THIS HAS BEEN COPY PASTED FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS. QUESTIONS ONLY GET ANSWERED IF THEY ARE IN THE FAQ’S THREAD, SO HOLLA DOLLA!
any word on dates for southern cali? looks like we might be in socal around halloween time. the day before in san diego, maybe. we’re doing hollywood, hopefully san luis obispo and anaheim. nothing is on lock down yet. but will be in a day or so.
When it comes to touring and booking, how can WE the FANS go about getting you to come to our area more frequently or help with booking? well start by talking to venues, sound guys, venue managers. they work with promoters or promote shows themselves. the promoters hire me and set up the show. kids have set up shows themselves all it requires is a lot of dough up front and some levels of maturity/responsibility. mainly though you want to have a professional promoter set it up, so you find him by talking to people who work at the venues you see shows at. if you really want to get the word out you make cd’s. tell them i’ve done over 350 shows, that i tour small venues nonstop all the time and can get a crowd of 200-500 people anwhere depending on the locale. tell them about booking@mcchris.com. tell them about the website. basically do all the work for me. where there is a will there is a way. make like wayne’s world and make it so. it just takes a little effort and a pa system.
I haven’t seen you collaborating with any other rappers. Is this coincidence, or policy? it’s policy pretty much. i mean i pretty much tell everyone no and i dont really have any rap friends and i dont know any famous rappers. well i asked one to be on the next record that’s more famous than me so we’ll see what he says. but mainly it’s about how good the song is. is the person just trying to bite off the little bit of fame i got going, etc. i have to treat my voice and my music with great respect, like its my daughter i dont want to give it up to just anybody. like music videos im just like rambo in the mud. it looks like nothing’s happening but then pow i slice ur head off and blow up the dude in the front with the gun in the back.
was trying to find out before about Nate and if he was a pro artist or just a big fan and trying to see if he would take a comission to do some more characters for my zombie tattoo? nate likes money but nate takes time. he is a pro and a fan and makes real comics for real and hopefully, maybe, if i pray to jesus enough, he will work on the mc chris cartoon with me and help with toys. he has a myspace, a blog, and a livejournal.
http://fetorpse.blogspot.com/
an mc gjioe figure, that has money written all over it. forget pocket rockets, put mc in your pants. this is a brilliant idea. if they are making a rowdy roddy piper gi joe, why not a me? well i’m no rowdy, i prefer chewing bubblegum over kicking ass, but i wll cautiously bring this up to my friends at hasbronics.
So I guess how do you choose opening acts? i dont usually i let the promoters. often time it’s gong show shit where my green room is filled with people making crazy costume changes. i secretly like pop punk bands or just straight up rock n roll bands than joke shit or other rappers or gimmick music. which is what i get lumped in with. i did let some nerdy rappers open for me this year but i think because my gigs are getting bigger that’s gonna be just this year. except for frontalot it wasnt all that enjoyable. i do sometimes bring friends with me like the ergs or my booking finds a cool collab, like with piebald or pinback. this spring will be bringing the alamo drafthouse with us as well as gemberling and gwinn. maybes on all that but that’s what i want to do.
When are the bobble heads coming out? its funny that u say this because the mc chris design was supposed to have a bobble head feel, not extreme but slight like calvin’s. so yes we will do it, we just cant bust our nut finacially until we have a hit and it makes sense. im looking at more grounded merch like hats and bags first and then toys. toys i think maybe next christmas, maybe. if the next album’s a hit.
do ya reply to pms? i do indeed. on the message boards, but not anywhere else unless you are a cute girl from kansas.
