Photo courtesy WWE

Since his return to WWE in 2008, R-Truth has been a hip-hopping fan favorite with moderate in-ring success. A former National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Champion (and multiple time tag team champion), Truth has been on the verge of the main event picture for a couple of years. He won the United States Championship last year by defeating current WWE Champion the Miz, but lost it back to the Miz less than a month later. Proving how quickly things can change in WWE, Truth now finds himself challenging his old rival for the WWE title in a three-way match also including longtime friend John Cena at Extreme Rules on May 1. Already in possession of a future WWE Tag Team title shot thanks to his NXT rookie Johnny Curtis winning season four, Truth could finally be on the brink of breaking out of his midcard status in much the same way the Miz did last year. In the meantime, the 2008 Slammy Award winner for Best Musical Performance takes a moment to tell us about his burgeoning musical career.

This is not your first time in WWE. Has there been a difference coming back? How do you feel about coming back and having a second chance?

The difference coming back now is I’m more mature, more grown up. It’s a business, it’s an art, it’s a craft and I feel that in what I’m doing now. So it’s a big difference being here now.

Have your opportunities expanded since you’ve been back?

Oh, yeah. Definitely. I even came in with a big boom, coming down through the crowd. I had a big push and I’m in the process now of working on a video for “Like Me Now.” It will probably be done in the next three or four months.

Is that the same song you were coming out to for a while with Eve?

No, that was “Right Time.” It will still be a hip-hop/metal mix like that. It’s just something I did for Vince [McMahon] inside his office for one of the promo packs we had. I rapped it to him and he liked it and said, “Oh, you should do something with this.” So we started working on this video.

Photo courtesy WWE

Is there going to be an album coming out in the future?

Oh, yeah. Definitely. Me and Cena even talking about doing some stuff together. I’m going to branch out a little more. I’m also doing some stuff with Trick Daddy and I’m going to be doing some stuff with a lot of people outside the music industry.

Being that you’re from Atlanta, which is such a big hip-hop town, is there anybody else outside WWE you’d like to work with musically?

I’d love to do some music with [Lil] Wayne, T.I., anybody, man. You’ll probably see a lot of music from me soon, so any one of those guys that want to get down with me, I’m ready to get down with them.

Interview by Jason Von Stein and Jonathan Williams