Published: Tuesday - December 21, 2004
Words by William E. Ketchum III
Chali 2na (Photo: BallerStatus (file))
"It be the verbal Herman Munster..."
While many know Chali 2NA from his verse's opening line of "What's Golden," the bass-voiced MC is more than just a member of the dynamic Californian hip-hop collective Jurassic 5. Along with paying dues with his group, the Chi-town native has worked with everyone from Supernatural to Linkin Park. With his new mixtape, Fish Market Pt. 2, Chali plans to capitalize on his solo flying power.
Still, like the title of their critically-acclaimed album states, there's power in numbers. "A solo project from my crew doesn't mean my crew is about to dissipate," Chali says. "It only makes us stronger in a lot of ways." In an interview with BallerStatus.com, Chali talks about his diverse resume, the explosion of his hometown, and Bruce Springsteen.
BallerStatus.com: You were always one of the members of J5 that stuck out, and this mixtape shows more of that. What made you decide to do the mixtape?
Chali 2NA: Well, I've done a lot of songs outside the group the past couple of years with different people. I figured fans of ours would probably never get to hear those songs if they weren't fans of the people I had done the song with, so I decided to try to accumulate all of them and tried to put them all on one project, as well as doing a few exclusives here and there just to hypen it up. But, I still have a whole Fish Market Pt. 2 left [laughs].
BallerStatus.com: Can we expect an actual solo album?
Chali 2NA:Fish Out of Water is the solo album, it should be out in February. But I wanted to get Fish Market out just so people could swallow that and see that I'm doing stuff outside of the group as well as with the group.
BallerStatus.com: Anybody else from the group have any solo projects coming up?
Chali 2NA: Cut Chemist has a project coming out with Warner Bros. called The Audience Is Listening. Nu-Mark has two things out; one is called Hands On, that's on Sequence Records, and the other one is called Blend Crafters, I'm not sure who put that out [laughs]. Akil has a mixtape coming out called Los Angeles Unified Skills District Part 7, and Zaakir is doing a lot of acting jobs, as well as doing side projects with different producers. Soup has a song with E-Trip; everybody's working with different characters, as well as working on the new J5 album.
BallerStatus.com: Your mixtape's tracklisting almost reads like a DJ's mixtape instead of your own, because you have so many different artists. How'd you hook up with so many different people over time?
Chali 2NA: Well, I'm a workaholic first and foremost, and I think that shows as far as my J5 work. I just step outside of that, and try to do as much stuff as I possibly can. People just call and ask, or I'll find some cats, or I'll be friends with cats. I'm friends with Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park), I'm friends with Kardinal Offishall. Mike called me and he was like, "I want to do this tune on the REANIMATION project." That's how it got with everybody, I just linked with everybody and tried to do as much as I possibly could.
BallerStatus.com: What are some collaborations on this mixtape that stick out to you, as far as the actual process of making it?
Chali 2NA: The Kardinal song was pretty dope how it came about. We were in Toronto, and we had an off-day, so I'm like, "Let's get up with Kardi, see what he's up to." When I called him, he was making a beat, and he's like, "You like this?," and I'm like "Yeah, What you doing today? Come through and do some sh--." So I came over to his crib, and he was just putting things on the beat. We just played around and did the song. It was cool man, he's got a studio in his house.
With Mike Shinoda, it was cool, because he was in a little apartment. Linkin Park is blowing up, and he's in an apartment. He had all his Pro Tools stuff in his bedroom, and he said to come through to record the tune. I just came through, sat there and wrote it, and it came out.
I was just amazed at how a lot of this stuff happened, as far as how fast it happened. A lot of these cats work really fast, and I appreciate that, I can learn from that.
BallerStatus.com: How'd you hook up with DJ Dez?
Chali 2NA: Dez is a real good friend of mine. I actually met his father first -- his father's named Minge, the sickest Afro-Cuban percussionist on the planet. At the time, Cut Chemist was working on some side projects and he couldn't commit to the whole Ozomatli thing, so he had to step away. Ozo was looking for a DJ, so they hit up Minge to see if his son could do it. He just came and started DJing for Ozo on this Warped Tour. Me and him just clicked, because we're both from the Midwest and sh--, it was a cool little bond. We were mad similar, we had a lot in common. We just linked up, and stayed homies from there on. He started doing sh-- with Slum Village, and we were doing J5 sh--. He has a song he produced on my solo album called "Alone," and we got Ozo Wally to replay all of the instruments. But Dez is a real good friend of mine.
BallerStatus.com: How do you spell Minge?
Chali 2NA: I don't even know how to spell that dude's name [laughs]. I'm sorry man. I used to always wonder, "How do you spell that dude's name man?" [laughs]
BallerStatus.com: Like you said, you're from Chicago, but the group is from Cali. This year, the Midwest is really blowing up.
Chali 2NA: I'm ecstatic about it. I lived in California since I was 17, I'm 34 now. When I saw Common in that song "Take It Easy," I saw that video and I got so excited I was bouncing off the walls because somebody from the Chi was getting some recognition. So now, to see Kanye, Twista, Shawnna and all those cats -- people who've been on the scene forever, but just now starting to get their love, especially people like Twista and Shawnna -- it's really exciting for me man. In the period of hip-hop where it's sort of the changing of the Gods, it's not as much gangsta and thug rap saturation as there used to be, there's room for different styles of hip-hop to come through. I'm glad that that people like Kanye are at the forefront of that, especially coming from Chicago. It feels good, real good.