Any chance of belt buckles for future merch? i think what i want to do is find a company that can do everything, print, ship, etc. with tons of different kinds of merch. where i send them art they put it on coffee cups and candy bowls what have you. i want to have that in place by this christmas. so we’ll see. maybe i am refuting my last response on merch by saying we want a company that can do everything, implying we will make everything. we’ll see.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out in the hip hop game? write a lot, read a lot. listen to music a lot. practice all the time, do variety shows, open mics and poetry readings. learn to make music or find someone that can, record yourself. set up shows. play at parties. don’t stop. put out ur own albums on ur own site. make the site look good. make everything free and easy to acquire. make a message board for a fan base to happen inside of. then make merch. then charge for records. then do shows in venues. then do tours. then never get signed. sad face. be yourself, dont be a poser, and rep what ur into without apologies or explanation.
why aren’t you playing with Pinback in Florida? they prolly already have someone touring with them. i never choose these things. it’s all just random and if you really have to see just drive. be safe, but driving is no biggie. it seems like its all i do.
How does the whole booking process work? mainly it’s inside and they will look at the booking email but they’re not as responsive to every email as past booking agents have been true. that’s because this is the real deal, pretty much as good as its gonna get with me, these are top of the line guys that cant get back to every bachelor or birthday party request. i told them i will do little things if the person pays a lot of dough and flies me in and hotels me up and does everything super legit and nice, so i dont have to suffer for my art. i make it this hard because most people just want to be crazy drunk at their house with me playing at their party and that’s just not fun because then i’m trying to do business with a drunk person, im prolly not making any money, i’m prolly losing it, and its just a bum out. so you gotta have dough and ur shit together so how professional ur email sounds helps. if you just write, how do i get you? you wont get a reply. if you say i got you, we’re so legit it’s sick. he’s a picture of our PA system, here’s where the show would be, here’s another show we did, here’s how much we’ll pay, we’ll do hotel and flight and it will be awesome and not stressful in the least bit. etc. do not copy paste that.
what do you think happens to us after we die? you will find out next year.
What’s your favorite strain of herb? it’s like beer, talking about strains is lame. people are doing it to make intoxicating themselves seem more like collecting or something, but i dont care if it’s called bubblegum or boogerswamp. it’s gonna get incinerated.
who is fallyn about? she is about someone that im too nervous to talk to in nyc. but the chorus is about a different girl that i met on the road. i titled it fallyn because there is a girl named fallyn and i’m singing “fallin” in the song. fallyn the real girl, has a dad who is like the inventor of baseball caps of the universe, he’s like the ceo of new era caps or something along those lines, she’s a big fan and loves sending me baseball caps. so i threw her back some love, via song title.
OK THE NEXT TWO ARE OLD SO THE INFO MIGHT BE A LITTLE DATED. SURI. CRUISE. INFO ON THINGS LIKE TOYS AND TOURS ARE PROLLY IRRELEVANT.
When you write a song/lyrics, how often does it happen that it’s exactly what you wanted from the start?
never, i think, like everything in life, it starts out a vision and then becomes a reality. i love that i have no idea what the final result will be like. and to go back and listen to early versions is a trip because they can sound nothing like the final.
This is going to turn into an interview thread. What is your mother’s maiden name and bank account information?
my mother’s maiden name is a secret but she’s comes from indiana. both my folks were raised in the mid west, my father was raised in illinois. before that a majority of my ancestors came over from ireland as indentured servants or farmers. i am also one quarter alsatian which is famous for its champagne. so i’m three parts beer, one part champagne.
I made an awesome remix (in my mind at least), how can I submit it to you so that you can listen to it over and over again?
i have a new fan mail address that is great for getting my attention when you feel like myspace and the message boards have failed you. it’s deadmc@mcchris.com.
Why aren’t you on MTV?
i dunno. i’m not on a label, and mtv’s kinda goin through a tough time along with the rest of the music industry. lots of people have lost their jobs and lots of consolidating has taken place. i’m sure that means bigger workloads for the same pay. which sucks. i think with things like utube, a forum for playing ur video is no longer an impossible dream. it’s an ambitious task but i want to have a video for every song on the next album and then release it on a dvd with some other stuff. fans have done a great job making flicks for youtube (we’ve got over 150!) so i think one or two of these music videos will be made by fans, i think just like remix contest we’re gonna have a video contest as well. winner gets to be on the dvd.
