Chamillionaire: The Sound of Revenge

September 27, 2005

Wednesday - September 21, 2005

Brian Sims

Much has been written over the last 18 months about Hip Hop movement in Houston. Texas has all but taken over in terms of fan base and influence, with artists enjoying platinum record sales and national audiences; as well as independent label success and homegrown support.

But when offered the chance to talk with another artist from the Lone Star state, I was skeptical. I couldn’t help but wonder when the talented wave of original, talented artists making noise down south would eventually give way to a trickle of Johnny-come-lately imitators, eager to jump on the bandwagon with a gimmick and a smile.

Chamillionaire put my worries to rest. What I found was a delightfully informed artist, just fresh enough to be optimistic, just seasoned enough to sensible. The full story of his life and triumphs in rap is sure to told in the future, so we focus here on his thoughts about the industry, family, his famous Texas rap colleagues, taking sides in Houston, and of course, The Sound of Revenge.

Labels have been woo-ing Chamillionaire since his promising debut on the Texas Indie scene a few years ago. In the end, Universal Records won him over, and the once annointed Mixtape Messiah brought his Chamillitary imprint to the Universal family late last year.

“It’s going well. You know, the whole building is supporting me. A lot of artists get on a a major… and they’ll be on a major but they won’t have that support, the building won’t be out there everyday pushing hard. I feel like I’m about to have a very big push from Universal and hopefully the rest of the world will have a chance to see that.”

A great deal went into his decision to deal with Universal. No stranger to big business, he was initially reluctant to sign, and for good reason. Chamillionaire, with long time friend Paul Wall, helped start a group known as the Color Changin Click. Their very first album Get Ya Mind Correct sold over 100,000 copies independently and was nominated for Indie Album of the Year in The Source, ending all speculation about his ability to sell major units. He knew about the pitfalls of the music recording industry for artists, and was cautious. He had the credentials. He wanted respect.

HHDX: What went into your decision to go with Universal?

It was a respect factor. You know, you deal with all of theses majors and they call themselves major labels and they have A&R’s and all these people that they have on their payroll but they not doing the research. It’s a lot of people out there that will get deals and they barely did anything. Then you have artists out there that are really doing it, doing a lot, making good music and they don’t get signed. I was never getting that respect. At least come to me with a deal that makes sense. Like all these deals that you see: it’s designed for the artist to fail, it’s little cheap chump change types of deals they make it look so big and put so much sugar on it. I feel like Universal came in there with the right mind. They looked at me like a partner, like how we could do business together. They followed my ideas and they called me Chamillionaire (pronounced Ka-millioniare) not Cha-millionaire, you know? They did a little research and did the background and told me how they were gonna sign me before and and I felt like I was gonna be ok in that building if I just learned the system. The one thing that kept me away, the one reason I thought I wasn’t gonna sign with Universal is that I didn’t know how Universal works. And all I could see on the outside is that they drop a lot of artists. They put out a lot of people and they put out so many acts that they wasn’t gonna focus on me. Then I did my research and realized that I can make some money in this system.

Born to a Muslim father and Christian mother, Chamillionaire's family moved to Houston when he was only 4 and settled on the north side of town. His father was determined to keep his children on the straight and narrow path and the legacy of that strict upbringing remains to this day.

“When I was coming up I couldn’t really… rap wasn’t big in my household. You couldn’t just be jamming hip hop all day. My parents weren’t really big on that. My dad was real strict in the house… Do your school work, you can’t make bad grades, that type of stuff. I never really used to study, I just made good grades. I would just be in class bored drawing. I used to be real artistic, and that’s how the rap thing started, I just started messing with rap in my school book. But I used to write sloppy on purpose because I didn’t want my dad to know I was writing raps. And then who would’ve known that that would have been what’s paying me- I got my mom a crib. That’s just the way fate happens.

As a teenager, Chamillionaire convinced Houston icon Michael Watts to give he and Paul Wall a chance. It wasn’t long before the two began recording and more and more mixtapes for Watts and the street buzz they garnered led to them becoming fixtures at the Swisha House along with artists like Slim Thug.

