Chino XL

Not many, if any, straddle the line between obscurity and royalty like Chino XL. For many Chino is one of the best lyricist to ever touch a microphone. For others he is just the guy that Tupac dissed at the end of "Hit Em Up".

He is Hip-Hop's forgotten son. (Maybe)

He is also a Hip-Hop legend. (Definitely)

Hip-Hop Hidden Gems podcast is back with a full length episode, and it is action packed! Join TheMoJoKing & Willie Freeman as they discuss the thin line between success & "selling out". Following that discussion the focus turns onto the great and misunderstood Chino XL.

Some of the topics discussed include:

- Chino's early life & how he transformed his pain into a strength.

- His connections to New Jersey Hip-Hop royalty.

- His controversial debut album "Here to Save You All".

- The perfection within the chaos of "Kreep".

- Chino being compared to Eminem

- "Riiiot!". How did Chino XL & Ras Kass get together?

- Tupac vs Chino XL. A FULL breakdown.

- Chino's follow up album "I Told You So"

- Is there a story within his album covers? Willie is convinced there is.

- The biggest mistake of the 2nd album. And it is HUGE!

- The absolute greatness of Chino XL!
And why he may need to be taken is small
doses.

- What is Chino XL doing today? Big things!

- Chino's interaction with Hip-Hop Hidden Gems.

- And of course the Hidden Gem song selection!

All of that and much more, including Rick Rubin, a comic book & a gerbil. Hip-Hop Hidden Gems is bringing it all!

Please LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE!

You can find us on twitter @:

Mo @APowerMoJo

Willie @Williefreeman

19 Media Group: @19MGroup
https://19-media-group.myspreadshop.com/all

And special thanks to:

Chino XL @chinoxl
Chinoxl.com

Gift Revolver @GiftRevolver
https://linktr.ee/giftrevolver

Dope Interviews @dope_interviews  
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwC-t_WRik2_nLwVeTcVkEJNN7c8lHz8T

Gimmick Infringement @GIPod19
https://gimmickinfringementpod.com/


Donnie Oooh @DonnieOooh
https://eztree.me/The-World-of-Donnie-Oooh

Hip 2 Da Games @hip2dagames
https://www.podpage.com/hip-2-da-games/

KnowItAll @knowitallnyc11
https://linktr.ee/Knowitallnyc1

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the hip Hop Hitting Gemspodcast, where we celebrate the classics that
time has for guide. Hip HopHitting Gems is all about celebrating the music
that has shaped multiple generation. Thisbiweekly podcast, hosted by The Motor King
and Willie Freeman, will focus onthe undervalued and underappreciated aspects of the yard

(00:23):
poor. We will revisit each trackdiscuss its strengths, history, and impacts
on the culture. Whether it's asense of nostalgia or a chance to learn
something new, there will always bea celebration, Come party with us.
That's the ninety media girl presentation.In hip hop, we have always had

(00:56):
a super villain and arch villain thatwe were battling. The c has always
had an enemy. And I feellike if we go back when it was
really just you get in the park, you hit one of the squares and
you're performing, etc. The enemywas the biter. The enemy was the
person who could sound like you.Since we didn't have music videos, and
we're talking about before labels, peoplecould go around and do shows in your

(01:19):
name. They just got to learnyour songs and then get up there and
claim to be you, and nobodyknew what you looked like so it would
work. So the biter, theperson who sounds like you, who's using
your style, the person who's tryingto use your voice, et cetera,
et cetera. And that was thesupervillain, was the biter. Once we
started putting out records, the enemybecame the sucker MC, the rapper who

(01:42):
didn't perform well. And that mayhave been born of touring where you're going
out, you're doing a show andthe guy who got them before you was
awful, and you're like, oh, you know, and we all hated
sucker mcs. Once we started goinggold beyond run, DMC would just breaking
every record out, you know,props. But once as a genre we
started selling records more and we couldget videos and all that. The sellout

(02:09):
was the supervillain that became the enemy, and the sellout was the person who
made music strictly to sell records.Selling out would be not being true to
your art and not doing what yourartistic drive sets. That is what selling
out is supposed to be. Youare selling art, your soul, your

(02:31):
integrity for the sake of money.Yes, And when I was eighteen,
the living in my parents house,they were paying the rent. I could
have that idealism. Right, whenyou're a grown man, you gotta pay
the rent. You have to rankif you're taking rhyming serious enough that that

(02:53):
becomes your main objective, your maingoal, your main sustainability of life,
your job. If it becomes yourprofession, then you need to make money
off of it, right, whichmeans you need to sell someone. When
you get into a career. Apart of getting into a career is getting

(03:14):
a paycheck. This is what yourjob is. If you're in a situation
where making music might be the wayyou can actually put food in your baby's
mouth. In the Northeast, theidea of you being able to do that
independently was almost unheard of. Themagazines didn't cover it, The news didn't

