Mike Statik
Pro
Buried In Vocabulary is fukkin too hard man... HSG goes in as well as Chino....thought dude fell off...i was wrong
Chino XL - RICANstruction
- Thread starter SwagKingKong
- Start date
Los Angeles
The Fukk U Lay That Down
won't even download this shyt fukk this fakkit for saying pac got raped
i thought Ras kass was suppose to be on this what happened with that?
MaccabeanRebel
All Star
Bout to cop...
I notice Obama isn't offically credited too, maybe it's cause he's on Viper Records lol, or Chino's opinions of him have differed now.
I can't believe people still talking about the Pac situation lol, Pac is my favourite rapper but I didn't know him to pick sides in his beefs, also apparently they squashed it anyway, Chino says they did and that's good enough for me. Chino loves Pac's music by the way, and cried when he died apparently.
That being said, personally I wouldn't of said that line he did orginally, but he was around 18 years old, gonna hold it against him forever?
Read the Obama bit from this interview lol..
ubcnn: We are definitely looking forward to hearing your song with Big Pun…
[Big Pun] is one of the greatest of all time and he is still underrated.
Dubcnn: I agree with that statement, he is unquestionably underrated and he still crushes a lot (laughing).
No doubt! Wait until you hear our song…
Dubcnn: Honestly, do you consider Lil Wayne to be a dope emcee?
Let me tell you what I think about Lil Wayne: all I know is that the most successful album that has come out in the last few years is by an artist who says that he is the best rapper. Not by an artist who says he is the biggest drug dealer, or by an artist who has f--ked the most bytches, or whatever. No, he comes out and says, I’m going to sell the most records and you should pay attention to me because of my lyrics -- and that hasn’t been done in a long time.
First of all, that makes me happy because the debate about lyrics doesn’t really exist anymore. Second, we’ve seen the evolution of Lil Wayne from bling, bling to where he is now, so I don’t see how people can’t root for him. Also, he is really, really close to Bun and Bun is like a brother to me, so anybody that is close with Bun is going to be close to me. But most importantly, from a lyrical and writing performance point of view, when I hear most emcees, not only can I always finish what they are going to say… and I know exactly what technique and what there reference was, or what they were thinking and inspired by when they wrote their lyrics. I’ve been studying [lyrics] for a really long time, breaking them down frame-by-frame, as if it was the John F Kennedy assassination. [Lil Wayne] says and does things that I completely do not expect. Not many emcees can make me go, where the f--k did that come from?
Personally, I do not pay attention to that whole Vocoder thing that people are always complaining about. My statement on Lil Wayne is this: he cares about lyrics, so how could I not care about what it is that he is doing? He is completely relevant and necessary to what the best do and what the best have done, period.
Dubcnn: I agree with that perspective.
We need to get these wack muth-f--kers out of the seats that they are sitting in. For the most part, my mind frame is let’s get it back to what it is supposed to be and move the art form.
Dubcnn: I’d really like to focus this part of the interview on your new album, The Secret…so with that said, what can fans expect when hearing it?
It is definitely much more musically and lyrically in the pocket than I have ever been before. I think it has the best hooks I’ve ever had as far as sonic, music and feeling go. The music itself has some of the best sources, because I got predominately Focus… tracks and DJ Khalil. The music is very much thought out and each work is where it is supposed to be. I have a lot about my history on the album and social commentary on what is going on in the rap world today. As a soundscape, it is definitely my best work for sure. It’s not going to go way over people’s heads; it’s going to be right there.
Dubcnn: From a business standpoint, who is releasing the record?
Machete [Records], through Universal [Music Group].
Dubcnn: You mentioned Focus… doing the majority of the production on your album.
Focus… is music. It sounds like such a blanket statement that ‘Focus… is music’ but it’s the truth. I was in the studio with this man for a whole 40 days, from 4 o’clock in the afternoon until 9 o’ clock in the morning, and I saw him play every instrument that was in the studio. Just the passion of how much he loves music and what it means to him is just amazing to watch. That’s Bernard Edwards Jr., man. I’m definitely proud to be one of his personal favorite artists to work with -- I always give him everything I can.
Dubcnn: We love his work here on Dubcnn.
He is definitely one of the best out and I’ve walked with giants.
Dubcnn: What are some of the lyrical collaborations are on The Secret?
