MiddleChild: Nothing much man. Just sitting here talking business with my other staff member Ced, so if you hear another person asking questions don’t be alarmed.
Chingy: Aight.
MiddleChild: So what’s going on with you?
Chingy: Shit. Same old shit. Waiting on the album to come out December 18th. On promo tour right now. On the road promoting it, “Hate It Ot Love It” and that’s about it right now.
MiddleChild: Okay. So what do you have for us? Who all do you have on the album with you?
Chingy: As far as features I got Rick Ross on there. Anthony Hamilton, Trey Songz, Amerie, Bobby Valentino and Ludacris.
MiddleChild: Cool. Ced?
Ced: What’s going on man?
Chingy: What’s up wit ya dog?
Ced: Nothing much. With this being your first album back with DTP, what would you like to accomplish with this one?
Chingy: Oh man. I just want people to understand we still making hits and making good music. I just want people to appreciate the music for what it is. I ain’t out here tryna be the best rapper. I ain’t out here tryna be the best MC. I ain’t out here tryna be all of that. I’m just tryna make good music for the people to dance to, vibe to, party to. You know what I’m saying? I’m just tryna make a great album. I just want them to appreciate the music. That’s who I make my music for...the people and I just want them to enjoy it and have fun with it.
Ced: Cool. I read in an interview that you were going to dig a little deeper on this album as far as the lyrical content outside of the money and cars, and the typical things rappers talk about. So what can we expect coming from you?
Chingy: Well I got this song called “Lovely Ladies” in which a lot people and politicians try and say that a lot of artists degrade women and so with that I’m showing appreciation to like my mother, my grandmother, my aunties, my little sisters and all the women in the world in general because the female creature birthed us and that’s like why we here. So that’s a song that shows that we don’t degrade women all the time. We show women to utmost respect too. So that’s a song that’s important to me and I got this song called “They Don’t Know” with Anthony Hamilton in which I’m talking about a lot of real life issues that’s going on in this country. In our own country. A lot of these politicians and people who have office look past and look over and spend billions of dollars on wars overseas and can’t even spend $100 thousand in these ghettos and neighborhoods to help fix them up. And all of this is going on in their country while their overseas trying to help other people in their country. So that’s what I mean when I say I dug deeper and tried to write on subjects that meant something.
Ced: Oh aiight...
MiddleChild: So you been in the game for a minute now. How do you plan on taking the lessons you learned from your previous efforts and apply them to this album to make it even more successful?
Chingy: Oh man. I just take it and roll with the punches. Like I mean, you just gotta be more smarter about what you do. I’m just more business minded and read more between the lines before I jump out into something…into a situation. Know what I mean?
Ced: With that being said, we know you were over at Capitol and from my understanding you weren't too happy with your situation over there overall. What did you learn specifically while away from DTP?
Chingy: I learned that when just white people are dealing with your music, they don’t know what they doing...
Ced: (laughs) Oh my.
Chingy: Well over at Capitol, they really knew what to do with Rock music and Pop music, but as far as the urban side go, they didn’t have a strong Urban Department so I used to have to do a lot of stuff on my own. So it let me know that when they slowed up I had to keep pushing so that my project or my song wouldn’t just go to rest. So I learned to keep pushing when no one else is pushing for you.
Ced: That’s true. Well I think it's safe to say we can already see the difference with that by you being back on DTP. You got the new single out there, you got an Access Granted, and we didn’t really see that push come from Capitol for you. So how's it feel to be back with your DTP family?
Chingy: Oh yeah. Of course man. Everybody at DTP works as a team, they have a goal and everybody trying to execute that goal. So everybody on the same page and know where we trying to get and trying to go so we have success.
MiddleChild: Cool. Tell me the one track that’s going to make everybody recognize game. Like for the people who have been dropping in and out of your career, what’s going to be the one track that make people recognize you here for real?
Chingy: “Check My Swag”. It’s like a hardcore track. It’s more of a street track, but it’s fresh though. I kind of have a little Slick Rick flow going on the song. It’s like a new school, old school song. It’s like an 80’s up to date song. (laughs) I don’t know. But it’s alright though.
Ced: What’s the chance of that being a single?
Chingy: Oh naw, it won’t be a single.
Ced: Oh, is it a little bit too "street" for them?
Chingy: It could be a single. It could be, but it’s not though.
Ced: Okay. So any idea of what the new single will be?
Chingy: The next single is going to be a song called “Gimme That” with Ludacris and Bobby Valentino.
MiddleChild: That’s what it do. So you told us about this host of features on your album. So like between the artists like Amerie, Trey Songz and Anthony Hamilton who would you say brought the most to the table as far as creative input and whatnot.
Chingy: I mean Anthony Hamilton and Trey Songz played a good deal in their songs. You know what I’m saying? They wrote what they performed. They wrote it and did a good job with it man. They brought more life to the song. So they played they part and brought they ingredients to the table and we mixed all the ingredients up and made a meal.
MiddleChild: You’re on the road promoting and I’m sure that’s a constant thing, but would you say is like the craziest thing a fan has done to get your attention?
Chingy: Uh. Lifted her skirt up with no panties on and put it on the glass.
Ced: Oh my...
MiddleChild: (laughs) Did you tip her?
Chingy: Naw. We was in a SUV. All I could say was “DAMN!” (laughs) We ain’t have time to tip her, we had to go.
MiddleChild: That’s crazy. Well if she reading this interview, maybe she’ll think to hit you up. (Chingy laughs)
Ced: Who hooks up your wardrobe?
Chingy: Actually man. I had a few stylists since then. I used to work with April, my homegirl from L.A. I worked with Dawn. She is from L.A. and my homeboy Ranaldo. He from Charlotte. And a friend of mine named Stephanie. So between all of them are all of the different things you seen from my debut album up until this album.
Ced: Who's your most recent stylist for your appreances and the video?
Chingy: That was Dawn.
Ced: Alright. And many of the fans on the forum have noticed that you been working out a little more while working on the album. What is your workout plan like these days?
Chingy: Oh man. I just go in the gym and do a little bit. I had a trainer and we’d go in the gym for like an hour and go tough. We hit the weights. We hit the bench and you know…
Ced: Did you have to change your eating habits?
Chingy: I changed the meals up a little bit so that the muscles and definition could come but I was just hitting it kind of hard man. Just staying in there trying to get it right.
MiddleChild: Speaking of getting it right, we don’t hear much about your personal life. You’re not in and out of jail and in shoot outs and drug busts and all of that like the average rappers that we read about daily. So how do you manage to keep your nose clean?
Chingy: I just don’t get in nobody business. I don’t let people in mine. I stay to myself man and I don’t go around and stick my nose in people business. I do know that I am a celebrity figure so don’t put myself out there to be attacked.
MiddleChild: Well that’s cool. We definitely wanna let you know that we got mad love for you over at MiddleChild and we are definitely going to be watching out for you with this project and on throughout your career because Ching-A-Ling does that thing. We’ve been following you for awhile playboy so we do appreciate your time. We’ll be looking out for you and since the album is dropping December 18th we’ll be letting our people know it’s coming.
Chingy: Alright man. Right on. Appreciate the support yall.
MiddleChild: No doubt. Stay out of trouble man.
Chingy: Right on.
Ced: Take care.
Chingy: You too.
................................................................