(03:36):
talk about it. You didn't havevideos. It wasn't considered a thing out
West. It seemed to be,oh, you can play a guitar,
or you can scratch, or youcan wrap, then you need to go
put a record out, not youneed to go get a record deal.
Part of that is because most ofthe early record labels were all in New

(03:57):
York, So New Yorker was allright, I need to get into one
of these labels. If you livedout west, you were even thinking,
all right, I have to travelall the way to New York, which
wasn't an option for many people,right, or I need to find a
way to do it independently here andthey started selling out the trump Now both
are I need to actually have somesuccess. But the idea of I'm doing

(04:23):
this to sell records seemed to behooked into the DNA of West Coast hip
hop and the South as well.But the idea of you can't do it
without a label was almost exclusively Northeast. But it's because, like you said,
the labels were there, so anartist in the Northeast, there's this

(04:45):
barrier where your talent is only relevantif the gatekeeper approves you. Well,
I think that also built in someof that, this taste for the gatekeepers.
Yeah, yea, as you're like, I know how skilled I am
and you're not letting me in.So now you get some animosity towards the

(05:06):
people that are let in the gateyes, especially if you know they're not
as skilled as you were, right, because it was clear that they were
doing something specifically to sell. Buteach artist has to decide that for ourselves.
How much are they willing to sacrifice? Not only these artists on the
podcast, we're deciding what we haveto do as far as maneuvering the line.

(05:29):
Are we selling out right? Iremember before we actually did the first
episode, we were talking to KendrickKendrick, Yes, Kendrick. He was
talking about doing stuff much further underground. He wants to talk about soliloquis of
sound project blowed about. The closestto mainstream would be hieroglyphics, you know,
So for him it's deep like thatto that level. And when we

(05:53):
were looking at we wanted to tryto find, like you said, how
do you thread the needle between wherewe want to hit groups and points that
are hidden. So there are thingsthat weren't the wild mainstream. But do
you want to go so obscure thatthe listener base doesn't even know who you're
talking about. You have to beable to appeal to people. And that's
just what producing a product or serviceis, period, And I think that's

(06:15):
what happens to a lot of rappers. They want to do their craft,
they want to do it well.But once this becomes how you pay rent,
then record sells are significant. That'srelevant to you, because everyone can
be happy and give you dat,but you can't eat dab. If you're
not in the industry, you're anartist, You're like, I make music

(06:38):
I love. I'm not making musicand the hopes that if I can make
it go a certain way, amillion people buy it. I make what
I love and I want to putit out in hopes that people hear it
and go, I do dig that. But if this is how you pay
rent and you didn't get the job, like you said, if you don't
have a day job to support,like support your habit of music, that

(06:59):
becomes a thing You've got to thinkabout. Who is your audience and how
are you going to reach them,what are they looking for, what do
they expect from you. That's whatthe music industry is. So it's a
legit thing to realize you have literallythe skills to pay the bills, and
it's completely legit to say yes,and I'm using these skills and I'm choosing

(07:20):
directions and I'm making some sonic choicesto maximize my ability to buy my mom's
house, to get the car Ineed, and to feed my baby.
All of that is absolutely legit.The thing that is also legit. However,
is the artist who says, thisis my art, this is my

(07:42):
sound, this is my style,and I'm going to hone my craft and
I'm going to put my craft outthere and those who are feeling this can
rock with me. There's something aboutthe folks who still have their rough edges,
because those are the edges that makethem unique, to give them their
identity, and that kind of stuffhas always been the thing that kind of
appeal to us. Yes, Ithink my thing is that I have two

(08:05):
hip hop brains, and sometimes theydon't agree with each other. Now,
we just gave a list of reasonswhy it's acceptable for you to choose your
directions that you're going to choose andmaybe to deviate from what your original artistic
plan is and how it makes sense. So part of my brain understands that
there's the other part of my headthat's like, screw that. Do your

(08:28):
art the way it's meant to be, pure, organic. You don't need
to polish it for the masses.Don't conform and don't bow down to the
industry. Right, I want tohear what you have to say about what
you have been through and how yourcreativity is expressed, I don't need to
hear what I've already heard forty times, and yeah, I'm one hundred percent

(08:52):
there too. Like you said ofthe two brains, I have a full
appreciation for people where this is thecareer they've chosen, and they produce products
for the career they've chosen. Butmy heart is in it for the people
who they're like, this is howI do my thing. When I get
down from my crown, it's likethis, and I love that. I

(09:15):
really love when the artists pours theirsoul onto a canvas, whether it's the
sonic canvas where there's a painter's canvas. I love when what I'm looking at
when I look at the art isthe artist. That's the aesthetic, that's
the type of hip hop. Thereare sounds that come with that. There's
polished that is lacking, there's formattingthat's not there. That's the vibe that

(09:35):
really appeals to me. That's wheremy heart is. With that said,
we hear at hitting Gems, Ohyeah, are keeping artisthetics and our feature
artists this week is someone who's goingto meet our aesthetic. Yes, And
I would say with a certainty youcan never say this man sold out.

