Note: During our various upgrades over the years certain interviews have been "misplaced." We are now adding them back to our archives. This interview was first published on March 5, 2005.
Although his career began in 1990 as one half of rap group, The Art Of Origin, who signed to an early Def Jam and released two 12 inch singles, New Jersey lyricist Chino XL rose to critical acclaim in 1996 with his debut release, Here to Save You All. He has since had plenty of underground success with his follow up album, 2001’s I Told You So, as well as various guest appearances and spots on DJ Sway and Tech's morning radio show, The Wakeup Show.
Chino XL sat down with StreetHop.com to discuss his career and future releases, as well as the prospect of a mainstream album.
Can you tell us about your upcoming album, Poison Pen?
Poison Pen floats around the concept of a kid that writes things and it happens. There’s a lot of material on there talking about trying to escape different childhood things that could stop you from getting where you need to go. And of course there’s a lot of bangers on there, all kinds of lyrics, metaphors, similes.
Is the childhood aspect autobiographical or just something you strongly believe in?
A little bit of both; I believe in the whole Engram philosophy, that there’s things moving around you that you just don’t notice. Like you may have an aversion to something as small as when it rains it freaks you out, because you may have some sort of trauma that happened to you when you were a child, and now you cant function when it rains. So to me its kind of working through all of that, stuff that I’ve been through, or things that I know that people have been through to come full circle, and keep it moving; be able to identify when something is dragging you down and just work through it.
A lot of fans don’t realize that you are a member of Mensa, what made you join such an organization and what do you think you can give to it, and get from it?
I got involved because my SHC was so high, I didn’t even know what it was. From where I’m from, I thought that I would go to one of the meetings. I was the only one of my type there, so when they would do a discussion about something like a part of history or whatever it was, I always thought that I was speaking for people like me. So when I was in a room with a 100 people that are supposed to be like the top 99.9 intellectual percentile of the world or whatever, that they know when they saw someone walk with a kind of a bop or might be this kind of person, it doesn’t mean that you’re not dealing with a person that has complexity and intellect and all of that, their just from a different place.
Did you ever face any sort of discrimination from those types of people?
Oh yeah, oh yeah. But you know its funny; it works for me. Because somebody goes into a situation with you and they think you’re going to be one way, and they find you’re a complete other way. Which is an insult into itself; like when somebody says, “You know you’re very articulate,” and you say “What am I supposed to be dumb? Why am I supposed to be dumb?” It’s that kind of round-about thing. Peoples guards get dropped a lot quicker once they work out they’re dealing with a person that’s just like them on certain levels.
Artists that are regarded as the top lyricists in the underground have a really hard time breaking out into commercial success, is this something that worries you or something you think about?
Well actually the situation that I’m in now, and this has nothing to do with Poison Pen, I’m actually making your quintessential commercial release. I’m working on an album that will be out in the Fall of next year, on a major label, big producers the whole shebang. And what I’ve realized is it really is two different things. They’re almost two different forms of music even thought they are the same art form. Coming from the MC realm, it’s all about the verses, and then the commercial aspect is all about the hooks; I mean how different could it be? One is about a song that will stand the test of time. The other is about being disposable music that you can get rid of each season and just make a new one, people can get rid of the artists old album, because they don’t really tell you what they think or what they’ve been through and its just about that moment. So its really really different and it takes an honest person to say, “you know what Im doing caters to a certain market, and if I want that other market to gravitate towards me, I’m going to have to take two steps towards them.” There’s really no other way around it, I mean anything else is going to be like a one hit success. You have to cater to what they are doing in a sense, they have to at least be able to catch the smell.
Which process do you prefer, “the verses” or “the hooks?” Do you have to force yourself to be commercial?
Fortunately, there’s a lot of, for lack of a better term, underground MCs or purists that say “I could do that,” or “that’s easy to do,” and all of that. It really is a different part of the brain. Because if you hear what some purist’s idea of a commercial song is, it sounds like a train wreck. It doesn’t have the right structure, the lyrics aren’t right, it could be too over their head and doesn’t stick to the theme. But for me as a lyricist, I can write just about anything, I mean BB King could call me to write a blues record and I could do it. My problem with it to tell you the truth, was which direction thematically to go in. How do I fit into this picture? How do I fit the honesty of my life into this? So for me finding the truth in it was the hardest thing, but once you find it you’re just riding that wave.