BallerStatus.com: While Jurassic 5 has gotten critical acclaim, aside from your core fan base, some people aren't always turned on to you, because you're so different from other artists. Where do you think you guys' place is in hip-hop?
Chali 2NA: People say that to us, and I'm just baffled. We base our style of hip-hop of the sh-- we absorbed when we were kids. Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash, Cold Crush Brothers. To me, that's a lot of the basis to what hip-hop was formed from. So people look at me and they're like, "you guys are different, you guys are alternative. How do you describe your sound?" I'm like, "we're hip-hop!" A lot of the time, it's the cats out there that are a little alternative to me, 'cause I'm trying my hardest to stick to the roots of what I loved about the culture, as well as the rest of my brethren. So people try to put us into a category like "all by ourselves," it makes it seem like we're this alternative act, it baffles me. I really think we're just doing hip-hop, and I think we fit in that category. We have a grassroot following because of the extensive touring that we do; we try to put on an incredible show, a show better than or equal to some of the records we do. I feel that that's why we have a solid fan base. I really feel like we fit right there; right where it says "hip-hop" in the dictionary, if you open the book, and you look for a picture, it's us [laughs].
BallerStatus.com: You just touched on my next question. Jurassic 5 is really popular for their shows. How much effort do you put into your shows, as far as the preparation before the show, and how important is it to put on a good show?
Chali 2NA: It's extremely important to put on a good show. We live by the philosophy of what KRS-One did; you don't have to have an album out, but if you've got a great show, you're going to work forever. That's the philosophy that we run by, when it comes to doing shows. I think we took our shows just as important as recording, writing and creating songs. When we're creating songs, we're thinking, "damn, this would be dope live." Or, "I don't know if we should perform this one live." Taking that into consideration helps us into crafting a really great show. But none of these things do we find more important than the other, we put everything to the forefront: recording, business, performing, how we're perceived. It's not calculated, because it's us, but we try to put our best foot forward in everything that we do.
BallerStatus.com: Earlier, you guys were on the Vote For Change tour. You performed with Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and Dave Matthews Band. First of all, how important was it to you guys to be involved in Vote For Change?
Chali 2NA: Very important. We got involved with it when it was called Artists For Change, simply because we aren't really down with the antics of the president at the time. We don't agree with a lot of sh-t this guy's doing. We weren't trying to promote the other candidate, we were just trying to use our music to make some kind of change. Bruce Springsteen involved, and he's a Kerry supporter, so it became Vote For Change. We weren't mad, we just decided we'd let our music speak for itself.
We got to meet these guys, I'm thinking, "man, this is old music money." But Bruce Springsteen was one of the coolest dudes I've ever met [laughs]. Seriously, I didn't expect that dude to be as cool as he was. C'mon, people call this cat "The Boss." I'm like, "he ain't the boss of me!" [laughs] He was the exact opposite, he was so accommodating it scared me. Why is this dude, who doesn't have to make another record in his life, this cool? His wife was even cooler. He was making people like Babyface come over, talk to us and vibe with us. All in all, it was an incredible experience. It was something that I wouldn't trade for the world, I can chalk it up and say it's something else incredible we did along the journey.
BallerStatus.com: While the Midwest has blown up, the West is coming back, with artists like The Game and Guerilla Black. Where do you guys fit into that, and does the next Jurassic 5 album coming out?
Chali 2NA: The next J5 album should be out in April or May, that's what we're shooting for right now. We're about halfway finished with it. Nu-Mark contributed so much dope sh-- this time it's crazy, so we've been working and vibing with old songs.
But as far as other people, I didn't get into hip-hop on the competition level. Hip-hop saved my life; from the southside of Chicago, meeting a guy named Dave 3, hi, being a graffiti artist and him showing me how to use a can took me away from gang activity, took me away from drug activity. It really got me away from a whole heap of sh--.
As far as the competition level, like Game, I don't feel like being competition with him, and I don't feel he's competition with us. That's a whole 'nother playing field actually, in my opinion. And guy's only been bustin' for two years, three years, which kind of disturbs me too a little bit, but that's neither here or there, that's just an opinion of mine. Guerilla Black, he's probably super dope, but the stigma of him sounding like Biggie is something that might or might not slow him down. Everybody thought that was going to slow Shyne down, but it didn't. So I don't feel we're in competition with none of them cats; more power to both of them dudes, and any other cats that's doing it from this area or afar. I just feel like rap, in general, has given itself a facelift, and is allowing room for new cats to come out, and that's what I'm enjoying.
BallerStatus.com: That's about it. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the readers?
Chali 2NA: Readers, a solo project from my crew doesn't mean my crew is about to dissipate. It only makes us stronger in a lot of ways. We worked on the new J5 album, look out for that, along with these solo projects and extensions from J5 that we're involved with right now. Everybody look out for those, and hopefully you'll enjoy them. And big up to everybody who supported us along the way, and to anybody who might listen to us after reading this, and big ups to y'all for wanting to interview me, I appreciate that.
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