Chrishan is far more than just a producer and songwriter, he’s an artist in his own right.
Having done over 200 records alongside Hitmaka, his biggest placements include Meek Mill’s “Dangerous,” A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie’s “Look Back It,” Drake’s “Jaded,” and French Montana’s “No Stylist.” The dynamic duo has been killing radio over the last couple years, to say the least.
The Toledo-bred, Los Angeles-based creative is CEO of his own company Right Now Sound, which also serves as his producer tag. In addition, he co-founded Makasound with Hitmaka, someone he works on all projects with.
Being nephew to the legendary Lyfe Jennings speaks volumes in itself, and Chrishan’s talents arrive effortlessly. His most recent single “Sin City” went viral online, and later even received a standout remix from Ty Dolla $ign.
AllHipHop caught up with Chrishan at the Kandypens house in Los Angeles to discuss
AllHipHop: How did you meet Hitmaka initially?
Chrishan: We actually met through J Grand over at RCA, he put us together in the same room 3 years ago. We did “Party” by Chris Brown, the first record out of the studio. Ever since then, we’ve been rolling.
AllHipHop: How does it work? Does he do the beat, then you add in?
Chrishan: So we have a team of producers we work with. I produce as well, but he curates everything and puts it all together. He runs with a different concept, then I go in the booth and we write together. I’ll demo the whole record out, then the artist comes in. The artist cuts it, and it goes on the radio.
AllHipHop: Being from Toledo, Ohio, what was that like?
Chrishan: That’s where I’m originally from. My dad had a group with my uncle Lyfe Jennings. My uncle went to jail, the group disbanded. We moved to Minneapolis, so my dad used to do music up there. Watching him, I had a whole platform to do everything musically so I took off from there.
AllHipHop: When did music become real for you?
Chrishan: Honestly, all of my life I knew. He molded me how Joe Jackson did with the Jacksons. I already knew I was supposed to be doing something with music, but I took it in my own hands when I was 17.
AllHipHop: You were mainly a producer and songwriter?
Chrishan: Yes, but I was always doing my own music trying to be an artist. I was an artist first, then a songwriter. Because it was so easy for me to play songs for other people that I took a backseat on my artistry.
AllHipHop: How does it feel to become an artist?
Chrishan: It’s cool because everybody that I’ve worked with, I’ve stayed quiet about the artistry. Sometimes when you’re working with different artists, they don’t want to be in there competing with the person who’s writing their songs. I didn’t really say anything. Now it’s a respect thing to where they’re like “damn, I want to jump on your s##t. Now that I know you have an artist project, you’ve been so cool about everything. I really want to know what you have going on.” It worked in my favor.
AllHipHop: What’s the best part of transitioning from songwriting to artist?
Chrishan: The best part is that I can get my story out there.
AllHipHop: What is your story?
Chrishan: I wouldn’t say the underdog now. Coming from where I come from, a lot of trials and tribulations. Situations that I put myself in: bad relationships, trusting the wrong people. I want my music to be able to express the things I’ve gone through. I have a song called “Bad Idea.” It’s a bad idea when I’m messing with someone who loves somebody else. I know they love someone else and they know I love somebody else, it’s a bad idea.
AllHipHop: You’re not talking about your girl are you?
Chrishan: Nah, I pull everything from past relationships. Past everything.
AllHipHop: How was releasing your single “Sin City” and having millions of streams off audio alone?
Chrishan: It’s nice. It’s definitely a record I had out there, I don’t know how it took off so late. It’s gone viral a couple of times. I want to build on it and give people what I’m doing now, because that song is from years ago. I’m happy that it’s bringing people to me, it’s bringing me to light. I want them to see what I’m really doing.
AllHipHop: What’d it mean to get Ty Dolla $ign on the remix?
Chrishan: I worked with Ty$ on the Drake record, “Jaded.” Ty brought that to me like “yo I have this record Drake sent over, he wanted me to work on it.” If you listen to it now, we added to it. It’s a bunch of backgrounds, etc. But the original version, Ty has a whole verse and it’s crazy. That same day, he said “I heard you got this record called ‘Sin City’ that’s crazy. My fans keep on asking me to get on it.” I’m like “what? You trippin’ bro.”
AllHipHop: Were you guys tight before?
Chrishan: Yeah, but not like that. I don’t realize how cool I am. I’ve been in this game for so long that I’m real passive to a lot of stuff that goes on. Because we’re going to continue doing more, I’ve never wanted to baby anything. When he said that to me, he ‘s like “you’re a cool ass n##ga so I’ma jump on the song for the love.”
AllHipHop: What can we expect from the TyeDye 2 EP?
Chrishan: TyeDye is everything I am, all the emotions bottled up into one. It’s a swirl of colors. You get the good and the bad. I did this mixtape called Night & Day, because you have the records that you want to hear during the daytime, but you also have the records you want to hear during the nighttime. I want people to understand you can be happy and sad at the same time. You can go through all these emotions in the course of the day, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s human person, that’s who you are. I want it to be TyeDye.
AllHipHop: Who’s in your Top 5?
Chrishan: I listen to primarily songwriters. James Fauntleroy, he’s all-time for me. Artists that I’ve worked with: Kandi, Ty$, Jeremih. We did that album they had together called Mih-Ty, them two together is something. I like Meek too. He got snubbed from that Grammy, but that’s just me. For real rap, what he came from and overcame, Meek deserved It.
AllHipHop: How does it feel to make it from where you came from?
Chrishan: It’s cool because obviously, I wasn’t the first one to come from my family who made it.
AllHipHop: What’s it like being Lyfe Jennings’ nephew?
Chrishan: We were close in regards to if he came out here for shows, I was always at them. But we’ve never worked together. When you spend so much time trying to become somebody, you have a very close circle of people you associate with. Obviously extended family and different people that you touch every now and then, but that’s not something I want to reach my hand out to. Because we have our differences that are independent from each other.
AllHipHop: What are some goals for yourself as an artist at this point?
Chrishan: To keep on making more music. I want people to love this, I really do. It’s coming out this summer!
