CHINO XL INTERVIEW
by MC AK
AK is in red..Chino XL is in green..
- 1. What’s your earliest
memories of Hip-Hop? Do you remember the 1st Hip-Hop
- song you ever heard?
CHINO XL: My first thing I
heard that gave me a Hip-Hop feelings, as you know my Uncle’s Bernie
Worrell (of Parliament Funkadelic), and they had a song called
“Cosmic Slop”. And my Uncle used to play a bass line that went (Da Da
Da, etc.). And I rememberGary Shider going “everybody it’s the cosmic
slop”. And that became my favorite part of their shows. That’s my
first bare bone bass line, beat,
with a chant over it.
After that , I don’t
count Blondie and all of them records, and after that the underground
tape I heard of “Double Trouble”. That’s probably the first time I
was like “Yo, what’s this shxt?”. At that point the only thing you
could get were tapes off the street if you took the train over to New
York, cause I’m from New Jersey. Or there was a station called WHBI
that became WNWK and you’d have to stay up till like 2 AM. Remember,
this is pre Marley Marl and Red Alert.
- 2. What MC had the
biggest influence on you, and got you to start thinking
- about not only being a
Hip-Hop head, but also doing the music yourself?
LL Cool J. Like, I had all
of these rhymes, and I was a little different in the neighborhood,
and when I heard LL he was light skinned, a only child, and had the
whole arrogance thing, and I was like “I can do this!” And a
particular rhyme he said off the original version of “Rock The
Bells”:
“A misdemeanor, cleaner,
woman I subpoena
No conjecture in my lecture,
name and adversary Gina
Promoter, my tune revolves
like rotor
While I decode-a the cranium
of Yoda”
When I heard that I as like
“I can’t believe he’s rhymin’ that, that’s off the hook!”. But the
difference was, my rhymes at the time were like that all the way
through.
- 3. Remember the 1st
song you ever recorded?
I had a song called “I’m
Greater”. And I tried to make it cool like “I’m Greater”, but then
with the greater mathematical symbols. I remember the rhyme too,
remember this is 84’:
“As the record spins, I go
psycho
Lethal as nitro, retract
like Tyco
My blood is type O,
yo
Music created, while I’m
hated
But rated, I’ve waited and
waited
But now I finally made
it”
I was only 13 then, and
people talk about evolution of their rhymes, to be completely honest,
with the love of the language I have and my mothers vocabulary, I
started better than half of them out there I had ever heard. It was
like, never even fair to even be rhymin’ against anyone, cause I felt
like they were in Junior Varsity and I was Pro already. Nobody
believed I
wrote my stuff, they were
like, “You bit that from something, you must of heard that
somewhere”. I used to go to New York back in the day and just serve
fools.
- 4. Where were you when you
heard of the murder of Jam Master Jay? How big of
- a loss is that to the Hip-Hop
community?
I think I was working on a
film, and my manager called me. I was just shocked. Let me tell you
something about Jam Master Jay. I was outside this House Music club,
and Jam Master Jay got out the limo in front of me, and handed this
homeless man $700, for real! I didn’t know him personally, but that’s
my memory of him.
- 5. What MC or group do
you feel has had the biggest influence on Hip-Hop?
Globally, Wu-Tang Clan. To
me personally, the Fearless Four. There was this Puerto Rican guy in
there named Tito. So we’d have little groups, before I had my own
rhymes, I used to wanna be DLB, cause he was the leader of the group.
But since I was the only Puerto Rican one, they were like “Chino, you
gotta be Tito”. Not only was he Tito, he was a Puerto Rican in the
Fearless 4, and on the video. I couldn’t believe that.
I think Wu-Tang globally,
because something about them appeals to people internationally that I
don’t think anyone else has.
Now for a solo MC, I’d have
to say Rakim, because he invented the compound phrase. Now maybe
other people did it before that, but something about the way he did
it. People used to rhyme like:
“............In the
house”
“............I slap you in
your mouth”
BUT Rakim would rap
like:
“I used to roll up, this is
a hold up
Nothin’ funny, stop smilin’,
nothin’ new but the money”
He made it a compound
phrase. From that point on, it became like a new way people
rhymed.
- 6. What’s your take on
the new beef between Benzino and Eminem?
- Basically Benzino
dissed Em’ cause Eminem was a white MC who is the top selling
- Hip-Hop artist.
Benzino claims he’s taking food off every other artists
- plate, and as, in his
words, “a white boy gimmick” every other artist should
- be “against” him.
What’s your take on this situation, and race in Hip-Hop?
I don’t know anything about
what their problem is with one another, I’ve only heard about it on
the tail end cause I’ve been doing movies for the past year. But the
race thing I can get into. Speaking from the first person, I know
I’ve had an uphill battle. I mean, the first
“Source” Hip-Hop Quatables I
got in 96’ for “No Complex” was new, cause before that I didn’t even
see a light skinned rapper get it, better yet a Latin rapper. And
being that I don’t put “Latin” out there like “I’m Latin I’m Latin
I’m Latin”. I always thought that if I was dark skinned, easily
digestible MC who looked like everybody else, everybody would be like
“He’s
a genius, he’s the greatest
of all time!” So, being that I’m a little bit different, it makes it
easy for people to say “He’s different, he’s suppose to be smarter,
he didn’t grow up like everybody else”. I know from like listening to
Eminem records I’ve heard him say because of his complexion he
recognizes he sold more than he usually would. I hate that whole
complexion
shxt, cause I had to grow up
with that. It affects how you feel about yourself, and I’m sure
there’s people who say my video “Kreep” was all over MTV cause I
wasn’t dark skinned. The track “What Am I” from my 1st album talks
about this exact subject.