(09:58):
Although many of the come before youtrying to be just like you, that
will never be another you. You'vetraveled so far to get here. Don't
allow the world to make you forgetwhy our ancestors are with you. What's
good. This is Warrenshaw, andI'm inviting you to listen to my podcast,
Dope Interviews, brought to you bythe Mighty nineteen Media Group. As

(10:18):
a listener, you will be connectedwith talent creators, business executives, and
players from the worlds of sports,entertainment and the corporate environment. Each episode
provides insight from the guest expertise,making each Dope Interview or unique experience.
Take the journey with me, youwon't be disappointed. That's Dope Interviews with
Warrenshaw, available on all podcasts outlets, brought to you by the Mighty nineteen

(10:39):
Media Group. The Man is ChinoXL Okay. Yes, unquestionable catalog,
remarkably consistent career now Chino xl.His father was Puerto Rican, his mother
Black. Originally, He's from theBronx where hip hop Yet Round eight or
so moves to East Orange, NewJersey when his parents split up. He

(11:03):
lose his contact with his father,his mother's his foundation. Chino may have
been genetically engineered to be a musician. And the reason I say that is
because his uncle was Bernie Orwell fromParliament Funkadelic. Wow. He has a
niece that people who listen to hiphop today probably know well, Lady London

(11:24):
really, so it's very possible somethingis in the bloodstream there. Yeah,
those jeans are strong, because thatis a lot of talent to have in
one family. Was rhyming at agenine, ten eleven around there. But
what's crazier is that I believe hewas signed at sixteen. Oh he was
in a duet called Art of Origin. Do you know who he was signed

(11:46):
by? No? Who signed him? Rick Rubin? What? At sixteen?
He was signed with Rick Rubin?Yes, Willie Wow? Would you
like to tell our people who RickRubin is? For any who don't know.
Rick Rubin is one half of theoriginal Deaf Jam duo with Russell Simmons.

(12:07):
Rick Rubin produced Run dmc BC Boysbrought their careers out. This man
is a sound and genre definer.He's also the producer for some of the
most popular red hot chili peppers.He made Blood Sugar, Sex Magic eminem
also Jay Z's ninety nine problem.Yep, that's Rick. That's just mind

(12:28):
blowing even here. The Chino signedto Rick Rubin at sixteen, all right,
so Rick had left Deaf Jam andmade a labeled Deaf American. Chino
art of Origin was signed. Theyhad I believe two singles. I think
it was two singles. I thinkone was a B side, so I
think they had three tracks that madeit out. And you could tell how

(12:50):
incredibly skilled Chino was at that pointback then. Yeah. Times it seems
like an artist will figure something outat some point and then the switch kind
of flips, and if you goback and listen to older stuff of them,
you're like, I even know that'sthe same guy. Probably the biggest
name I could think of, becauseI just mentioned him as jay Z,
and jay Z was extremely skilled inbefore, but he rhymed very different.
He sounded like a different person.Yeah, very much. So Chino was

(13:13):
Chino at sixteen. Now I thinkhe's become a little bit more intricate with
it, but you could see it. He grew up in East Orange,
a lot of talent there. Naughtyby nature tretches from there. Why cleft,
same time period. You have ApacheChannel live, Lords of the Underground
artifacts ye had a DJ that mighthave been for Lord's or Underground. I'm

(13:35):
not one hundred sent short that,but there was a certain DJ there that
later became a rapper. Willie,do you remember of DJ from Jersey that
became a rapper? A DJ thatbecame a rapper that's not there's not many
of those that I can remember.The first I think of would be Diamond
d Yes, but let's think biggerrapper. I understand you like Diamond d
so I'm not downgrading that, butsomebody you like a little bit more from

(13:58):
New Jersey. From Jersey. Theonly person from Jersey DJ turned rapper that
I'm really into like that would beFunk Doc. It had to be red
Man And that is the answer.So you know how they say steel sharp
and steel yes. Can you imagineall these guys were running around, you
know, if there was like,yeah, oh my, that's crazy man.

(14:20):
If the Internet had only been aroundabout fifteen years earlier, it'd be
amazing what we'd have clips of.Can you imagine you'd have young tratch little
bits, you know, then you'relooking at the background and you have Redmance
scratching. What's going on here soundslike fan fiction. Man, that's just
crazy, Like everybody I wanted inone place, I think, to me,

(14:43):
it sounds like you would know betterthan me, because obviously I'm from
New York. To me, itsounds like what other people think of when
they think of New York, atleast back in that generation. For those
of us who'd never been, didn'thave family there, and didn't know one
how big New York City was.Brooklyn and Long Island seemed like these magical

(15:03):
places because every rapper we knew seemedto either be from Brooklyn or they seem
to be from Long Island. Andhonestly, where I'm from, we thought
all of that was in the Bronx, because all hip hop was from the
Bronx, And then we just thoughtit just you know, it's like a
portal that's just producing dope rappers EastDoorn. That's crazy that you go back

