Down-South.com: What type of music did you grow listening to back in the days? Who were your influences?

Cham: Well me, I’m kinda different from a lotta people because a lotta people grew up just idealizing a certain rapper or a certain group, but me, I never really grew up idealizing a certain rapper like that. I just kinda loved rap in general and music in general you know what I mean. I had all kinds of music that I just loved. Again when I was growing up, the stuff that I wasn’t able to have I kinda appreciate it more now because I wasn’t able to have everyday. In my family coming up, rap music was not a good thing. It was almost like when you grow up you start being rebellious and start liking it. And that’s kinda how it is with me. I love music because [back in the day] we weren’t allowed to listen to music or watch BET everyday. So now I have a lot more appreciation for it, but I can’t just really say that it was just one kinda of rapper or music that influenced me.

I just kinda listen to a little bit of everybody and try and find the good in them. I tell you the good and bad things about Pac and I can tell you the good and bad things about Biggie or  Jay-Z or any of the people that’s rapping now. When it came to Texas the biggest thing in Texas when I was coming up…..I mean when people weren’t worrying about what was on the radio play and this stuff like that was the Geto Boys. Everything that Rap-a-Lot was doing. There was a time when I was on that music real tough. It was during the days of T. Draper at Suave House, the Blac Monks and all of them so I can’t say that I was listening to one particular thing. 

Down-South.com: How did you start rapping?

Cham: Originally, I was always rapping. As long as I can remember I was just making little rhymes in my pad and hiding them from my parents. I originally used to play basketball. I used to think that I was going straight to the NBA. I used to tell everybody that I was going to the NBA…I’m going to the NBA. I used to play every single day. I used to practice everyday in middle school, I played in high school, but when I started to realize that dream wasn’t going to become a reality, that’s when I started taking life a little bit more seriously. I was so good in rapping that everybody used to be telling me that rap was the thing. And I just didn’t see it. I like rapping and I did it for fun, but I didn’t see it as a living. I didn’t think that I was going to grow up to be a big rapper, ya know what I’m saying? Actually I thought that it was easier to be a basketball player, but now that I see it’s not easy to do neither one of them; but every young person coming up in the Black community is either trying to be a basketball player or a rapper. It’s better than selling drugs, you know what I’m saying. Who would have known that I would end up having success at being an artist.

Down-South.com: Most of your true fans know that you first emerged on the scene via the Swish House mix tapes. Tell us how you got involved with Swisha House?

Cham: Well me and Paul Wall, that’s was my rap partner back then, we used to pass out flyers promoting the Texas Beach Party or the Kappa Beach Party or whatever. We used to just pass out flyers to make a little bit of money and that’s a real good way to make and build relationships. You get to know who you need to know that way. And at the time it was three of us. It was me, Paul Wall and a guy named Toure Graves, whose rap name was PKT, who was originally in the group with me and Paul. 

Down-South.com: What did you all call yourselves back then?

Cham: We were called The Sleep Walkers. And that was before me and Paul. That was how it originally started. That’s how we started off a long time ago. We used to make little demos on Karaoke machines and all of that. It was Paul who was the one that convinced me to do the promotion thing and pass out flyers. So we started doing it and started to get out and meet some people. That’s how we met Michael Watts. And it was  crazy how we ended up getting on Swisha House because when we met him we didn’t come at him saying hey, we want to be your new rappers, sign us! We came at him saying hey, we want to pass out flyers for him and help him promote his label. You know him, being the type of person that he is, he’s all for anything that’s gonna help his label out. He was like cool. Y’all meet me at the Swisha House tomorrow and we’ll talk about it. So me and Paul went to go meet him and it just so happened that on that day he was doing an intro for his radio show and we convince him to rap on it by convincing him that people wanted to hear him rap. And somehow he let us rap on it too. I don’t think that he ever had plans to ever use it, but once he started listening to it he saw how good it was and he just played it….he used it for an intro and he put it on a CD. And after that we just started getting requests. And after that more and more attention started coming to us because Paul was white. But he didn’t sound like it…you couldn’t really tell by listening to him rap Every since then we started getting on more mix tapes, more mix tapes and eventually we ended up being Swisha House members. After that we kinda blew up from there on the mix tapes.

Down-South.com: Tell me about the Water Boys?

Cham: The Water Boys part came in a little bit later after we already in the Swisha House. Me and Paul Wall were in Swisha House. Toure wasn’t there. He doing his thing and was signed somewhere else. Paul had a home boy named Lou Hawk. 50/50 Twin was also in the Swisha House and was in the Water Boys. We had been knowing him since we were in middle school and way before that. He was cool with us so when decided to make our own little group that’s who kinda went with us. We kinda broke off from Swisha House and started doing our own thing because it was crazy to watch the amount of CDs that was being moved and how much money was being made over there and not really seeing a profit from it…not being able to gain financially from it. All it was basically was exposure. Some people live that life where they’re in it to get famous and some people are in it to get paid. So we took the route to try to get paid and started doing our own thing. Actually the name of it was Color Changing Click, Water Boys was just a group under that name. And Lou Hawk was one of the members that I used to work with a long time ago and he used to tell me that I was never gonna make it in rap. And I ended up getting him in the group because he was Paul’s Homeboy. So we branched off and started doing our own mix tapes and they started selling like crazy. So eventually we just kinda made our way out of the Swisha House and stated doing our own thing.