Right now, that is still a secret, but I can tell you some of the people I worked with during the recording: I have records with Snoop, I have records with Chamillionaire, I have recorded with Bun-B, Pitbull, and Akon. I have records with Psycho Realm and Immortal Technique. As I told you before, I got the joint with [Big] Pun. I have many records to pick from with me and Crook [Crooked I]. Let me think, there is more, but…
Dubcnn: Wow! Those features are crazy!
It’s just a blessing, man, and I really can’t explain it. I don’t think that too many people talk to such a diverse group of individuals like I do. I’m in a really unique place in hip-hop. I just feel so blessed and loved and that I am able to be pushed to the front by so many people who are relevant now. I got a rhyme on the album where I say, “Focus… said Chino don’t dumb it down too much to sell / What the f--k they going to tell you about hip-hop n-gga, you’re Chino XL.”
Not to be on some arrogant s--t, but I feel like I’ve put in enough self sacrifice, obviously to the culture, that if I’m going to try some different things, or whatever, I don’t think people should hold it against me. However, you will constantly hear me do what it is that I am known for.
Dubcnn: Do you have some new videos coming out to coincide with the release?
Yeah, I do. We just shot -- Oh, sh-t! You know, I forgot to tell you that I got Barack Obama on my album. Did I really forget that (laughing)?
Dubcnn: What!? You got Barack Obama on your album?
Essentially, I had a meeting with the people who put together his Red Campaign. At first I thought it was going to be for a skateboard commercial, you know, get some exposure from some of the X-Games fans, cross promotion and marketing and get a check, boom, I’m out. Especially cause Latinos get real heavy into the Extreme sporting. Anyway, this person starts asking me about my political views and they start talking about what I’ve accomplished, this and that. He goes on to say that he was out working and he had one of my songs on his iPhone. He listened to the song so much that somebody else took his iPhone and said, “let me hear that.” So he listened to the whole song and said, “I want to deliver like that when I speak.” He then goes, “do you know who that man was?” I said, “who?” and he said, “Barack Obama and that is why you are here.” I looked at my homie that I had with me at the meeting and I said, “You cannot be serious?!” Obviously though, he was serious!
Dubcnn: That’s Crazy Chino!
So anyway, to make a long story short, I got a song called “Little Man” that’s about violence in school, cause we never see the mechanism or the minutia of what really happens in the mind. If somebody could have just stopped and noticed that this kid was a little to the side, he could have maybe been intervened… I really went into it in a way that I think nobody has before. Honestly, I felt the song was a little too irresponsible, because it didn’t have a moral fabric to it -- at least I didn’t think so. To me, the song was just narrative but, because I explained the song so well, it kind of became a message. Anyway, they contacted [Barack] Obama’s people and they got a speech of Obama cleared for me to use, so it could say, “featuring Barack Obama” on my record. It’s one of the few things I’ve done in my career where my Mom was actually proud. So yeah, I have a song on The Secret called “Little Man” featuring Barack Obama.
Dubcnn: That is so amazing! Honestly, it doesn’t get any bigger than that…
I’m know I’m saying this with such a grain of salt but that’s because I’ve had this relationship for like the last five months, so I’m a little desensitized to it.
Dubcnn: I’m blown away, Chino!
I know, I know, I was too. With him complimenting my delivery, you know, and he handles himself so eloquently…
Dubcnn: The way that Barack Obama speaks and delvers his speeches is extraordinary.
You can actually see him thinking and his mind working. It’s not like something he’s rehearsed -- he’s really off the cuff. He’s rocking off the head.
Dubcnn: Changing subjects here, do you think hip-hop and the music industry, in general, is more focused on singles then the full-length albums?
I don’t think singles, I just don’t. I can’t do it any other way and I don’t know if I should celebrate or apologize for that. The Secret never loses its theme through the whole album. Every song has like a little mystery to it. There is a certain thing that people would like to kill that I represent, or that Psycho Realm or Immortal Technique represents. Anyway, it’s definitely a conceptual [album] and I always think of my music like that.
Dubcnn: In my opinion, a lot of hip-hop has lost it’s continuity and there hasn’t really been that whole album-themed feel in a long time.
Before we started, before one beat was programmed, that was the idea. I didn’t pick tracks; Focus… went in the studio and made what he thought I should be on. Every song goes along the same theme and it all has the same feeling to it. I promise you.