“Yeah, when I was on Swishahouse I came up doing mixtapes. I’m doing mixtape freestyles, I’m just a lil young artist just like a lot of people out there that’s gonna read this interview. You gotta dream big to rap and then reality sinks in, and you start having to pay bills. And your family needs bills. And you family has problems. You’re this big hot rapper in the streets. Everybody knows your mixtapes- you rapping about diamonds and bling bling. And you going back to your family and they eating cereal for dinner and all kinda stuff like that. Then you wanna change your life. So every time we’d do shows we’d always be told you gotta pay your dues. So its like cool, I’m on an internship. But it got to the point where I was being an intern for so long and wasn’t getting paid that I just had to make better and I just broke off and started doing my own thing. Me and Paul left that. We were tired off not getting money over here. And that was just the reality. I take my hat off to Swishahouse for putting me on. But that’s what it was. It is what it is. I had to go do what I had to go do.”

Fast forward to today and much has changed. Texas is at the bottom of the map, and the top of the charts. With the exit of several artists from Swishahouse amidst an aire of ‘creative differences’ I wanted to know exactly what Chamillionaire thought of some of his peers.

HHDX: I’m going to throw out some names and you tell me what comes to mind….

Bun B.

Bun B, man that’s like one of my boys man. He’s like a mentor to me. I talk to him all the time. He gives me game. He’s like an O-G in this game. He’ll always tell me his advice on stuff in the past. Everybody looks up to him lyrically and musically.

Lil Flip.

Lil Flip? I’m cool with Lil Flip too. A lot of people say a lot of bad stuff about Flip. And I don’t get involved with another man’s beef, but all I can say is that Flip had made a promise to me I had did a hook for him on the Underground Legend album and I was just an underground rapper trying to make it and he put me on his album (which went platinum by the way). And I feel like he extended his hand out to me and put me on his album to at least give me a chance. Some people would have been like “What are you doing? Why are you putting these people on your album, you got a budget, you could go get somebody big, somebody major.” He promised he would come back and give me a verse in exchange for that. And then he had already went platinum way later, and he came back and gave me a verse. You know? I mean he came to the studio with a bullet proof vest; but he still came back and kept his word. So all I can judge him off of is his word.

Scarface.

That’s another one of the mentors, the O-G’s. When I call him and talk to him we don’t even talk about music. We be talking about some whole other stuff. Scarface is on a whole different level mentally. He’s on some deep empowerment type stuff. He’ll be talking about what you could do to take the stress out your life, like “Let’s go kick it on a ranch.” He be on some other stuff like that. And that’s why I like Face. And at the same time he’s not really just one of those industry people. In the industry everybody know’s Face. But he keeps it, he just does him. You not gonna call him and he’ll be like “My stylist this…or my A&R that.” He keeps it all the way real. That’s another legend that a lot of people in the south look up to. Our relationship is cool. Straight up.

Paul Wall.

Paul Wall… he’s like a former…he used to be like a brother to me. Me and him came up together, we did our thing, we had our run for a while but times change. Divide and conquer. A lot of people came in said stuff to him, said stuff to me, and just split the whole thing up. I just think it was meant to be this way. I don’t wish for it to go back or anything like that. I feel like everything happens for a reason. You find out a lot of stuff in life and you learn a lot of stuff by the way things happen. It’s kinda like, even with my life, the way I grew up, me and him grew up different. Even though we grew up together. When I went back to my house my lifestyle was different then when he went back to his house. I feel like it was just meant to be that way. I learned a lot from everything that happened with me and him. I guess I could say a former friend.

Slim Thug.

That’s my boy too. I’m cool with Slim Thug. I don’t get involved with anybody’s beef. I just do me. I ain’t never had a problem with Slim Thug. When I first coming into the Swisha House and I was trying to figure out what to do to get that money in there I was seeing what he was doing. He was doing a lot of stuff. At the time he was the most popular artist at Swisha House and I was just a rookie coming in when he was already established. I seen a lot of stuff that he did; how we was handling his business with (Michael) Watts. I’m a person that kinda just sits in the cut and peeps stuff and figures out how to make it work for me. So I got a lot out of that. And he was one of the biggest names when it comes to chopped and screwed stuff on the north side. When it wasn’t even cool, when the north side wasn’t even doing it. He was coming in there yelling north side, and I thought that was gangsta. I’ve always been cool with Slim Thug.