Down-South.com: What year did you all leave the Swisha House?

Cham: Aw man I don’t even remember what date it was. I am terrible with dates. I don’t even remember.

Down-South.com: How did you come up with the name Chamillionare and does it have anything to do with Color Changing Click name given the fact that the first part of your name is that of a lizard that changes color to adapt to its environment?

Cham: Yeah, I think that a lotta people look at it like the Color Changing Click has something to do with it, but, me, I don’t. It’s kinda like how when we were coming up it was always the north side and a south side issue. The North side would be claiming that candy blue and they’d be claiming that color and the south side would be riding candy red colors and claiming that color. I just try to stay neutral so that’s kinda like what that was. Color Changing was kinda like the whole spectrum of all the colors. We represent for everybody. But, as far the name Chamillioniare goes….originally when I was making a name for myself I was just Chameleon. And we always used to rap about rims and how we was getting it. I really didn’t at the time….when we was coming up that’s what everybody wanted to hear. They wanted to hear you rap about your rims and your diamonds when in reality we were artists and we didn’t know the game. We didn’t know. We weren’t really making that kinda money at the time. We didn’t really have them type of rims. Nobody at Swisha House was really making that kind of money. But under a label situation you gotta realize that it’s really the CEO that makes the money. So I was just the Chameleon and I was getting a little tired of being the just the artist who wasn’t making the money. And when I decided to really just take myself seriously and take a name that was gonna just really represent me I just like you know what –and this is around the time that I started getting away from all of the bling, bling rap –I said I changing my name to Chamillionare because that’s what I’m planning to be. I wanna be the person that making the money, not the person that’s sitting there pretending to make the money. And that Chamillionare stuck with me. Now I can honestly say that I am a Chamillionare. I am a person that did what I had to do and adapted to my surrounding to make some money…some real money…some legit money. And if you break my name down it means Cham is ill on air. He doesn’t even need a beat. He can just spit better than anybody.

Down-South.com: How did you hook up with Paid in Full records?

Cham: I mean at the time we went to Paid in Full we we’re already reel hot in the streets. A lotta people was already talking about us. Me and Paul Wall was like the biggest thing out here in the Southern region, along with Lil Flip and Slim Thug. We always wanted to put out a real album. At that time we weren’t really signed to Swisha House because at that time Swisha House was a mix tape label. We were not signed to them so Mad Hatter, being a business man, came an originally wanted to sign Paul Wall to a contract. Paul Wall came to me and told me that Mad Hatter wanted to sign him to a contract and I told him well get this lawyer and check out the contract. And see if the contract’s good. So after that I guess J-Mack and Ron C had put him up on me and he wanted to sign me. I was real skeptical about signing with a label so I kept the contract real short. So we got our advance and we kept the contract real short and we were only supposed to put out one record and then do solo projects.

Down-South.com: Okay now there’s a split…. 

Cham: Between me and Paul Wall.

Down-South.com: Yeah, how did that happened?

Cham: To this day there’s so many different things that you can point your finger at. And to this day I don’t think that there was nothing really ever too big to where me and Paul Wall would split ya know what I’m saying. The way I think its like divide and conquer man. I guess it’s like so many people getting in his ear and so many people getting in my ear you know tension starts building up and stuff. The main thing that I guess I can say was that we both started growing up into two different people. A person told me this and this was the realest thing that somebody could have told me. They believe that the reason why me and Paul Wall split up was I was trying to build Paul into something that he really didn’t want to be. You gotta understand the whole CEO talk and in love with my money type of talk, that’s all me. That’s my personality. I wanted to be a boss. And when I sit back and think about it and looking at Paul’s action….at how he went back to Swisha House…maybe he didn’t never want to be a boss. He wanted to take the easy route and just be cool instead over taking the harder road and building something for himself. I don’t know maybe that was just my dream and he didn’t communicate that to me. I don’t know. But when he went to Swisha house I know I was the last person to know about it. So I don’t know. I can’t really point no fingers at nobody. I never did nothing. There’s rumors that on his album The Chick Magnet he said that his ex-friend slept with his girlfriend. I don’t know where that line came from. I never did nothing like that. I don’t know….there’s a whole lotta rumors out there. That’s just my take on why the split up occurred. I didn’t nothing evil to him. There’s a lotta rumors out there that maybe I did something bad that might just be a ploy on his part to get people to feel bad for him or something. I don’t know. I didn’t do nothing wrong to him.  

