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BallerStatus.com: You touched up on this already but you mentioned Boyz II Men, and Jodeci. Back in the 90's there were some real grown ups in terms of firepower, but as of now, there's barely a spark. Outside of Day 26, do you feel R&B male groups are a dying breed?

Slim: Well you know what? It doesn't really feel like what it was about 4-5 years ago when the only group who was really making noise, even from a mainstream side was Destiny's Child. The competition is definitely different. I call the 90s the golden era, where the groups were explosive. Not to mention when you had Blackstreet, and the rest of those incredible groups. They were selling millions, and this was who we were on stage with night, after night, after night. Let's not forget New Edition. They were doing their thing too. It's like wow. As of right now, you can't really take anything away from Day 26 because they are a talented bunch of guys. It was just that we come from an era where it was very strong. ...

BallerStatus.com: Normally when musical acts sever ties with their labels, they want nothing to do with them afterwards. What was admirable with you guys was when you guys severed ties with Bad Boy, you and Diddy were still cool. The love was still there. How were you guys able to maintain a relationship like that with Puff even though he knew 112 left the label?

Slim: Well, the problem wasn't really with Diddy. 112 never really wanted to leave Bad Boy. I'm speaking for myself. Slim never wanted to leave Bad Boy. The problem was that 112 was tied into a production deal that was horrible, financially speaking. For us taking care of our family, you want to do things for your parents, your family, and for yourself. The production deal was horrible. There was no way that we could live. It was just impossible with the numbers in that type of a deal. So what we did was, when we finished the production agreement ... people didn't even know this but we weren't directly signed to Bad Boy. We were signed through that production deal to Bad Boy. When we finished the agreement with the production deal, it automatically knocked us off of Bad Boy. When we became free agents, we became free agents at the top of our game. That's great when you're an athlete or anybody. When you become a free agent, you come on the block, and people start coming at you. You know the great thing about me, is that everybody starts coming at us, and we ended up getting an incredible deal. (Laughs)