What’s up with hard copy CD’s?
i have a few hundred with me on the road but they’re are pretty much done. does this mean forever? i dunno. these versions, with these mixes and images is definitely over though. if it comes back (and honestly it’s not looking good) they will be revamped and repackaged with new art and a better sound. why did i do this? i think it’s time for me to move on, and i think the old stuff needs to cool its heels for a second. this will put them in greater demand if we resell and it makes the process of collecting everything more fun i think than just buying something. it’s more of a treasure hunt now. as with everything i put on sale get it while it’s hot, who knows if it will come back.
Where can I buy and/or download your bitchin’ music?
there’s a kid named mdt that is pretty much the jedi librarian. he knows everything. he can help you find what ur looking for. i think lists will get made and you just have to put ur hardy boy hat on and find that shit. the entire first album now comes in zip form off mcchris.com. the look and listen page was updated to make getting lab an easier experience. the album’s will be on itunes until the end of the june. there will be a bunch of records scattered across the country at indie record stores as well as ebay and amazon.
When are you playing *insert obscure town here*?
we are hitting the nw, east coast, florida, the south and texas this tour. we will hit cali and the midwest in the fall. i don’t know if i’m headlining or opening in the fall and i have no idea when i finally get to go overseas.
What have you done with dj john and who is your current DJ?
john and i stopped working together for realsies last december and i have no current dj. i will be working with all kinds of people. i am (yes recently) still talking with the likes of dj swamp and prince paul and diplo’s label showed interest in putting out the next jam. we have not decided what company will be putting it out, we’re gonna make a few songs and then find out. i’m gonna be surprised if we self release this round.
1. mcchris toys, where are they?
we are talking with some guys about getting started. we shot them a response to the deal they posed and we just have to take it from there. i really want to make toys, but even moreso i don’t wanan be stupid and waste my money when now’s maybe not the right time. ur gonna get bags and hats before toys. what i want to do is little mc usb flash drive keychains.
2. When about will we see the remix/b-sides/demos album online?
we are gonna try to get it online before i head out to the nw. although you guys have pretty much already done much of the work. we’ll have to surprise you with unreleased mixes.
3. Will we ever see just a mcchris Skit/Stand up album?
i think you’d see a christmas album before you saw that. skits will be a part of every album and outtakes will always find their way to my various webhosts. if u live in new york stay tuned for news on a live mcv where i test out new stuff like i did last summer. that will most likely happen in the fall (if i’m not touring.)
4. You said in three years you are going back to Williams Street to work on your project, can you share anything about your project/vision?
it’s called battle hi and it’s fully animated and three year’s is beginning to sound too close. i think about it everyday but it would require lots of dough and it may not happen until i’m rilly rich. in a perfect world rap will pay for the show. i have other cheap ideas that i can make but this is what i dream about everyday. it’s like 8mile meets dragon ball z meets harry potter meets kingdom hearts. and i’m not kidding. i wanna make something like the muppet show that the entire family can watch. we’ll see….
Also when it does happen, can I do a voice on the show?
no but three people i intend to ask to be in the pilot are: Lawrence Parker, Frank Portman and Gary Grice.
“according to Lars, mc chris does change his pitch on the CDs to make it just a bit higher.”
true?
lars might be jokingly referring to my inhaling helium at the beginning of the track. we may try to help me hit the right notes or mix it a little. we may do all kinds of things to it, but i’ve never pitched it up. sometimes i get nervous and it can go higher, sometimes its an earlier recording. sometimes it’s just me performing it higher, but we don’t need help with the highness. we got that in spades.
Are you ever gonna come to Canada? yes i just ordered my passport before tour so i should get it at the end of the summer and canada will prolly be my first foreign country unless mexico gets really vocal all of sudden. i have got mexican fan mail (start ur joke engines) but nothing near what i get from canada. when i do go up i suggest you go, it will be just like when i started doing this winter of 2005 and that was craziness ie crowded and sold out.