Down-South.com: Okay why did you leave Paid in Full?

Cham: We sold over 100,000 copies of Get Your Mind Correct and we didn’t see our fair share of the money.

Down-South.com: Okay you know that we have to talk about your mix tape and the Mike Jones beef?

Cham: Yeah that’s cool. I think that everything that’s going on in my life right now is all pertaining to me and Paul Wall’s split up. That was like a real big thing. You gotta understand, me and Paul grew up together. We was like boys. And everything that’s happening now is all spawning from that. When me and Paul broke up at first it was cool. We have a lotta family business and he has family business that we keep family. He went and did his thing and I did my in the mix tape circuit and we kept telling everybody naw we’re cool. We’re cool. Mike Jones is a person that I do not know. He does not know me. I never had a phone conversation with this dude. I have never been to his house. He was a new member of Swisha House. I was already gone when he got to the Swisha House so he doesn’t even know me like that. So I’m hearing about this guy everywhere saying all this stuff about me. Understand Paul is back with the Swisha House now. And he’s hanging out with Paul Wall. Maybe Paul Wall is telling him all kinda stuff about why we broke up. The biggest thing in the South that everybody wants to know is why we broke up. So he gets his one side of the story from whoever and he goes everywhere and starts telling all these people all this bad stuff about me. For a long time it was just building up and I was hearing about it from different mutual friends who were being honest with me, telling me exactly where he stand. And these are all people who don’t know each other and they are all telling me the same kinda stuff. So it just stars building up, building up and we’re not seeing him nowhere. We’re definitely gonna see him somewhere and say something to him. But we’re not seeing anywhere. We don’t hang out in the same circles, we don’t hang around the same people ….you gotta understand I’m not with the Swisha House Click anymore and I’m not hanging out with none of those people so I’m not seeing them anywhere so it’s like I can just walk up to him and ask him why he’s saying all of this stuff about me. It’s not like I can call him. I never talk to him. I don’t even know  him like that. So when he started doing all that bad talk –talking to radio DJs and all kinda stuff and they were all telling me and I could see it. I know that something is going on when I walk into a room and everybody kinda turns their head like the devil just walked in and I don’t know why. Then when I started putting all of the pieces together and stared to realize what was going on then I made an example outta him. I kinda like flipped the pages on him so he would know what it feels like to have people talk bad about him. Now when he goes out to shows and he say who and the audience yells out Dyke Jones. And that’s the best lesson that he could have learned because he thought that life was peaches and cream and that he could do whatever he wants and just go around and talk about people’s business.

Down-South.com: How do you feel about Paid in Full releasing an album of old Paul Wall & Chamillioniare material and calling it Controversy Sells?                            

Cham: Yeah, my solo album was gonna be called Controversy Sells. There’s a lot of confusion going on right now because Paid in Full dropped an album called Controversy Sells. Paid in full is saying that they have the right to drop that album because I was supposed to drop a solo album when I was on their label. I did put out an album called Get Your Mind Correct out. And I want everybody that out there to listen to me real careful right now. You have the best contract in the world, but if they don’t pay you, it’s gonna be your money against their money. And the only way….the best way….even Oprah said it herself….write your own checks. You always gotta take care of your own money. Take care of your own money. You gotta control your own money because if you let somebody else control it, that’s when it becomes a problem because money makes people act crazy. And from that Get Your Mind Correct that me and Paul dropped I didn’t see more than thirty something thousand dollars outta two and half years. That’s from an album that sold over 150,000 units. But I said that I was gonna charge that to the game. I was like you know what forget about the money. I’m making money doing underground tapes and doing all kinds of stuff, forget about that money. Then they try and drop another album on me called Controversy Sells. And the worst part about after I had gotten off that label I had went for a long, long time promoting that title on different mix tapes. Every mix tape that I did I’d say Controversy Sells, my album is coming out.

Then they drop a CD outta nowhere with the title Controversy Sells so everybody thinks that it’s my album because it’s got old material from me on it. Then they put up on the top of the cover what brings us together shall tears us apart. They’re trying to make money off the break up of me and Paul Wall. Then the worst part about it is they’re dissing me on the album. So I’ve been encouraging people not to support the album and they’re mad at me because of that, but what am I supposed to do? They’ve thrown my back up against the wall and I have to make a decision and I decided to tell my fans not to support the album.   

Down-South.com: Okay, but you and Paul Wall have since patched up your differences…..

Cham: Yeah, we have decided to let the beef go.

Down-South.com: Does that mean that we will see another Paul Wall and Chamillionare album in the future?

Chamillionare: Naw, I wouldn’t say that. It just means that we’ve agreed to stop beefing with one another.  

Down-South.com:  Tell us a little bit about your new album?

Cham: It’s called the Sound of Revenge and it’s hot!

 by: Charlie Braxton © Down-South.com