Although his career began in 1990 as one half of rap group, The Art Of Origin, who signed to an early Def Jam and released two 12 inch singles, New Jersey lyricist Chino XL rose to critical acclaim in 1996 with his debut release, Here to Save You All. He has since had plenty of underground success with his follow up album, 2001’s I Told You So, as well as various guest appearances and spots on DJ Sway and Tech's morning radio show, The Wakeup Show.
Chino XL sat down with StreetHop.com to discuss his career and future releases, as well as the prospect of a mainstream album.
Can you tell us about your upcoming album, Poison Pen?
Poison Pen floats around the concept of a kid that writes things and it happens. There’s a lot of material on there talking about trying to escape different childhood things that could stop you from getting where you need to go. And of course there’s a lot of bangers on there, all kinds of lyrics, metaphors, similes.
Is the childhood aspect autobiographical or just something you strongly believe in?
A little bit of both; I believe in the whole Engram philosophy, that there’s things moving around you that you just don’t notice. Like you may have an aversion to something as small as when it rains it freaks you out, because you may have some sort of trauma that happened to you when you were a child, and now you cant function when it rains. So to me its kind of working through all of that, stuff that I’ve been through, or things that I know that people have been through to come full circle, and keep it moving; be able to identify when something is dragging you down and just work through it.
A lot of fans don’t realize that you are a member of Mensa, what made you join such an organization and what do you think you can give to it, and get from it?
I got involved because my SHC was so high, I didn’t even know what it was. From where I’m from, I thought that I would go to one of the meetings. I was the only one of my type there, so when they would do a discussion about something like a part of history or whatever it was, I always thought that I was speaking for people like me. So when I was in a room with a 100 people that are supposed to be like the top 99.9 intellectual percentile of the world or whatever, that they know when they saw someone walk with a kind of a bop or might be this kind of person, it doesn’t mean that you’re not dealing with a person that has complexity and intellect and all of that, their just from a different place.
Did you ever face any sort of discrimination from those types of people?
Oh yeah, oh yeah. But you know its funny; it works for me. Because somebody goes into a situation with you and they think you’re going to be one way, and they find you’re a complete other way. Which is an insult into itself; like when somebody says, “You know you’re very articulate,” and you say “What am I supposed to be dumb? Why am I supposed to be dumb?” It’s that kind of round-about thing. Peoples guards get dropped a lot quicker once they work out they’re dealing with a person that’s just like them on certain levels.
Artists that are regarded as the top lyricists in the underground have a really hard time breaking out into commercial success, is this something that worries you or something you think about?
Well actually the situation that I’m in now, and this has nothing to do with Poison Pen, I’m actually making your quintessential commercial release. I’m working on an album that will be out in the Fall of next year, on a major label, big producers the whole shebang. And what I’ve realized is it really is two different things. They’re almost two different forms of music even thought they are the same art form. Coming from the MC realm, it’s all about the verses, and then the commercial aspect is all about the hooks; I mean how different could it be? One is about a song that will stand the test of time. The other is about being disposable music that you can get rid of each season and just make a new one, people can get rid of the artists old album, because they don’t really tell you what they think or what they’ve been through and its just about that moment. So its really really different and it takes an honest person to say, “you know what Im doing caters to a certain market, and if I want that other market to gravitate towards me, I’m going to have to take two steps towards them.” There’s really no other way around it, I mean anything else is going to be like a one hit success. You have to cater to what they are doing in a sense, they have to at least be able to catch the smell.
Which process do you prefer, “the verses” or “the hooks?” Do you have to force yourself to be commercial?
Fortunately, there’s a lot of, for lack of a better term, underground MCs or purists that say “I could do that,” or “that’s easy to do,” and all of that. It really is a different part of the brain. Because if you hear what some purist’s idea of a commercial song is, it sounds like a train wreck. It doesn’t have the right structure, the lyrics aren’t right, it could be too over their head and doesn’t stick to the theme. But for me as a lyricist, I can write just about anything, I mean BB King could call me to write a blues record and I could do it. My problem with it to tell you the truth, was which direction thematically to go in. How do I fit into this picture? How do I fit the honesty of my life into this? So for me finding the truth in it was the hardest thing, but once you find it you’re just riding that wave.
