Growing up is difficult under any circumstance but in Hip-Hop
it’s decidedly more difficult. The
machine milks youth and changing the public’s perception of you, especially in
a drought, can be the difference between a continuing career and filling out
that UPS application.
Hurricane Chris has the unenviable task of growing from teen
club rapper to a legitimate fully grown MC. With an album in the works he
prepares for his sophomore season with a marked determination to shed his teen
rapper image. We sat down with him to discuss
this journey from boy to man and whether or not he was ready to leave the
childish things behind
AllHipHop.com:
Historically Hip-Hop has been the domain of young rappers, but recently they
haven’t been garnering the same sort of respect. Now that you’re no longer a
teenager how do you grow without being labeled a teeny-bopper rapper?
Hurricane Chris:
If you’re what I am, you’re going to recognize me. We’re on the next level with
this one we don’t have to play too much with the childish stuff. I have Bobby
Valentino doing me a single right now, I got Beenie Man doing me one right now.
We on a whole ‘nother level, this one here is to the moon, you feel me? We’re
trying to go to Jupiter. We got them ladies going crazy. Hit the club with me
see how they act when my song come on, how they throw they drawers on the
stage. I got ‘em 20 to 30, 40 years olds want me, I’m Hurricane.
AllHipHop.com:
You had a couple hits from your first album. How do you take that success
single-wise and translate that into a full album.
Hurricane Chris:
I took it and I lived with it at first, yunno? I think about what I had at first,
and I look at it just as something to let them know that I exist. I let them
know that I exist on that and then I doubled back. And now the second part of
my career, the sophomore part of my career is gonna be to let them know what I
stand for; to let them know what I really am. A lyrical massive genius. On any
scale you put me on I’mma destroy any opponent I got. So now with this
sophomore album, we gon’ show them that now we’re 20 and we’re on a whole
‘nother level in this rap game. I’m eating up anything that comes this way. I
make the club do this [claps hands] and I’ll freestyle and chew you up.
AllHipHop.com:
What is your album making process?
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Hurricane Chris:
What I try to do is know how much time I have to make an album, and I’m just
going to go in the studio, you feel me? I’mma use all the time it takes to make
an album. I’m going to go to the studio and I’m not going to think about what
I’m doing. When it’s time to wrap the album up, I’m going to go in and see what
type of songs I got.
What I ain’t got, I’mma go do, and what I have too much of, I
slack back of. When it’s time to put the album out, I’mma look at it again and
see what’s up, that’s how we do it. I just keep recording, trying to put out
the best album. I stay in the studio like a junky just banging it out like
that.
AllHipHop.com: If
it wasn’t Rap, what would it be?
Hurricane Chris:
I thank God everyday that I’m here ‘cause every time somebody asks me that, you
know what I tell them? “I don’t know.”
AllHipHop.com:
You’re on an elevator with someone, and you want to convince them buy your
album or buy into what Hurricane Chris is about. What would you say if you only
had 30 seconds?
Hurricane Chris:
I’d tell them I’m real, I’m straight off the top, I got my own type of music.
And then I’mma give them some of that…give them a verse, a 16[bars], give
them a hook and they gon’ be sold on it right there. All I have to do is open my mouth and
showcase my talent. What God gave me.
AllHipHop.com:
You’re from Louisiana, which has a significant amount of issues fiscally. They
have problems with literacy as well as other issues. Does any of this come
across in your music?
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Hurricane Chris:
I’mma talk about everything going on in Louisiana, from the hurricanes to the
stuff that’s going on with the crime rates. The everyday basics when there
ain’t no storm. I’mma give you the whole picture. If you want to watch a movie
you can’t expect for the movie to block certain things out. If you want to
watch that movie, see that movie, you’re gonna see the whole deal. Some people
close their eyes if they don’t want to see it. It’s real where I roam.
AllHipHop.com:
And what is reality to you?
Hurricane Chris:
It’s principle, you know? Principles and responsibilities. My reality is that
I’m a real dude. Family first, business second, and then all that b.s. third.AllHipHop.com: If
there was anything about this music and this business that you’d want to
change, what would it be?
Hurricane Chris:
This game got a lot of ins and outs that can be looked at. One thing I’d like
to change is how people get taken advantage of when they hop in the game. I
like to change the game and put somebody there with authority that would give
these people charges when they do they type of insane stuff they do. Sometimes
the law need to come into the rap game because there is some crazy unorthodox
retarded stuff that goes on here. But then with that we probably have to give
the people half our money.
I stay away from the fake. I seen people get they chain
snatched off and then go back in the studio and say “I’m a gangster!” I done
seen all that, you know, so you just gotta stay in your lane and go after the
fans with that real stuff.
AllHipHop.com:
How important is the history of Hip-Hop to you?
Hurricane Chris:
Man it’s real important you better understand where this come from before you
jump out there with any of that childish bull. You better understand, it’s
people that live sweat bleed and die for this. Get that understood.