Dubcnn: How important is the actual album cover artwork to you and the whole visual side of your music?
For me, it’s extremely important. It sets the tone. The semblance between what it looks like to what is feels like, is everything. You have a branding and it’s important for the way people perceive it. It’s expression, but now we have to think smaller for the creative -- and that sucks. It’s no longer a twelve inch or a CD layout; now you have to have something that will look good as a small iTunes icon.
Dubcnn: I feel that and I miss back in the day when we would sit around and talk and wonder what our favorite artist’s next album cover was going to look like.
Yea man, I do too.
Dubcnn: We can’t wait to hear the album!
ubcnn: We are definitely looking forward to hearing your song with Big Pun…
[Big Pun] is one of the greatest of all time and he is still underrated.
Dubcnn: I agree with that statement, he is unquestionably underrated and he still crushes a lot (laughing).
No doubt! Wait until you hear our song…
Dubcnn: Honestly, do you consider Lil Wayne to be a dope emcee?
Let me tell you what I think about Lil Wayne: all I know is that the most successful album that has come out in the last few years is by an artist who says that he is the best rapper. Not by an artist who says he is the biggest drug dealer, or by an artist who has f--ked the most bytches, or whatever. No, he comes out and says, I’m going to sell the most records and you should pay attention to me because of my lyrics -- and that hasn’t been done in a long time.
First of all, that makes me happy because the debate about lyrics doesn’t really exist anymore. Second, we’ve seen the evolution of Lil Wayne from bling, bling to where he is now, so I don’t see how people can’t root for him. Also, he is really, really close to Bun and Bun is like a brother to me, so anybody that is close with Bun is going to be close to me. But most importantly, from a lyrical and writing performance point of view, when I hear most emcees, not only can I always finish what they are going to say… and I know exactly what technique and what there reference was, or what they were thinking and inspired by when they wrote their lyrics. I’ve been studying [lyrics] for a really long time, breaking them down frame-by-frame, as if it was the John F Kennedy assassination. [Lil Wayne] says and does things that I completely do not expect. Not many emcees can make me go, where the f--k did that come from?
Personally, I do not pay attention to that whole Vocoder thing that people are always complaining about. My statement on Lil Wayne is this: he cares about lyrics, so how could I not care about what it is that he is doing? He is completely relevant and necessary to what the best do and what the best have done, period.
Dubcnn: I agree with that perspective.
We need to get these wack muth-f--kers out of the seats that they are sitting in. For the most part, my mind frame is let’s get it back to what it is supposed to be and move the art form.
Dubcnn: I’d really like to focus this part of the interview on your new album, The Secret…so with that said, what can fans expect when hearing it?
It is definitely much more musically and lyrically in the pocket than I have ever been before. I think it has the best hooks I’ve ever had as far as sonic, music and feeling go. The music itself has some of the best sources, because I got predominately Focus… tracks and DJ Khalil. The music is very much thought out and each work is where it is supposed to be. I have a lot about my history on the album and social commentary on what is going on in the rap world today. As a soundscape, it is definitely my best work for sure. It’s not going to go way over people’s heads; it’s going to be right there.
Dubcnn: From a business standpoint, who is releasing the record?
Machete [Records], through Universal [Music Group].
Dubcnn: You mentioned Focus… doing the majority of the production on your album.
Focus… is music. It sounds like such a blanket statement that ‘Focus… is music’ but it’s the truth. I was in the studio with this man for a whole 40 days, from 4 o’clock in the afternoon until 9 o’ clock in the morning, and I saw him play every instrument that was in the studio. Just the passion of how much he loves music and what it means to him is just amazing to watch. That’s Bernard Edwards Jr., man. I’m definitely proud to be one of his personal favorite artists to work with -- I always give him everything I can.
Dubcnn: We love his work here on Dubcnn.
He is definitely one of the best out and I’ve walked with giants.
Dubcnn: What are some of the lyrical collaborations are on The Secret?
Right now, that is still a secret, but I can tell you some of the people I worked with during the recording: I have records with Snoop, I have records with Chamillionaire, I have recorded with Bun-B, Pitbull, and Akon. I have records with Psycho Realm and Immortal Technique. As I told you before, I got the joint with [Big] Pun. I have many records to pick from with me and Crook [Crooked I]. Let me think, there is more, but…
Dubcnn: Wow! Those features are crazy!