In the episode of Sealab 2021 where “MC Chris” was introduced… How did that actually come about? i was pretty much the only person on staff at 70-30 (they have like six guys making dingo these days.) and i had left all my friends and the ucb in nyc for the atl thinking adult swim was going to take off (and i might never have a job this cool ever again.) so i think they appreciated the dedication and the hard work and so they made a blatant reference to me and my career and recorded the actors without my knowing and then i heard matt play some of debbie screaming about her boobs and that’s how i found out and my favorite part was erik estrada saying, i hope he plays booties for breakfast. other points of interest: i drew pretty much the whole episode, including the scorpion (that i swore i saw in the athf movie) and the secret break room where cap gets trapped. i also came up with the flashback idea. the one that reveals cap’s childhood in the circus (like hawkeye.) it’s also a reference to a magnum pi episode where magnum wades water to please his father. in the flashback cap’s dad is watching magnum. the mc roadies that the crews become all wear bobapalooza shirts that adam reed designed. i used that fett logo for album one. also im crazy fat at the end of the episode. and that’s george lowe voice of space ghost as the ceo.
is there like a list that has all your songs those on your album and unreleased stuff? mdt took care of that i think.
Can you smell what the rock is cookin’? i secretly love rock movies. and i think it’s cuz i loved arnold movies. so when they passed each other in a club in one of the rock’s movies i was stoked. am i stoked about another scorpion king or his version of curly sue? nah so much.
What’s up with the “Super Mario Bros. Rap”? It’s credited to mc chris in a lot of cases, but I’m pretty sure it’s got nothing to do with ya. I dunno if you know or care whose it is.. but how do you feel being associated with others work, whether it be inferior or not? well when it’s benfit who i think may really be the best rapper of his kind, i’m honored, and the filesharing confusion only helps get the name out. i’m sure he hates it, but i’ve never spoken to him. wrote him a myspace and asked to do shows but no reply. anyway i can get the word out there is ok with me. my dignity’s taken enough hits that i can take it.
How about a limited vinyl release of the older albums? Will we ever see mc in vinyl? i really wanted to rerelease the old stuff on vinyl but i couldn’t get control of it hence my buying everything that has been pressed and selling it only at live shows. if i get crazy rich and can afford to buy john out then we will see old school vinyl. the new album will be on vinyl if i have any say on the matter.
Any tips on getting noticed as a nerdcore rapper? cable helps. tenacity is the best bet. not stopping is good. and disregarding the haters is key.
Whats the story behind Nate doing art for you? How did it all begin? nate came over to my booth at a con to tell me robert kirkman (walking dead) was a fan. i asked to see his stuff and pretty much asked him to draw for me forever. i always want to see what other artists would do (which is why i talk to david mack and tony moore) but nate’s pretty much artistic director for the rest of my days. a cartoon with his involvement, well… i just cant imagine it not kicking ass. i can’t wait till im rich enough to pay him full time.
The anime shirts say “mc chris” in Japanese right? I was thinking of wearing it to work which is Honda and I really can’t be walking around not knowing what my shirt says! fuck you fuck face is the correct translation.
Was the song of the Aqua Teen movie recorded as a full track then cut off or was it just that snippet? Also is there a certain email for someone we can bug the hell out of to release the full track of Please Come Visit Me Dawg? just a snippet. like i said in another thread i would like to redo it all and really put out a real mcpp album but we’ll see. i think it would be a no brainer on williams street records but they’ve got plans for quite a bit.
Yo, why weren’t you on DangerDOOM? Or at least the Occult Hymn EP? i cant be a part of everything adult swim, it would’ve made sense but sometimes as you know, adult swim doesn’t do what makes sense. i think williams street records is far more interested in underground hip hop than hip hop from their featured shows.
Are you mc? yes.
When will there be more shirts? everythings sold out! monday i think. the shirts already arrived at indiemerchstore. there’s 750 of them (zombie, ninja and fett) so those three will not be sold out for some time.
how the hell do you become an mc chris intern? i will be taking applications in the fall and you prolly have to live in nyc.
sorry that took so long, on with round three!
WHICH IS AT THE TOP. AGAIN ASK QUESTIONS AT THE MCCHRIS.COM MESSAGE BOARD IN THE NEWS SECTION IN THE FAQ THREAD AND I WILL SERIOUSLY ANSWER THEM WITH TOTAL SERIOUSNESS.