(15:26):
far enough and you got all thoseguys potentially in the same venues on the
same mics. Yeah, just it'smind blowing. Yeah, But if Supreme
Lyricists was going to come, youwould assume that they were circled around that
level of talent. You had tobe different. You couldn't just be like
somebody else. When you have tobe different and you also have to have

(15:46):
skills to that level, some crazystuff is going to come out. So
Origin breaks out. He stays onDeath American, which I think might have
changed his name to Just American Recordsat the time. Yes, it dropped
the Death and he drops. InApril of nineteen ninety six, his debut

(16:06):
album, Here to Save You All. Welly, what was your impression when
the album came out? I feltone unprepared and two vindicated. Ninety six,
we'd reached the era where it wasclear that hip hop was becoming more
diverse. It was spreading out toothese different sounds, and I felt that

(16:26):
lyricists were losing the focus on lyrics. And so when Here to Save You
All came out, the first songI heard was complex, and I remember
seeing the video and just watching itwishing I had on a video tape.
Want to posit. He had themost paused moments in a single verse that
I had ever encountered, and itjust blew my mind. That's a great
point, very true. You listento it and you're like all right,

(16:48):
I think I got half of it. My mind is blown all right when
they got played that again so Icould hear it again right exactly, And
the album it was still that acrossall the tracks. It was either these
line for line for line, shocking, over the top punch lines connecting things
you never imagine connected, or itwas this skillful storytelling that was passionate,

(17:14):
heartfelt, with this string of authenticityand that seed of truth to it,
because it feels so sincere. Youdon't see that a lot someone who's a
great battle rapper and a brilliant storyteller. Absolutely, and that's what instantly made
Chino one of my favorite rappers becauseI love the punch lines. But once
I started hearing some of the stories, as much as I thought the guy

(17:37):
was incredible before, I was like, no, this guy is special.
Hello everybody, this is the GimmickInfringement Podcast. I am Brad Winchester and
with me as always as my tagteam partner Tyler McDowell blank, and you
weren't listening to Hidden Gems hip Hop. We are also members of the nineteen
Media group Family. Brad and Iare hosts of Gimmick Infringe Me Each week
we discussed the latest in aw andthe wrestling world, life, pop culture,

(18:00):
and much much more. Be sureto follow a nineteen media group on
social media for the latest content,or head to the website for links to
all of nineteens content. Here tosave you all. On Wikipedia, they
say that the lead singer of Radioheadcleared Chino's version of Creep because he thought
he did such an amazing job onit. He actually did Creep better than

(18:23):
they did. Wow, I hadno idea. I didn't discover Radiohead until
maybe ten fifteen years ago. Somebodymade an animated video for Radioheads acoustic version
of Creep. The song resonated withme so much, and I didn't remember

(18:44):
that it was because of Chino.I had never heard the original, so
I didn't know that because I didn'tknow Radiohead. That wasn't my scene.
So I heard Creep. I'm aloser. You're so very special. I
wish I was special that whole thing. I was like, I love this
song immediately. But because the acousticversion had closer to the vibe of Chino's
version of Creep, the studio versionwas more of a rock electric You know,

(19:08):
if you're talking about capturing the spiritof what Radiohead's song was about.
Cino XL's version is more articulate inthe spirit of that song, what the
song was about. It's fluid butchaotic. At the same time, he's
mixing in how much he loves herand how especial he thinks he is while
insulting her wanting to be with her, while it's being grateful that he's rid

(19:32):
of her. And it's a chaos. But it's exactly what you feel when
you're in a situation like that.And that's what I mean by his capacity
to articulate. The whole song isI'm I'm done with you. I'm leaving.
I don't belong here, I shouldn'tbe here. You're everything I wish
I could be with you. Yes, And that's that's exactly it. Your

(19:52):
love is sorcery, drowning an emotion, poisoning me. Everything he's saying here
is I'm maddling love with you andyou're killing me slowly. It's literally destroying
him. Yeah, but he can'tlet go. He can't let go.
When you listen to his lyrics,he talks about a lot of stuff to
happen in his life. He doesmention that he had an abuse of stepfather.
In an interview, he pointed outthat he left his home when he

(20:15):
was fourteen. He was homeless.He moved out at fourteen. Yeah,
he was homeless and lived in acemetery. He lived in basically a crypt.
That is terrible, And part ofthe reason he did it was because
nobody was going to bother him ina crypt, because who wanted to go
into a cemetery? Dude. Sowhen he talks about levels of pain and

(20:36):
his music, that's genuine. Yeah, his struggles push him into being great.
His stepfather and making him feel worthlessmakes him go extra hard in the
verses to prove that he's something.Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
It's actually a lesson to be learnedfrom it. If you are somebody
that had experiences difficulties from parenting orabuse or whatever. If you can't that

(21:00):
negative energy and push you towards somethingthat you believe in, you have an
extra push that the average person justwon't have. They won't go as extreme
as you will. When we talkabout she Knows History, he used that
the push beyond where mcs were.He didn't need to fit in with just
the standard MC, right, hewas like, no, I'm not going

