Chamillionaire: One Proud Underdog

By Will “Deshair” Foskey

      2-time 2007 Grammy nominee and clearly 2006’s out-of-nowhere, breakthrough artist Chamillionaire is readying his March sophomore album release, “Ultimate Victory”. In 2006, Koopa brought home a list of awards as well as a Platinum plague for his debut album, “The Sound of Revenge”. He was also crowned the biggest selling Ringtone artist ever in 2006, with 3.2 million Ringtone sales, certified by the RIAA as the first multi-platinum Mastertone artist in history.

      In our conversation (12-20-06), Chamillionaire talks about his new album which is still in the works, his lack of feeling vengeful in ’07 & why his feature on 20/20 that was based around his 2006 smash “Ridin” (Racial Profiling) was cancelled.

Honestly, after the year you’ve just had, is the “revenge” part of your movement over with?

Chamillionaire: Yes, definitely. I’m glad that you’ve asked that question because it leads to the title of my new album, “Ultimate Victory”. I spent this past year working so hard, trying to get my revenge that I didn’t have anytime to enjoy it. So I’m through with seeking revenge, I just want to enjoy life now.

There’s wasn’t much publicized on why 20/20 backed out on featuring you on their show to talk about profiling… now that some time has passed since then, would you like to speak on the reason why you feel that your segment was cancelled?

Chamillionaire: Originally, I was told that the feature was cancelled because the slot was already filled. But to me, the cancellation just happened to quick, like right before the scheduled taping. What people don’t know is that they’ve prescreened me before the interview through a phone call. I was asked questions about racial profiling and if I was ever a victim of racial profiling, so I said, “Yes.” Then I was asked to explain the incident. So I went into details about those incidents. I told them about how a cop pulled me over and told that I had warrants. After that he said that if I give him money that he’d let me go. So we drove to an ATM, I took out the money, gave it to him, and he let me go. I knew that I didn’t have any warrants in the first place, but that was also the day that I just got my car painted (the paint would change colors in the light when you look at it), plus rims on it. He was driving in the opposite direction when he decided to slow down, take a U-turn, pull me over and threaten to put me in jail for something that I didn’t do. I also told them about the time that the cops thought that the vehicle I was in was stolen. So they took me out of the car, threw me to the ground, stepped on my face pressing it to the concrete with guns to my face. They found out that the car wasn’t stolen so they let me go. After I told those two stories the representative was in disbelief, asking me if things like that still happened today. Maybe they thought that if I was interviewed for the show that people would think that I was crazy – I don’t know.

So I hear that you have a new album dropping in March… speak on it.

Chamillionaire: I’m actually in New York right now, recording on the new album. Last night, I recorded a song with Kelis called, “I’m Not a Criminal” (which was just released on January 16). At the moment, I don’t have much to say in regards to the album because we’re still in the political stages of it, trying to get music cleared. I have a song with R. Kelly as well, but I can’t promise that I will be able to get the song cleared by the label at this time. So I am still in the creative process for “Ultimate Victory” but it will consist of street commercial music. On this album, I’m the A&R, the administrator, the executive producer – I am doing it all, because I feel that I know what hot music is. In the industry you can get caught up in a lot of politics with people trying to tell you how to do your music. I feel that “Ridin” ended up doing so well because it was the closest representation of who I am. So if people loved that, I feel that they will love me for just being myself. Even though I worked with a lot of the same producers from my first album, you will see on this album that I’ve expanded my reach working with producers like Kanye’, Just Blaze, J.R. Rotem, but like I said before, I can’t say which songs will make the album quite yet.

What statement best defines 2006 for you?

Chamillionaire: Hard work really pays off. People can talk about the hits, but they don’t realize how much hard work I really put into this year. I went on tour to every nook and cranny in this country, from small to large venues. I went overseas, then I came back to the states for more tour – then I went back overseas. I was pushing myself to the limit; going platinum was not easy.

www.Chamillionaire.com has relaunched before the turn of the year with a special gift to his fans – “The Mixtape Messiah 2” can be downloaded in its entirety.