SXSW Interview: Chamillionaire
Thursday, March 17, 3:30pm, ACC 18ABC
Questing for knowledge is nothing new to Chamillionaire.
“I used to get mad when I’d finish a test and have to sit there the whole rest of the time,” the rapper, born Hakeem Seriki, says. “But I’d finish early, and I’d feel like the whole time I was sitting in that chair, I was wasting time. That’s what they teach you to do, though.
“I’d ask why, and they’d say, ‘Just because.’ Well, why ‘because’?”
Now 31 and successful enough to never have to sit idly in any chair he doesn’t want to sit in, the Houston rapper-turned-social-media-adviser to the rap world has taken it upon himself to absorb as much intel regarding the most effective means of artist-to-public communication as he possibly can. It’s a line of study that’s becoming more and more difficult to traverse as the music industry delves further into the Digital Age.
“You have to go where the people are,” says Chamillionaire, speaking of his newest conquest, Twitter. “We as rappers have a job and have to get fans music and let them know about stuff that’s coming out. So if everyone migrates to Twitter, that’s where we go.”
Twitter’s relevance in the greater music universe is no more evident than within rap’s bubble, where artists like Lil’ B and Odd Future have launched their careers through the vast abyss of the Internet. Chamillionaire points to Kanye West’s Twitter game as a way artists can manage their brands from their homes and on the road.
“Now people can clear up rumors faster than they could going through their publicists,” he says. “The media can come up with a story, and Kanye West will get on Twitter or Ustream and be like, ‘No, I said this.’
“That’s the news nowadays. It’s very powerful, and it’s changing the dynamics.”
Of course, the added openness can prove somewhat perilous. Social media outlets like the aforementioned provide an accessibility unlike anything previous generations of artists ever dealt with, so it’s not unusual for musicians to come across fans making too much of an effort to connect.
“It’s very dangerous,” he agrees. “Things like Foursquare. Foursquare is a location-based service that’ll tell everybody where you are, and you don’t even have to know them. That might not be the right thing for a rapper to do. Say I post something on there and the wrong people come and find me. But if that became super, super popular, which it’s starting to, then I’d have to learn it because that’s where the people are, and that’s what the job entails.”
Such risk management is second nature for Chamillionaire. Fifteen years in the public eye means he knows how to navigate seas of adoring and not-so-adoring fans. These days he educates the next wave of rappers on how best to handle the odd intricacies of fame while also running Chamillitary Entertainment, a big reason why conferences such as South by Southwest have been eager to invite him for panels and speaking engagements.
“I like to give people information; that’s to a fault,” he admits. “I used to be like that with Paul Wall. I remember one time Paul saying, ‘Honestly, all this contract stuff you’re talking about is giving me a headache.’ So, even though I think I’m helping him by telling him that he needs to read contracts and look over publishing deals and be up on all this stuff that a rapper should be up on ….”
This article appears in March 4 • 2011.