- 7. What do you think
of beef in Hip-Hop in general? I know there was some
- tension between you
about 2Pac, is beef good or bad for Hip-Hop?
Well I’ve never had beef.
Like with 2Pac it was nothing personal from my end. I didn’t have a
problem with him you know. In my neighborhood if you got beef with
somebody son, you go to the Super Market and you might get fxcked up.
It was never like that. Personally, I wasn't trying to go there with
him. It was just some lyric shxt to me, so it was never nothing like
that. But as far as beef in general, I don’t think battling is bad
for the art form, it’s kinda where it came from. Hip-Hop, as you
know, basically was born in the South Bronx and it was from a gang
called the “Black Spades”, which became the “Spades”, that then
became the “Zulu Nation”. Afrika Bambaataa said “We’re gonna battle
rhyming, we’re gonna battle breaking, we’re gonna use our art to
compete with one another. So it stopped all the gang shxt that was
going on in the South Bronx at the time. It’s a way to get angst out,
I mean you rhyming all your frustration against the person. It’s
competitive nature, people are competitive. Like Peacocks try to have
the best colors against one another.
But when you have people who
can’t rhyme, and have to resort to “I’mma kill this person, and I’mma
beat the shxt outta you” because they just can’t rhyme, I think
that’s bad. So, if people can’t battle rhyme, I don’t think they
should even get into it. Cause you don’t need to be sitting somewhere
trying to have a good function, and MF’s start fighting and shooting.
It’s ridiculous, I mean you got millionaires arguing, what the fxck
you arguing about?
- 8.You ever got to the
point, where your so sick of the shady music industry,
- that you just wish you
could go back and be just a regular guy in Jersey?
I can’t say that because of
people like you guys. Because when your feeling really bad and your
like “the music is real bad these days, I only went Gold instead of
Platinum, etc” and somebody walks up to you and says “Yo, when you
said....., that was tight”. And that person is 3800 miles away from
where you wrote it, and 5 years away from when it came out, people
just retain that like you
would in school. That’s really what it is, and I got my mom out of
the hood. Plus now it got me this acting opportunity, and I can make
money whenever I want. But I do relate to what your saying, I know
where that came from.
9.What do you feel
about the current state of Hip-Hop. How has it changed
compared to 80’s
Hip-Hop that you and I grew up listening to.
It’s different, God, in so
many ways. I could go on and on, but mechanically it’s not verse
orientated anymore. It’s all hooks, music, hooks. Like I don’t think
we sat around back in the day and said “Kool G Rap had a bad hook on
Poison”, we were like “you hear what he said?” So, it was about what
the artist brought, and it’s still what the artist brings, but it
used to not be about what the artist brought marketing wise. So it’s
completely different, it’s completely Corporate, and people don’t use
the word biting anymore. It’s not even part of our slang anymore,
because it’s “OK” to copy someone else now. When I was commin’ up, or
the music you grew up on, you couldn’t use the same word. Like if G
Rap said “I attack MC’s like a Gladiator”, you wouldn’t even use the
word “Gladiator” in your rhymes because he used the word. Now it’s
just open season.
- 10.What’s the proudest
moment in your musical career? What song that you’ve
- recorded to you feel
is your best work?
I got more than one, I’ll
start when I was proud of someone else. I was so proud and happy for
King Tech and Sway when they put together that “Wake Up Show” video
and album. You have no idea what that meant to him. My own proudest
moment, was when I was coming out of my Record Company and my manager
at the time was with me. And KRS-One was commin’ out the building,
and he looked at my manager and said “Do you know who the fxck this
man is? This man right here is the only warrior we’ve ever had”. But
to hear that I think was my most proud moment, or when LL Cool J came
up to my table and said “That verse on “Jesus”, phenomenal”.
11.What are your 5
favorite albums of all time?
-LL Cool J “Radio”
-Ice-T “Original
Gangsta”
-Kool G Rap “Men At
Work”
-Jay-Z “Reasonable
Doubt”
-No Doubt “Return To
Saturn”
RUNNER UP’s
-Notorious BIG “Ready To
Die”
-Wu-Tang Clan “Forever” (2nd
disc)
-Public Enemy “Yo, Bum Rush
The Show”
-Ice Cube “AmeriKKKa’s Most
Wanted”
-Common
“Resurrection”
-Price “1999”
- 12.Do you think when
old school artists like KRS-One, Rakim, Public Enemy,
- and Ice-T, who
continue to put out albums after 15 years in the game, have a
- chance to appeal to
the youth nowadays? Or are there main consumers an older
- age group, who
listened to them when they were in their prime.
They could, but they’d have
to do it smart. Ice-T could rally so much support from all the
artists that love him, and he could make the next “Chronic” if he
wanted to. But, I don’t think he ever will.
- 13.If you could work
with any artist who you haven’t already got a chance to
- work with, who would
it be?
Scarface
- 14.Who do you feel is
the most underrated rapper in the game?
Myself, then after me
Canibus.
- 15.I know that Sway
& Tech from the “Wake Up Show” had a impact in helping
- your career, how
important are Sway & Tech for opening their doors to
- artists and their
show?
I can’t speak for everyone
else, but I know I had a record deal, and if it wasn't for
them......, I mean they used to play “No Complex” A Cappella twice in
a row. You know what it’s like to hear a rappers song A Cappella for
6 minutes straight?
- 16.Having kids affects
everybody’s daily life, did it change how you handled
- your musical
career?
I already had kids before I
came out with “Here To Save You All”.
It’s amazing to meet a
person who’s smarter than me.
Chino also wanted to thank all
his fans who have supported him all these
years, as you're the reason he
keeps coming with lyric after lyric.
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