It’s just a blessing, man, and I really can’t explain it. I don’t think that too many people talk to such a diverse group of individuals like I do. I’m in a really unique place in hip-hop. I just feel so blessed and loved and that I am able to be pushed to the front by so many people who are relevant now. I got a rhyme on the album where I say, “Focus… said Chino don’t dumb it down too much to sell / What the f--k they going to tell you about hip-hop n-gga, you’re Chino XL.”
Not to be on some arrogant s--t, but I feel like I’ve put in enough self sacrifice, obviously to the culture, that if I’m going to try some different things, or whatever, I don’t think people should hold it against me. However, you will constantly hear me do what it is that I am known for.
Dubcnn: Do you have some new videos coming out to coincide with the release?
Yeah, I do. We just shot -- Oh, sh-t! You know, I forgot to tell you that I got Barack Obama on my album. Did I really forget that (laughing)?
Dubcnn: What!? You got Barack Obama on your album?
Essentially, I had a meeting with the people who put together his Red Campaign. At first I thought it was going to be for a skateboard commercial, you know, get some exposure from some of the X-Games fans, cross promotion and marketing and get a check, boom, I’m out. Especially cause Latinos get real heavy into the Extreme sporting. Anyway, this person starts asking me about my political views and they start talking about what I’ve accomplished, this and that. He goes on to say that he was out working and he had one of my songs on his iPhone. He listened to the song so much that somebody else took his iPhone and said, “let me hear that.” So he listened to the whole song and said, “I want to deliver like that when I speak.” He then goes, “do you know who that man was?” I said, “who?” and he said, “Barack Obama and that is why you are here.” I looked at my homie that I had with me at the meeting and I said, “You cannot be serious?!” Obviously though, he was serious!
Dubcnn: That’s Crazy Chino!
So anyway, to make a long story short, I got a song called “Little Man” that’s about violence in school, cause we never see the mechanism or the minutia of what really happens in the mind. If somebody could have just stopped and noticed that this kid was a little to the side, he could have maybe been intervened… I really went into it in a way that I think nobody has before. Honestly, I felt the song was a little too irresponsible, because it didn’t have a moral fabric to it -- at least I didn’t think so. To me, the song was just narrative but, because I explained the song so well, it kind of became a message. Anyway, they contacted [Barack] Obama’s people and they got a speech of Obama cleared for me to use, so it could say, “featuring Barack Obama” on my record. It’s one of the few things I’ve done in my career where my Mom was actually proud. So yeah, I have a song on The Secret called “Little Man” featuring Barack Obama.
Dubcnn: That is so amazing! Honestly, it doesn’t get any bigger than that…
I’m know I’m saying this with such a grain of salt but that’s because I’ve had this relationship for like the last five months, so I’m a little desensitized to it.
Dubcnn: I’m blown away, Chino!
I know, I know, I was too. With him complimenting my delivery, you know, and he handles himself so eloquently…
Dubcnn: The way that Barack Obama speaks and delvers his speeches is extraordinary.
You can actually see him thinking and his mind working. It’s not like something he’s rehearsed -- he’s really off the cuff. He’s rocking off the head.
Dubcnn: Changing subjects here, do you think hip-hop and the music industry, in general, is more focused on singles then the full-length albums?
I don’t think singles, I just don’t. I can’t do it any other way and I don’t know if I should celebrate or apologize for that. The Secret never loses its theme through the whole album. Every song has like a little mystery to it. There is a certain thing that people would like to kill that I represent, or that Psycho Realm or Immortal Technique represents. Anyway, it’s definitely a conceptual [album] and I always think of my music like that.
Dubcnn: In my opinion, a lot of hip-hop has lost it’s continuity and there hasn’t really been that whole album-themed feel in a long time.
Before we started, before one beat was programmed, that was the idea. I didn’t pick tracks; Focus… went in the studio and made what he thought I should be on. Every song goes along the same theme and it all has the same feeling to it. I promise you.
Dubcnn: How important is the actual album cover artwork to you and the whole visual side of your music?
For me, it’s extremely important. It sets the tone. The semblance between what it looks like to what is feels like, is everything. You have a branding and it’s important for the way people perceive it. It’s expression, but now we have to think smaller for the creative -- and that sucks. It’s no longer a twelve inch or a CD layout; now you have to have something that will look good as a small iTunes icon.
