is that the journalist didn’t bother to print his own questions. His question was, “What do you have to say to the haters that hate rap music, that think you’re a “tweaker” or a “wigger” because you play hip-hop music?” So it was only right that I hit him back with an ignorant answer. I think anyone that would call me a “wigger” or a “tweaker” or something worse--those people are Nazis. Just because of skin color you’re going to insult someone for playing hip-hop or country music? It’s weird to me. I think the days of labeling people and calling them names based on the music they listen to are long gone. If people are still thinking like that, it’s so ignorant that I can’t even entertain it for a minute.

You dropped the mixtape Let The Drummer Get Wicked a month before the album. Why did you release the projects within such a short time frame? I was about three-quarters of the way through the album when I connected with DJ Whoo Kid about the mixtape. I had records that didn’t make the album—including “Snap”—and a couple originals that were just floating around. I figured I would just throw a couple songs on it, but Whoo Kid kept giving me amazing tracks from artists that hadn’t been released, or from people who wanted to contribute. The mixtape ended up being nineteen songs, way bigger and better than I had envisioned. It was also cool for my fans who were fiending for the album and hadn’t heard any music from me in a minute. I was off in the studio for months--which turned into years--working on this.

Two songs on Give The Drummer Some were recorded prior to the plane crash. Did they remain unchanged? The two tracks were “Can A Drummer Get Some?” and “Just Chill (Fuck The World).” “Can A Drummer Get Some?” changed a bit because Lil Wayne put a new verse on it and it’s now the version I play live, but everything else is exactly the same as it was three and a half years ago when it was recorded. On “Just Chill” Beanie Siegel added a new verse about six months ago, before I turned my record in.

The list of artists on the mixtape and album—Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Lupe Fiasco, Pharrell—reads like a record label roster. Did you have relationships with all of the artists prior to collaborating? There’s no one on my album that I hadn’t already known or worked with. It was just a matter of making the album and calling on friends and the people I’d met over the last seven years. When I played with DJ AM I came across people I never thought I’d ever meet or be friends with.

You play drums on the entire album, but how did you decide which rappers to pair with each track? I matched up the beats with guests, depending on what each beat sounded like. I would go in, record something, make a beat, and then think, “This sounds like this person to me,” or “I can hear so and so on this verse.”

There are verses from emcees like Raekwon and RZA, to breakout rappers like Kid Cudi and more recently, Yelawolf. If you’d finished production three years ago, as planned, would the scope of this album have been very different? The accident definitely gave me more time than I would’ve had otherwise, but I already knew most artists like Kid Cudi way before my plane crash. While working with DJ AM, Cudi actually performed with us before anyone knew who he was. Yelawolf is one of the few guests that I’ve met post-plane crash, however, so every little bit of time helped. After my crash it was more than just “I’ve gotta finish my album”—it felt like I was finishing it for Lil’ Chris, Jay, and Adam who had all passed away. They were a big part of my album, not in the sense that they were guests on it, but just for making me believe in myself enough to even make an album.

Everyone’s talking about the hip-hop features, but you did include rock artists like Slash, Tom Morello and Corey Taylor. I grew up on Rage Against the Machine, so Tom Morello has been a friend for a long time, just like Slash has. I’ve worked with Corey Taylor [of Slipknot] before and was so impressed with his diversity and how great of a singer he was, I just knew I could vibe with him. They were pretty much no-brainers because they’re all so talented. When I was on the way home from Europe, I tweeted “I’m finishing up my album,” because I was working a lot on the boat ride and Slash replied, “What’s up, am I still on the album?” Are you kidding me? Slash is hitting me up to see if I have room for him on my album? Of course! I’ll wait and not put out my album so Slash can get on it. Do you really have plans to record a video for every track on the album? Slowly, but surely, yes. “Can A Drummer Get Some?” and “Saturday Night”—with Slash, Transplants—are already done, we’re just editing now. I shot a lot of videos before I left home that are just in the process of being edited and I hope to film some more while I’m out here on the road. Filming videos for all sixteen songs is very ambitious. I’m not going to come out with an album every year, so I wanted visuals attached to each song. I had great artists like David Choe and Mister Cartoon do all the artwork, so every song on my album has a piece of artwork to accompany it. And every song will have a video to accompany it, as well. It’s just what I wanted to do. In a perfect world, the videos would've been released simultaneously with the album, but I just didn’t have time to get everything done the way I would’ve loved it. But it’s kind of cool because over the next nine months I’ll be leaking the videos for every song. It lets the album live a little longer. What’s up next? I’m working on a new Blink 182 album and finishing a Transplants album as well. I’m already in the middle of both, so it’s just a matter of when I get home from this tour [Lil Wayne's I Am Music II tour], and when I can jump back in the studio and wrap those up. Understandably, you’re not a big fan of flying anymore—has it been difficult to work since you only travel by land or sea? My album would’ve been out last September but it took me 17 days—it was supposed to take ten—to get home from Europe on a boat, after the last tour. It’s a pain in the butt, but it’s a lot better than flying, at least for me.