[Iceman]

With Kanye West and Jay-Z's Watch the Throne in pop-up stores and a joint Drake and Lil Wayne album on the horizon, hip-hop collaborations are the latest buzz topic. A four-man collective that should be in the discussion is Slaughterhouse, consisting of Crooked I, Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz and recent MTV "RapFix Live" guest Royce Da 5'9". Royce revealed on RapFix that the next Slaughterhouse album — their eponymous debut dropped in 2009 — may arrive by year's end.

"Very soon, very soon," Royce said when asked about the next Slaughterhouse project's status. "We're working on the project right now. We're actually going to Atlanta on Thursday [August 11]. All the guys, we're all getting together and going in with some heavy-hitting producers. Hopefully, we'll have a single out by the end of the year, if not the album."

At the top of the year, the supergroup of veteran MCs signed a recording deal with Eminem's Shady Records. Four distinct personalities and voices could mean inevitable dissension, but Nickel Nine insists that is far from the case. He detailed how one particular difference of opinion among the group was mediated.

"Never that," Royce said. "The last discussion we had where people didn't agree — it wasn't an argument, but it was just us talking — was where we were going to record at because the last two times was in Detroit. I never want to make them feel like they have to come to Detroit just because me and Marshall [Eminem] are there. So I'm always willing to compromise in that way. Crooked wanted to go and take advantage of having Marshall in our corner. Joey wanted a change of environment — he wants to go to Atlanta. Joell was just in the middle. That's what happens when you have four different people. We just got on the phone and it ended up being Atlanta. We take votes, we do everything fair."

Finally, Royce assured fans that new music is definitely on the way, saying, "It'll at least be a single, I guarantee you that," by December. "Because we got one right now that I think can go. I think it can be the first thing we can go out there with," he added.