Dubcnn: I feel that and I miss back in the day when we would sit around and talk and wonder what our favorite artist’s next album cover was going to look like.
Yea man, I do too.
Dubcnn: We can’t wait to hear the album!
Dubcnn: First of all, what is going on right now in the extra large world of Chino XL?
I am gearing up to release my album, The Secret.
Dubcnn: Well, ironically, it’s not much of a secret among diehard fans, as everyone is eagerly awaiting this new album. Anyway, does the album have any parallel or inspiration from the mega popular book, The Secret?
It has more meaning than that… The album is more along the lines of the idea of synchronicity and the idea of the laws of attraction.
Dubcnn: So the album is finished and ready for the world to hear...
Yes sir!
Dubcnn: I talk to so many people within the hip-hop community and, you know, people always have their top favorite emcee debates…so many people list you as one of their top favorite emcees of all time. The respect you have for your mic skills is unprecedented.
I appreciate that and believe me when I tell you, I don’t know how the other people who are on those lists or who are revered in those kinds of ways feel about it, but to me, it’s overwhelming. It’s like, how has some kid in South Africa been exposed to my work like that and put me in his top five emcee he’s ever heard in his lifetime -- or all the way in Australia? In many ways, I still think of myself as that same kid from Jersey who just wanted to get on.
Dubcnn: Speaking of Jersey, you are from East Orange, correct?
Yes sir!
Dubcnn: Did you ever run around with the Naughty by Nature crew?
We were actually rivals in high school… They were called The New Style back then and they were the crew to beat. Not to disrespect anybody or anything, but my rhyming and technique was way more advanced than a lot of people had heard, so it wasn’t hard for me to do what I had to do lyrically. As far as the whole performance thing goes, they had all kinds of like suits and dancers and I just went out there and tore ass out the frame. That was my thing, but they paved the ways, in many ways for the Jersey movement. Treach and I have done movies together and we are cool as hell now. But it’s great to be part of that Jersey scene initially. You had so many great artists from within a five-block radius.
Dubcnn: So did you ever battle Treach back then?
We battled during Summer School… and I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.
Dubcnn: *Laughing* I’d like to have witnessed that battle. Anyway, Lauryn Hill she’s also from Jersey…
She’s from South Orange, which is basically like the Maplewood area. Her affiliation with East Orange is through Nasty Nell, which is known to the world as Wyclef. They used to be a group called, Rappin in Many Languages. It was Wyclef, Lauryn and then Sam who was the dancer – who is better known as Prakazrel [Pras] joined the group and that’s how you got the whole Fugees thing. Wyclef has always been extremely talented.
Dubcnn: I have an old-school hip-hop head friend of mine from New York named Greyson [also a DVD Producer] and all we do is talk about hip-hop…and sometimes our hip-hop talks can get very argumentative, you know how it is with those hip-hop history discussions…
Trust me, I know and when it gets going and [then] next thing you know, it’s three hours later and you’re immersed in this whole hip-hop thing and you’re talking about ‘remember this’ and ‘remember that’ and you can just smell where you were when you heard the song “Broken Language” for the first time. Hip-hop is such a passionate thing for me and it’s such the love of my life that sometimes I’m hesitant to even get into it.
Dubcnn: Yeah, I feel that. Anyway, Greyson always says that Eminem stole his whole style of rhyming and persona from you and you were Em’s biggest lyrical inspiration. Have you heard that before?
I’ve heard that from some people… and me and Proof were pretty close and I know that in that area in Detroit they had their battle culture going on over there. Here to Save You All [Chino XL’s debut album] was veered as a very, very heavy lyrical album and Jay-Z told me himself when I worked with him that he was influenced by that, but anyway, I was listened to a lot in that [Detroit] area and I probably helped influence their sound. The uncanny thing is that Em and I probably have a lot of the same influences like [Kool] G Rap and so forth. And also numerologically speaking, he is a eight and I am a eight -- but he’s had problems with his kid’s mother and he has problems with his [own] mother and those are the kinds of things that you can’t fake and he didn’t get his life circumstances from me and he couldn’t have emulated that. Let’s just say that Eminem and I have traveled along the same rhythm a lot.
Dubcnn: Eminem is crazy nice and, in my opinion, he is one of the best that ever did it.
For sure.