(21:21):
to stand next to you. I'mgoing to go past you. So he's
just like, I'm going to keeppushing harder, So you have to respect
what I'm doing. Right, Andas horrible as it is, the abuse
actually propelled him forward. And it'san inspirational story. You don't have to
have his exact cause behind it,right, But if you can use your
pain and use it as a strengthand then propel yourself past something, now

(21:45):
you've made something that you couldn't havemade any other way. Let's captured.
I think in some of the ferocityin his lyrics is captured in the transparency
he has in some of his songs. He has a transparency he brings his
stories you don't typically see in season. And it's just not a lot of
mcs who you see put that muchwork into their lyrics technically, creatively and

(22:08):
content wise. I would say,what makes Chino different than the average MC
is I think it's not even alevel of dedication. I think it goes
beyond that. I think it's anobsession. It's a fire and a passion
that compels him to make it asperfect as he can. Yeah, and
in some ways to go beyond whatis commercially viable. Absolutely, he doesn't

(22:33):
have to do what he does tobe able to be listed as one of
the top mcs and to sell records. He goes way beyond what he needs
to do. And to me,that's because he's obsessed with being the best
MC he can be and he's beenlike that since a kid. Right,
a lot of it it's based offof a dysfunction built into a strength.
I can see that. And Chinois literally a certified genius because he's actually

(22:57):
a registered members and has been Whatup people? This is Donnie Us Thoughts
Donnie Oo Podcast and y'all probably wonderingwhat the heck cost thoughts Donnie Oo?
Well, that's a platform that Icreated and host, so I conspute my
unseted thoughts on thoughts music life ingeneral. But enough about me. You

(23:18):
are now tuned in to Hip HopHitting Gems hosted by the Mojo King and
really Freeman Mojo King in Visions showhip Hop Gems come join their bross production
good Bye. I think the oneperson that she know XL always or people
always talk about him being compared tois Eminem true and there's a lot of

(23:41):
similarities there. I don't see themcopying off each other at all, just
two minds obsessed with writing, tryingto perfect the craft. Everyone thought Gino
XL was West Coast. A lotof people blew him off just because of
the visuals from the No Complex video. Meanwhile, I while you know Detroit

(24:02):
was completely stationed out west and youknow the shock of his look bleaching,
his hair is blond at the time, and all this and this and that.
You have to follow Chino to catchwhat he's saying. You don't have
to follow Eminem back then, unlesshe was showing off, because Chino isn't
gonna come out with Bapa's gonna comeout with Emine, come out with high

(24:27):
kids? Do you like by everyonecan hear every word process. What he's
saying is done in a playful tone. While Eminem said shocking things, he
never really sounded menacing unless he wastalking about Kim. Chino sounds like he's
battling you and daring you to saysomething back. Eminem sounds like the Baci

(24:48):
Boys developed an insane amount of skill, like they found Big Pun's rhyme bolt.
One of the interesting things about whenyou put them side by side.
Was that a small difference between whatEminem did and what Chino did was that
Eminem but the most part picked softtargets. He would after like say to
Britney Spears, Elton John Yea,he absolutely did, Liberaci, Christina Aguilera,

(25:11):
you can't talk about Britney Spears.Yeah, and you're not gonna piss
off not one hip hop fan.Chino went off to everybody. There's nothing
off the table like people screaming forme, like maybe screaming for e A
PMD concerts. I forgot about that, not in one of these albums,
but I remember in a freestyle hesaid, I can't remember what show it

(25:32):
was, but something about rewatching theshow just so you could laugh at Lle's
bald head. Helle is one ofhis idols. Wow, remember you were
whack? Remember ice Cube had aJerry curl. Just he does it,
especially in that first album. Hementions everybody, and he didn't care who
he talked about. If it wassomething relevant that would be a good punchline,

(25:55):
he just went with and he hadantagonized so many hip hop artists and
hip hop fans. Yeah, yeah, a lot of it was I don't
think nonchalant fits it. He didn'tset it up like now watch me talk
about your favorite rapper. It waslike I'm driving through the neighborhood and everybody's
catching a bullet. When he woulddo stuff, it was almost like a

(26:19):
drive by, a random a randomdrive by. If you get hit,
you get hit. I'm busting shotsand it's just going where it's going,
right and um, and showed somediscretion that she did not show right without
question. But that's one thing Ido think Eminem had to be conscious of
because he was still the white rapper, right, So I think he did

(26:41):
have to be more strategic with itbecause he knew what backlash would come his
way if he touched the wrong target. Right. And like you said,
she had no fear. She know, didn't really display concern for his career
politically in the world. She knowjuggernauted it right. Yeah, that's head
first into all the walls. Idon't think he was that far off when

(27:03):
he said FCC stands for crazy,Yeah, honestly for me. But I
don't know if I just looked atit different than everybody else. But for
me, none of it sounded vicious. That's kind of what I'm trying to
say about nonchalant, like I couldn'tfind a word for it. You're right,
it's not exactly vicious. It's literally, I've got a mic and this
is what I do. Duce collateraldamage. Okay, you know what,

