Hurricane Chris’ “A Bay Bay’ will never get old. Play the song at any club or function, and it’s guaranteed everyone will turn up. The song was released 14 years ago and still has the same reaction as if it was just released.
Hurricane Chris has had some standout moments throughout his career, including the 2009 release of “Halle Berry.” But hit records aside, Chris has been through the ropes when it comes to dealing with real-life s###. Three years ago, he was charged with second-degree murder, which cost him over a million dollars in potential earnings.
In March of this year, Hurricane Chris was found not guilty on all accounts, including being acquitted of second-degree murder. Now a free man, Chris can fully dive back into focusing on his rap career. He most recently dropped his new mixtape called “Hurricane Season 2.” The 12-track project is spearheaded by lead single “Neighborhood” — which reminds audiences all around the world of Hurricane Chris’ ability to really spit bars and flex.
AllHipHop exclusively spoke with Hurricane Chris to discuss his new releases, being a free man, and his latest visual for his new song “Neighborhood.”
AllHipHop: Talk about your new single “Neighborhood” and the positive feedback it’s gotten.
Hurricane Chris: I just got off the phone with T.I.’s people. It would be dope to put T.I. on it. It’s something I just created, hanging out in the studio. It took off on TikTok, so I’ma keep pushing it. It’s doing good. I’m gonna keep pushing “Neighborhood.”
AllHipHop: Why do you want T.I. on the record?
Hurricane Chris: I think he fits the record. I’m spitting on the record, I’m getting back to that real rap. That’s what T.I. does, so it just makes sense. I was at his event last night, it was cool. He got a museum out here in Atlanta called Trap House Museum, so a lot of people were there supporting him. It was also to celebrate a Nike x DTLR collab, 50 years of Hip-Hop, and 20 years of trap. It was a cool event.
AllHipHop: Do you feel real Hip-Hop is hard to be seen or heard nowadays?
Hurricane Chris: It’s getting back to that. It’s getting back to that real [Hip-Hop], it’s coming back slowly but surely. I’m cool with where Hip-Hop’s at, I’m not hating on anything that’s poppin’. I listen to a lot of different types of music. I’m listening to YTB Fatt, I’m listening to a lot of young hot artists out now as well. Sometimes it’s out with the old, in with the new.
AllHipHop: How do you find new artists? Is it TikTok?
Hurricane Chris: Nah, I’m out mingling. I’m out here. I’m moving throughout the streets, seeing what’s going on. I’m hands on with it.
AllHipHop: Speaking of Hip-Hop 50, what was the moment you fell in love with Hip-Hop?
Hurricane Chris: When I saw there was a crowd of people outside my grandma’s house, she was telling everybody to get out from in front of her house. (Laughs) There were a bunch of people that wanted to hear me rap. That’s when I fell in love with rap.
AllHipHop: Who were the artists that made you fall in love with it?
Hurricane Chris: Boosie, 8Ball & MJG, Spice 1. Tupac. I wasn’t really a Biggie fan, I was a Tupac fan. I really can’t rap no Biggie songs to you like that.
AllHipHop: I feel like by default, being a rapper you’d hear and know the lyrics.
Hurricane Chris: In the South, we weren’t really big on Biggie. We were more on Tupac, because we had more of a relation to the West Coast. We related more to the West Coast, the South. It’s always been a connection between the South and the West Coast. That’s why you see gangbanging has always been a problem down South. It’s a West Coast, down South connection. It’s been like
that.
AllHipHop: “A Bay Bay,” did that blow up in the South first?
Hurricane Chris: Yeah, it blew up in Atlanta first….In the A.
AllHipHop: Do you ever get sick of performing that record?
Hurricane Chris: Nah, they spin a bag for that so I ain’t trippin’. I’ll perform it until I’m 80 years old.
AllHipHop: Congrats on the release of your latest mixtape, “Hurricane Season 2.” How are you feeling?
Hurricane Chris: It’s the hardest mixtape out right now. I just dropped the hardest mixtape in the game period. Check it out, you shouldn’t have anything bad to say about it. It’s stupid.
AllHipHop: What is it about Season 2? How have you evolved as an artist and as a person?
Hurricane Chris: I wouldn’t say I so much as evolved as an artist, but I evolved as a person. You’ll see the different scenarios I’ve been put in, different life situations that occurred. I’m not 17 anymore so of course it’s going to be way different than when I was 17 or even 21.
AllHipHop: You got a favorite song off the project?
Hurricane Chris: “Neighborhood.” Right now, it’s “Neighborhood.” That’s what the fans tell me they rockin’ with. “G19” and “Neighborhood.” There’s another song called “G19,” you can check it out too.
AllHipHop: Is there a reason you kept it with no features?
Hurricane Chris: I wasn’t around anybody when I recorded Hurricane Season 2. I was going through my case. I had an ankle moniker on and I really couldn’t really do the stuff that I wanted to do. I was boxed in, and I didn’t have a choice but to lock in by myself.
AllHipHop: How did you feel hearing the judge say not guilty?
Hurricane Chris: Man! Lord have mercy. [Laughs] Like a fat person got lifted off of my back. I was carrying 10 fat people on my back.
AllHipHop: I couldn’t even imagine the anxiety before that court date.
Hurricane Chris: Man, before that court date, during the court date, the anxiety ain’t ever stopped.
AllHipHop: What kept you going?
Hurricane Chris: My family kept me going. The people around me, knowing that I got people I gotta provide for. I can’t sit around with my head down, I gotta keep going regardless. People depend on me, I didn’t really have the option to quit.
AllHipHop: Did you celebrate at all?
Hurricane Chris: I’m still celebrating. I celebrate every morning I wake up. We’re gonna celebrate tonight.
AllHipHop: You were supposed to audition for Snowfall and BMF?
Hurricane Chris: Yeah, I was gon’ audition for a lot of the shows you see out right now. When I got arrested, it threw a lot of that off. I lost my situation with the acting agency I was with, so it derailed a lot of my plans.
AllHipHop: What other opportunities did you miss from that whole thing?
Hurricane Chris: Man, I was negotiating a deal at the time. Promoters stopped wanting to book me. You gotta think, I do a lot of shows on college campuses and for a lot of high school kids. I do shows for middle school kids. You get charged with something like murder, that makes people at the school not want to deal with you. Especially the kid crowds, the younger crowds. The crowds that’s funded by college money, they gotta be careful what they are doing. What images they bring to their school. That’s one of my biggest bags, and it affected that.
AllHipHop: I’m so sorry!
Hurricane Chris: We gon’ run it all the way back up to the ceiling though.
AllHipHop: They said you have a newfound appreciation for lawyers, like Kim K and Ari Williams?
Hurricane Chris: I have respect for anybody who helps somebody clear their name, especially when they’re being accused for something they didn’t do. You got a lot of people with 30 years in jail for stuff they didn’t do. Imagine if somebody called your phone right now and told you one of your close relatives has to go do 30 years for murder, and you know they were with you at that time. But there’s nothing you can do to prove it though, or get them out. Picture yourself in that situation. It’s somebody you may live with, one of your real loved ones. You got people really going through that. You got people who are getting out right now, who did 30 or 40 years for crimes they did not commit. That’s crazy!
AllHipHop: Anything else you’re excited for?
Hurricane Chris: I’m blessed by the best and I’m glad not to be stressed. HS2, go get it!
Follow Hurricane Chris: @hurricanechrisofficial
Hurricane Chris (@hurricanechrisofficial_) | TikTok