Dubcnn: You obviously have the respect and the critical acclaim; but do you want to also get in the bracket as one of the best-selling emcees and have some of that mainstream or financial success?
I mean, I wouldn’t kick it out of the bed *laughs*, but the compromises you have to make to get into people’s living room… and sometimes it can be too much of a curveball, if you can’t find the exact way to do it on your own merit. Luckily, I have people who have respect for me, I stay in constant communication with the people who follow me, and I let them know that I am going to try some new and different things, so the people ride with me…
There is a certain longevity that an artist like me -- and I don’t want to say ‘artist like me’ per se because I do have a unique thing that no one else has -- the way my genres are so crossed, the way some people say I’m on a legendary thing, but I’m really younger than Rakim and all of those dudes. Another thing, I’m in the class bracket with Canibus and Rass [Kass] and some of the greats like that. I intermingle with people like Bun-B and I always stay very relevant. I’m a Latino artist also, and I’m an East-Coast human being, but a West-Coast artist, so I got all of these different things that I speak for. I represent so many different things. (Long Pause) If I had to make 15 million dollars off of this business in my lifetime, I would definitely be more happy spreading it out the way that I have been doing, instead of just getting it all in one shot and end up being a laughing stock, or not being able to look myself in the face because I became a cheap commercial for myself. I’m happy with what I have done so far and I’m still able to respect myself.
Dubcnn: Interesting…
Keep in mind, my first single [“Kreep”] that broke me to the world was a remake to a Radiohead song, and it was all over MTV and BET, so I’ve always experimented a little bit.
Dubcnn: Radiohead is such an impressive group, period.
It was such a blessing when I remade that “Kreep” record and they cleared my interpolation of their song in two days… The quote from the lead singer [Thom Yorke] was ‘Chino made my song better than I made it.’
Dubcnn: That’s crazy!
Jonathan, it’s just amazing to me and sometimes I just get choked up about it that you really do have this labor of love and you send it to the world and, in some kind of way, that vibration goes to the people that it is supposed to and somehow they find it. Some kind of invisible, weird morph thing travels through the universe and the people who can’t see it, can’t see it and then boom it hits the target. It hits the little kid who is just like you and feels misplaced, it hits the person who is being abused by their stepfather and they need to find something to hold on to. It hits the people who think that lyrics don’t matter, it hits the Latino emcee trying to get out their neighborhood…it inspires the target some kid of way, without a whole bunch of radio or video play or even without retail and it just find it’s mark and when it does that, it doesn’t do nothing but make me stronger…
Dubcnn: That’s deep and very inspiring, Chino, you have a legacy and a mark that will go further than any amount of money will go.
I really appreciate that. I go in and out of these phases where I’m not sure about what I am going to do next and you look for a sign, or an omen or something… I remember one time I was watching something on the History Channel about the Thrilla in Manila – the [Muhammad] Ali and [Joe] Frazier fight -- and they weren’t talking about how much money Ali made, or what kind of car he drove, or what his homies were thinking, they talked about the fight, that moment in time, and what it meant. It kind of chipped away at certain illusions that I had about what it is that we are really doing. This literature or this vibration can hit a global village for the next person to catch, or for another person to relate to. It is really about the achievement or accomplishment a lot more than the commerce on certain levels. I just always stay true to myself.
Dubcnn: With you being a Latino emcee with heavy ties in the game, did you ever get the honor to work with Big Pun?
Back in the day, Fat Joe’s manager was helping me with so much stuff from organizing my tour, to merchandising endorsements and so forth. There were a lot of places down South that Pun and Joe would open up for me when they were bringing Pun up. I know Pun had crazy admiration and love and respect for what I do. People who worked with Pun used to tell me that he would bring my music to the studio everyday to listen and study it. However, me actually doing a song with him…no, but I do have a project that everybody is about to hear with him.
Dubcnn: Really?
Yeah, and it is vocals [from Big Pun] that no one has ever heard. It gives people chills because it sounds like he is still alive. So I can’t say before he was in heaven, but we are collabing now. I’m telling you, when you hear it, you will get chills because it sounds like he wrote to the beat when he was alive, way better than I could.
Dubcnn: When will people be able to hear that?
It’s on The Secret.
I am gearing up to release my album, The Secret.
Dubcnn: Well, ironically, it’s not much of a secret among diehard fans, as everyone is eagerly awaiting this new album. Anyway, does the album have any parallel or inspiration from the mega popular book, The Secret?