(27:27):
it's like a comedian. It's likeChris Rock gets up. It doesn't necessarily
mean he means you any harm.But if you did something and it's relevant
right now, you're gonna catch itover and you guys go and get drinks
later, maybe if you're not upset. But Chino didn't seem like he was
being vicious. It was just thisis what I do, and as he

(27:48):
does it, he's flexing his lyricalbattle skills to the point that you really
do have to think about do youwant to respond? Do you want to
acknowledge that just happened? Ryot,I'm not sure that I could think of
two more skilled. He's connecting ona song and they were both pretty young
at the time. Yeah, theywere actually recording in the same studio.
They were basically trading days. Ohras Cast was saying that he thought Rick

(28:11):
Rugan was trying to get him signedas well, so then he asked them
to rap with this other guy thathe hadn't met before, and he was
like, all right, I'm goingto wrap circles around this dude, whoever
this Chino Xcel guy is. Andthen when he's heard Chino star rhyme,
he was like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. I kind of
stepped my game up here, andthey basically made Riot, respecting each other's
skills and going like, all right, I have to go full through out

(28:33):
o here. Riot will remain myfavorite song on the album, just because
Chino gave me hope that MCS couldbe lyrical again and at this extreme,
like high level, like this premiumlyricism. And then ras Cast came in
and did the exact same thing witha different style, and I was like,
there's two of them, you know, bro, what's the Rascast line?

(28:56):
Rascast said, I circumnavigate the glowof the one liner like latitude put
my robs in misfortune cookies to leadConfucius confused, Man, I don't know
a doper line to open a versewith. Absolutely. I never forgot that
from the first time I heard it. I love that because, first of
all, to hearing him see saythat he's circumnavigating the globe is beautiful.

(29:22):
Then to say he circumnavigates the globewith a one liner, which means he's
talking about the punch line. Andthen he gives you an example of a
one liner. But the one lineris latitude, which is a one line
that's circumlue. And while you're processingthat line, he says he's putting his
rhymes and misfortune cookies to leading Confuciusis just beautiful, man. Yeah,

(29:44):
they both showed that they were titans, and both of them were young at
the time, and their careers weredefinitely young. But it's not surprising to
hear them today and still know thatthey're top of the food chain as far
as lyricists, without a question.If you're an MC, it's a challenge
to be on a song with rasCas because you might get embarrassed. Absolutely,
it's a strong risk. And thesame could be said for putting Chino

(30:07):
on versus. Yeah, you haveto be prepared for what's going to happen,
because there's a lot of them seesthat if they bring their A game,
you're in trouble. Chino doesn't reallyhave a B game. Chino is
going to bring the Alpha game tostart with, because that square one with
him, that's baseline for him.So Chino drops the line by this industry,

(30:33):
I'm trying not to get ft likeTupac in jail right now. I
think there's two ways to take it, depending on how where you put a
comma, Because is it I'm tryingnot to get like Tupac did in jail,
or am I trying or not tohappen like Tupac is making sure it
doesn't or not to happen. Sodid it happen already or are we saying

(30:56):
that because prison things like that happen, you try to sure it doesn't happen.
I never thought about the first Iwas taking it as Pac was trying
not to let it happen, andhe's trying not to let it happen.
But you're absolutely right, that's oneof those common placements entirely well, Tupac
took us the first one. Yeah, the thing was and people seem to

(31:17):
completely lose this context of it.A lot of what Chino was pulling from
were rumors that were being passed around, and this is before things to go
viral on Twitter or whatever, Star, etc. Yeah, So these were
things that people had heard, atleast rumored about, and then he would
just drop it in there. Hetalks about Richard gear and the Gerbil thing.

(31:40):
Yes, Chino didn't invent that idea, right, that was something that
was out already. It's along thesame lines. It was something that people
were talking about on the streets.As far as what might have happened to
Tupac in prison, I don't thinkanybody took it serious. I don't think
anybody believed it, but it wasdefinitely out there. Again equating it to
the Richard gear Gerbal thing. Right, I'm not going to get into that

(32:04):
too much. Listeners, if youfeel like disgusting yourselves, look it up.
But the Richard Geary Gerbil thing wasridiculous. I would say with ninety
nine point nine certainty that that thing'thappened, And when you heard it was
something you laugh about and like,hah, that's funny. And I don't
know, maybe a fool here andthere believed it, but most people knew
it wasn't true. And I wouldsay the same thing for this Tupac getting

(32:25):
attacked in prison, Like I don'tthink anybody believed it, but it was
out there, so when Gino saidit. It wasn't like he just said,
all right, I'm just gonna saythis and make up some vicious thing
about Tupac. It was something thatwas out at the time, people were
talking, People knew what he wastalking about at the time. That wasn't
random. Now, but it's acrazy line. But literally, that's what

(32:47):
Chino XL did. Chino dropped crazylines, and he didn't worry about who
he was going after either. Andthe same song he threw a chab at
Biggie, which punchlines more elasticity thanaggy stretch marks. Wow, it's across
the board. It wasn't just Tupac, it was current events. It was

