My favorite rapper was interviewed by Mark Suster a few hours ago over on Ustream. It was a great session that focused more on technology than on music, but of course Cham answered a few music-related questions along the way. Hopefully, the UStream video will go up soon, and I will be able to update the post with the full clip. In the mean time, hit the jump to see some of the notes that I took away from the interview.
Update: The footage is available now.
– Chamillionaire is currently still signed to Universal, but he is trying to get out of his deal as quickly as possible.
– The reason Venom still hasn’t been released, is that he is waiting until he can get out of his label situation, probably so that he doesn’t feel as if his creativity is limited.
– He looks at computer applications, such as Farmville, as inspirations to better integrate people with music. If millions of people are playing these games, there has to be some way to intertwine these ideas with music.
– He browses YouTube just to listen to some aspiring artists’ material, and keeps an eye on them to see how their view count will grow.
– At one point, he grew tired of his ‘Ridin’ record because of all the different versions he heard everywhere that he went. He said some people in the UK heard Weird Al’s version before they heard his version.
– He feels that one of the keys to success is going where you want to go, rather than where you feel that you have to go. In terms of rap, the game is already over saturated, so new avenues should be looked at in order to have success.
– He says how artists who spam his Twitter in regards to their music are wasting their time. All of the effort put into constantly spamming, could be better utilized doing other things to further promote their brand (I’m sure most bloggers feel the same way).
– When asked about how he expects his tech knowledge to help in his music future, Cham said that since he is advanced in this field, it will only pay positive dividends regarding his music. He states, “The future of the world is in the palm of the tech community” and let’s face it, he is right.
– He has started to downscale the people that work with him a little bit, and is trying to get away from the general trend of rappers thinking they always have to show off.