It has more meaning than that… The album is more along the lines of the idea of synchronicity and the idea of the laws of attraction.
Dubcnn: So the album is finished and ready for the world to hear...
Yes sir!
Dubcnn: I talk to so many people within the hip-hop community and, you know, people always have their top favorite emcee debates…so many people list you as one of their top favorite emcees of all time. The respect you have for your mic skills is unprecedented.
I appreciate that and believe me when I tell you, I don’t know how the other people who are on those lists or who are revered in those kinds of ways feel about it, but to me, it’s overwhelming. It’s like, how has some kid in South Africa been exposed to my work like that and put me in his top five emcee he’s ever heard in his lifetime -- or all the way in Australia? In many ways, I still think of myself as that same kid from Jersey who just wanted to get on.
Dubcnn: Speaking of Jersey, you are from East Orange, correct?
Yes sir!
Dubcnn: Did you ever run around with the Naughty by Nature crew?
We were actually rivals in high school… They were called The New Style back then and they were the crew to beat. Not to disrespect anybody or anything, but my rhyming and technique was way more advanced than a lot of people had heard, so it wasn’t hard for me to do what I had to do lyrically. As far as the whole performance thing goes, they had all kinds of like suits and dancers and I just went out there and tore ass out the frame. That was my thing, but they paved the ways, in many ways for the Jersey movement. Treach and I have done movies together and we are cool as hell now. But it’s great to be part of that Jersey scene initially. You had so many great artists from within a five-block radius.
Dubcnn: So did you ever battle Treach back then?
We battled during Summer School… and I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.
Dubcnn: *Laughing* I’d like to have witnessed that battle. Anyway, Lauryn Hill she’s also from Jersey…
She’s from South Orange, which is basically like the Maplewood area. Her affiliation with East Orange is through Nasty Nell, which is known to the world as Wyclef. They used to be a group called, Rappin in Many Languages. It was Wyclef, Lauryn and then Sam who was the dancer – who is better known as Prakazrel [Pras] joined the group and that’s how you got the whole Fugees thing. Wyclef has always been extremely talented.
Dubcnn: I have an old-school hip-hop head friend of mine from New York named Greyson [also a DVD Producer] and all we do is talk about hip-hop…and sometimes our hip-hop talks can get very argumentative, you know how it is with those hip-hop history discussions…
Trust me, I know and when it gets going and [then] next thing you know, it’s three hours later and you’re immersed in this whole hip-hop thing and you’re talking about ‘remember this’ and ‘remember that’ and you can just smell where you were when you heard the song “Broken Language” for the first time. Hip-hop is such a passionate thing for me and it’s such the love of my life that sometimes I’m hesitant to even get into it.
Dubcnn: Yeah, I feel that. Anyway, Greyson always says that Eminem stole his whole style of rhyming and persona from you and you were Em’s biggest lyrical inspiration. Have you heard that before?
I’ve heard that from some people… and me and Proof were pretty close and I know that in that area in Detroit they had their battle culture going on over there. Here to Save You All [Chino XL’s debut album] was veered as a very, very heavy lyrical album and Jay-Z told me himself when I worked with him that he was influenced by that, but anyway, I was listened to a lot in that [Detroit] area and I probably helped influence their sound. The uncanny thing is that Em and I probably have a lot of the same influences like [Kool] G Rap and so forth. And also numerologically speaking, he is a eight and I am a eight -- but he’s had problems with his kid’s mother and he has problems with his [own] mother and those are the kinds of things that you can’t fake and he didn’t get his life circumstances from me and he couldn’t have emulated that. Let’s just say that Eminem and I have traveled along the same rhythm a lot.
Dubcnn: Eminem is crazy nice and, in my opinion, he is one of the best that ever did it.
For sure.
Dubcnn: You obviously have the respect and the critical acclaim; but do you want to also get in the bracket as one of the best-selling emcees and have some of that mainstream or financial success?