(33:07):
like he grabbed the equivalent of theghetto newspaper. What is the streets talking
about right now? I'm putting allof it in this song and making it
a battle rap. This is theninety media grew presentation. So I don't
want to stay on this because thisliterally has nothing to do with his career
per se. But it is.Yeah, it's general around variety, but
yeah, that's not who he is. Um So Tupac said f Chino XL

(33:30):
and hit him up. Yeah,and for many people that's the biggest thing
they know about Chino XL. That'ssad, which is extremely unfortunate. Yeah,
all right. I think Tupac wasa hothead, and I think he
got himself in a lot of troublethat I wish he hadn't got himself into,
right, right, right, Ican easily see why he took offense

(33:52):
this. Oh absolutely, yeah,that's not the question. And regardless one's
skill level, harless one's level ofcelebrity, those were things that Tupac was
going through. Nobody enjoys going tojail, So what would be some of
the worst things going on in hislife and making jokes out of them from

(34:12):
someone who at the time would bea relatively unknown MC Well more than that,
though, I think that because ofthe reference, it's a question of
manhood. So while a lot ofthese lines are based on either facts or
rumors that are well known, thatone in particular was something that could damage
more than his reputation as a rapper, It damages his reputation as a man.

(34:34):
Yeah, so I'm not surprised,particularly because of who Tupac was,
that he would have reacted aggressively toit. It couldn't go unanswered. It
couldn't go unanswered. Honestly, Ithink Tupac was being strategic with it too,
because I think his best pathway wasto say f Gino XL and not
say anything in the verse about it. I think Tupac understood that he did

(34:57):
not want to get into a rapbattle with Gino XL. And that's not
just like Tuopoc's talent at all.But I don't think anybody in the world
wants to get into a lyrical battlewith Chino x heal right, yeah,
when you see that, this iswhat he does. In general, Chino
has been doing what he does sinceday one, and he has chosen to
build a career from essentially battle rappingand passionate storytelling consistently across albums. It's

(35:23):
not here's an album of standard hiphop fodder and here's my battle song,
let me Jump up in x yZ. This is this is on caliber
with what we see from eminem.You can love him, you can hate
him, and there are areas youcan attack, but getting into a duel
on microphones is not a spot youreally want to do that in because you

(35:46):
haven't dedicated your life to doing thatthing. And that's all this person apparently
does. Yeah, Chino had connectionswith many of the same people at TUPAC
there, so they were able toto talk between these connections and eventually they
debtit it before Tupac's demise. They'resimilar in more ways than they're different.

(36:07):
Both are clearly very rebellious, Yeah, and both of them at their core
want to improve their people's lives right, And both are very intelligent, extremely
intelligent. And so between them beingextremely intelligent, extremely rebellious, and extremely
willing to put an effort to havetheir people rise, they needed to be

(36:30):
on the same team. And Ithink eventually that would have happened, like
I'm almost certain of it, andit would have been an amazing force there.
Yeah, it's your favorite mc nobat all. Man, just want
to give me a shout out tomy guy, to Mojoe King, always
showing a love. Check out mylatest two albums, Soul Surgery produced by

(36:50):
og No for Smoking and The Machineproduced by Outcast. Shout out to the
features Patti Huncho, Backward Sweetie,going to Run from Wise Levers. Is
only y'all know what's going on outhere? Man, Tune into some good
hip hop The Underground is alive andwell in twenty twenty two and you're listening
to hip hop hidden gym shinny Icygetting too high? But have you missed

(37:15):
the nice dreams and did nice sleep? So one thing about Chino was that
I've heard him say this a fewtimes and it's pretty clear that that's what
he was doing. He said heachieved what he wanted to do. He
got his mother out the hood.Yeah, and impress the lyricists that he
was raised off of. Wow.He wanted them to be like, Yo,

(37:36):
that Chino. That's somebody that reallyknows what he's doing. That's somebody
that spits some bars and you canhear it through the whole first album.
Yeah, without question, it didn'tsell. So people that are looking at
numbers wouldn't not necessarily say this,but when you look at the extreme level
of talent, it's almost beyond aclassic. It's almost like a standard loan

(38:00):
piece, right. It's a workof art that is accurate, that captures
it very much so. And justlike artists, they might chop off a
year, they might die broke,but look at the magic there, and
that's what the first album felt like. He pivots into the second album.
All right, he's going to learnfrom his mistakes. He's going to calm
it down a little bit. He'sgoing to even it out, make it
a little bit more palatable for themainstream. He does it all over again.