(As a matter of fact, the self-proclaimed Boss of the North recently weighed in on the whole north side /south side Houston divide….)

So I’ll ask you: What’s it really like?

Ahh…it used to be bad, it used to be straight south side and they used to be separate. But times have changed. Houston is more united, south side and north side are hanging together now. A person on the south side can ride a candy blue car and nobody is gonna think just cause he’s riding candy blue he gotta be from the north side. Before, a candy red car meant you was on the south side and a candy blue car meant you was on the nouth side. But now, people are more mature. It’s not all that little nonsense that used to go on before. It s a city that’s big and rich in culture, especially as far as the car culture. People are big on their cars and their diamonds…and the gold teeth. We do it big in Texas.

(Oh, and by the way, Chamillionaire also has a new album.)

As far as the features I got Killa Mike, Pastor Troy, Bun B, Scarface, Lil Wayne, Lil Flip, and Krayzie Bone. I just tried to make a real lyrical southern album. Just be that breath of fresh air. I know its some people that’s gonna expect me to come with the Texas sound and all that, but I’m a person who thinks ahead. I see people doing that and that’s cool. It’s Texas. But I just want to be different than everybody else. When me and Paul came out with Get Ya Mind Correct it was different, it sold a lot. A lot of people were on some freestyle stuff, and that came out with catchy hooks and different types of beats, but it was still Texas. That’s what I plan to do with this album. People look at the south like we all on the simple lyrical stuff and I felt like I’ma come and fill this void right now. All the greats that came through and everybody that’s successful filled some type of void. When people get stagnant with the same type of music, that’s when somebody comes along with something new. For example Cash Money came through with whoaday and people didn’t know what they were talking about. Same thing with Atlanta and St. Louis. I’ve always been a different type of artist.

For a lot of people their first taste of Chamillionaire was as a featured artist on The Longest Yard soundtrack. However, he’s clear that it’s impossible to characterize his sound with one song.

That’s one thing too, cause with a lot of artists you can judge them off of a couple songs. With me, you can’t even judge me off a couple songs. I could pull out the stash and let you hear and you’d be like “Whoa, this don’t sound nothing like that other one”, I just try to switch it up every time. David (Banner) and I came with the rap beat on that, and me and him jumped on it. And we just did that. It was more crunk and more upbeat then what I normally do, but that’s what I am: I’m a risk taker. So with this album especially I’m taking a lot of different risks, I’m doing a lot of different stuff. Some albums you could listen to one song and you heard ‘em all. That’s not the case with my album.

The album is titled The Sound of Revenge. Are you, in fact, out for revenge?

Success is the best revenge. I named my album the sound of revenge because I’m going to let them know what revenge sounds like…how to be successful and make good music. I said I’d call it the sound of revenge to show people that I’m gonna be successful. Then you’re gonna appreciate my story that much more. When you find out about my life and everything I’ve been through.

Obviously much of the Gulf Coast has been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Much of the hip hop community has already responded with relief efforts and support. Do you feel a responsibility as an artist to be a role model?

That’s like a conscious thing. It’s in you or its not. That has a lot to do with the upbringing more than the music. Some people are just those types of people. Like I’m out here with David Banner and he’s trying to do a benefit concert. Hopefully I can get on that. It’s just in you or not in you to do that type of stuff. You can’t force somebody to do it. You can’t say that just because their music is up on the screen that they have to be a role model ‘cause they might not be built for that. If you’re really holding guns and shooting pistols all day, who’s gonna tell you to be a role model? You might not be a good role model. That’s just how I feel about it. If you are blessed with a successful career and a lot of people are buying your records you should give back. You should do stuff like that. But that’s me; that’s my opinion. And if somebody doesn’t do it I don’t look bad at em. That’s them. I don’t look over when somebody putting their money in the church pot, I just put what I’m putting in there.