I mean, I wouldn’t kick it out of the bed *laughs*, but the compromises you have to make to get into people’s living room… and sometimes it can be too much of a curveball, if you can’t find the exact way to do it on your own merit. Luckily, I have people who have respect for me, I stay in constant communication with the people who follow me, and I let them know that I am going to try some new and different things, so the people ride with me…
There is a certain longevity that an artist like me -- and I don’t want to say ‘artist like me’ per se because I do have a unique thing that no one else has -- the way my genres are so crossed, the way some people say I’m on a legendary thing, but I’m really younger than Rakim and all of those dudes. Another thing, I’m in the class bracket with Canibus and Rass [Kass] and some of the greats like that. I intermingle with people like Bun-B and I always stay very relevant. I’m a Latino artist also, and I’m an East-Coast human being, but a West-Coast artist, so I got all of these different things that I speak for. I represent so many different things. (Long Pause) If I had to make 15 million dollars off of this business in my lifetime, I would definitely be more happy spreading it out the way that I have been doing, instead of just getting it all in one shot and end up being a laughing stock, or not being able to look myself in the face because I became a cheap commercial for myself. I’m happy with what I have done so far and I’m still able to respect myself.
Dubcnn: Interesting…
Keep in mind, my first single [“Kreep”] that broke me to the world was a remake to a Radiohead song, and it was all over MTV and BET, so I’ve always experimented a little bit.
Dubcnn: Radiohead is such an impressive group, period.
It was such a blessing when I remade that “Kreep” record and they cleared my interpolation of their song in two days… The quote from the lead singer [Thom Yorke] was ‘Chino made my song better than I made it.’
Dubcnn: That’s crazy!
Jonathan, it’s just amazing to me and sometimes I just get choked up about it that you really do have this labor of love and you send it to the world and, in some kind of way, that vibration goes to the people that it is supposed to and somehow they find it. Some kind of invisible, weird morph thing travels through the universe and the people who can’t see it, can’t see it and then boom it hits the target. It hits the little kid who is just like you and feels misplaced, it hits the person who is being abused by their stepfather and they need to find something to hold on to. It hits the people who think that lyrics don’t matter, it hits the Latino emcee trying to get out their neighborhood…it inspires the target some kid of way, without a whole bunch of radio or video play or even without retail and it just find it’s mark and when it does that, it doesn’t do nothing but make me stronger…
Dubcnn: That’s deep and very inspiring, Chino, you have a legacy and a mark that will go further than any amount of money will go.
I really appreciate that. I go in and out of these phases where I’m not sure about what I am going to do next and you look for a sign, or an omen or something… I remember one time I was watching something on the History Channel about the Thrilla in Manila – the [Muhammad] Ali and [Joe] Frazier fight -- and they weren’t talking about how much money Ali made, or what kind of car he drove, or what his homies were thinking, they talked about the fight, that moment in time, and what it meant. It kind of chipped away at certain illusions that I had about what it is that we are really doing. This literature or this vibration can hit a global village for the next person to catch, or for another person to relate to. It is really about the achievement or accomplishment a lot more than the commerce on certain levels. I just always stay true to myself.
Dubcnn: With you being a Latino emcee with heavy ties in the game, did you ever get the honor to work with Big Pun?
Back in the day, Fat Joe’s manager was helping me with so much stuff from organizing my tour, to merchandising endorsements and so forth. There were a lot of places down South that Pun and Joe would open up for me when they were bringing Pun up. I know Pun had crazy admiration and love and respect for what I do. People who worked with Pun used to tell me that he would bring my music to the studio everyday to listen and study it. However, me actually doing a song with him…no, but I do have a project that everybody is about to hear with him.
Dubcnn: Really?
Yeah, and it is vocals [from Big Pun] that no one has ever heard. It gives people chills because it sounds like he is still alive. So I can’t say before he was in heaven, but we are collabing now. I’m telling you, when you hear it, you will get chills because it sounds like he wrote to the beat when he was alive, way better than I could.
Dubcnn: When will people be able to hear that?
It’s on The Secret.
So Jay Z said he was influenced by Chino's Here To Save You All?
Chino interview on Pac...
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kcm3wf4aIk[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kcm3wf4aIk[/ame]
Dump Gawd
Im Exactly What You Think
been listening to the album the whole day
this dude definitely deserves my money
great album
never thought chino could make songs like father's day
just dope hip hop shyt brehs
@Tetris v2.0
this dude definitely deserves my money
great album
never thought chino could make songs like father's day
just dope hip hop shyt brehs
@Tetris v2.0
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Still bumpin this.
If anybody gets that Kings instrumental that would be ill.
If anybody gets that Kings instrumental that would be ill.