Mad at the World: 1994 Chino XL Interview, Part 3

It's all bad
PART 3: LABEL DRAMA AND BULLSHIT DJ'S

Are you satisfied with how things are going with your record deal with American?
I think my company hasn't really been handling things right. I feel if I was anywhere else I think I would have been in the light more. I feel my company fucked up because they had a chance to break something before anyone else with me. They did a video and that ("Into the Pit"), but if someone said something derogatory about us they woulod believe it more than in us. Rick Rubin is doing his Tom Petty, Red Hot Chili Peppers shit and is not really taking a keen interest in us. Then on top of not being promoted correctly, I couldn't even promote myself right because my partner is full of shit. Meanwhile, I'm tryin' to bust my ass and try to book shit all over the country so we could meet who we needed to but he'd rather go to London and make some club shit. He's a lot of the reason my career has been set back. I'm gonna keep tryin to do my shit. I'm not going to give up, sooner or later something will have to give.

How did the first two singles do at retail?
When "Into the Pit" came out the standard was all the Diamond D shit and "Into the Pit" doesn't match with that. All these bullshit radio D.J.'s don't want to use a little creativity to blend something in that's different. Consequently, "Into the Pit" didn't get a lot of play, which wasn't really a East coast record anyway. Then "Un-Rational" came out which could've mixed with everything, but we didn't have a video. There was no flash about the record so people weren't going to go grab it because they didn't even know about it. I figured once I got the punchlines of the month for that song that my company would have believed in it enough to do a video, but they didn't. Now with 1995 damn near, I got "Purple Hand," which again doesn't mix with the standard, which is...Craig Mack....so without a video and a lot of exposure there is no way that it will change the format of the way people are thinking. Another thing is that I didn't understand how on my same label, Milk gets a white record, and everyone else gets this different color wax buy my song is "Purple Hand"...and I don't get purple vinyl. In every other form of music when something is a little avant-garde they call it that. In this business, if something is different then there's something wrong with it. It's like you're either Arrested Development or Wu-Tang or just some little rappin' muthafucka. It's all bizarre to me. I fee like I've been cursed for the type of music I choose to make. I could have been in any kind of music, but the way I choose to express my anger was through hip-hop and rhymin. Why do I have to be in this bracket? If I cam to American as Slayer, then I would be promoted like Slayer. Being that I choose to rhyme, why does there have to be a dark cloud over me that I got to be judged like a second class citizen? It's like my label is working not to make money. Sometimes I think it's just a tax write-off. They can't be in the business of making money because scared money doesn't make none. I believe that if I was anywhere else I would have some money right now and people would know my name. It can't be me because everywhere I go I rip it. Anywhere, amongst any MC's. People just be like "he got lyrics." I can rock off the top and I write constantly. I don't think too many MC's can go back-n-forth with me in rhymes.

What other projects are you working on?
Well the next Art of the Origin single is supposed to be this song I did with Kool Keith. Besides that, I'm working on this project called Deadly Venoms. The actual name of our whole foundation is Raw Elements. The first single is "Venomz Party" with a video. Me, Vega, and Raggedy Man got this joint called "Live to See Tomorrow." It's an apocalyptic type song. It's three situations. In my verse it's like I know the world is coming to an end. When Rag rocks he's like the minister who goes to the streets to tell them something is wrong. Vega has kind of a mystic egyptology, saying we're the original people here and we'll end the originals once everything is gone. There's a lot of different cres. I got a song with these kids, Cosmic Zombies. It should be a real fat LP.

Thus concludes this three-part transcription of Chino XL's interview from 1994's Caught In The Middle magazine. And I'm out like John Candy.