(38:23):
Is he never said, I'm gonnaturn around and now let me make
a pop tune, you know,now, let me, let me make
my R and B song, Nowlet me. It didn't matter what the
trend was. It didn't matter whatthe biggest or smallest things were doing.
Chino was like, I bring fire. When people talk about Golden age and

(38:45):
underground scenes, there's some contradictions there, and you know, it took me
years to be honest with myself aboutGolden age. Hip hop was all about
being unique and different and having yourown style and never biting anybody and being
original just like everybody else, justlike everybody else. And Chino comes out
long braided hair, the silver ringsinstead of the gold. He wasn't wearing

(39:09):
the MC uniform. If you will, he didn't and doesn't look like the
average underground rapper, street level rapper, gangster rapper, or boom bath.
He doesn't look like anything, youknow, He just he looks like Chino
itself two different, Like, Idon't what was the problem, right,

(39:30):
Because if you're supposed to be original, he's just being himself. How much
truer to yourself can you be thanto not don the costume? I told
you so, here to save youall is I'm hearing there's nothing you can
do about it. Make peace withit. I'm about to be a problem.
That's that's that's here to save youall. And then I told you
so. It's like, okay,now that I put all those knuckle prints

(39:53):
on your brain, let me showyou what I can actually do. I'm
pretty sure the lead single off ofthis was what You Got. I don't
know what channel CBS is on foryou, but it's channel two for us.
So when he says I'll turn onchannel two, if I went to
CBS, Yes, Honestly, I'mstill upset that that song didn't end up

(40:14):
becoming a hit, for it shouldhave been. Had everything it needed to
be one exactly. It had thechorus it needed, it had the music
behind it it needed, and ithad still Chino going all out right.
I'm a little confused. The songlistings on the album are all wrong,
out of order. Some songs thatare listed don't even exist on the album.

(40:34):
Some songs don't exist. The numbersof tracks are wrong, a couple
of the names are wrong. Ifeel like the back of the album was
what was supposed to be Yeah,and what was on the album was an
original version before they decided to movea couple of things around and can take
a track or two out. That'swhat I feel like happened. But I
don't know. It could have beenreversed or could be anywhere mix in between.
But it's just weird. How doyou mess up the album listing right?

(40:58):
That's just bizarre. It's ironic thata perfectionist as Chino XL have an
album come out and all the tracklistings completely wrong. How does that happen?
I don't know how you make itthrough all of the different well a,
you know what, Maybe there's apoint where the like the manufacturer,
etc. It ceases to be somethingthey're listening to. It stops being music

(41:20):
and it's a product they're producing.And if the people who actually know what's
on the CD, if people whoknow the content and the track listing don't
match when it gets past them,people aren't really may not even be checking
it anymore, I guess, andthen he gets one in his hand and
a thousand and ten thousand have beenprinted now so and then if you're not
a major label, and this wasMetro Records, right, that production costs

(41:44):
a lot of money. So atsome point maybe they were just like,
yeah, yeah, they can't affordthey can't really scrap that throw away that
many CDs. Okay, I justrealized something. It was on Metro Records,
right, Yeah, but there's alsoa Vatican label on it. That's
Genos, that's Chino's crew. Yeah, so now I'm thinking he probably financed
it himself. Oh, I didn'tthink of that. And if that mistake

(42:08):
happened and went through, she alreadyspent all that money on producing the stuff,
right, you would have to bea label of significant money backing to
just be like, all right,we're going to toss that. Either record
label wouldn't do it, or theywould charge the artist work right, and
they would come out the artist pocket. That's right. So either way,
those probably not great options. SoI guess at some point they were just

(42:29):
like, all right, we're justgoing to rock with it. Still,
unfortunate mistake, yeah, very andI'm still confused. I don't know which
songs which. Yes, the HiddenGem selection. Our feature song is Nunka
that is never in Spanish. Caseyou were curious. The one thing about
choosing the Hidden Gem was that becausehis standards always stay so high, it

(42:52):
almost feels like any song could bea hidden gem. Yep, if people
know. She though it takes workto justify my one song as a gym
over the next. But when Ilistened to the album again, I was
like, this is the one Lyrically, he's just going at it again.
But there's also an underlying current ofstorytelling in it, and that storytelling is

(43:12):
what pushes it over the top forme, because he's doing both in a
song. Breathe agreed. I couldn'tput my finger on it. I never
questioned why this was the Hidden Gem, but that is one of the things
that makes this song powerful is he'sin both lanes simultaneously and weaves between them.
He does it so well that actuallyit took me a while to fully

(43:34):
understand it. Wait a second,he's telling a story here, and it
ties back into everything that he haddone on the first album, the vulnerability
that he had showed. It's onthis song, even though this song is
lyrically in a lot of ways ofBattle Song, and how we talked about
how hard it is for an MCto be both of battle MC saying that
they're superior to anybody and they willcrush anybody, but also being vulnerable on

(43:59):
an album. He actually did iton a song here. Yeah. I
sometimes wonder how long it takes himto put these together because it's just so
potent and densely packed to do thesetwo completely different approaches to songwriting in a
single song. It's just crazy.He who las Flash last Best would never
again. It's the mantra that Icry, the merciless, bliss less,

(44:22):
bless, high risk, piss,clinch fist, the massochistic sadistics from let
me, persons like Perseus and impossiblyloscity, broken velocity to lightness, be
discosity, my philosophy speak antimosity.It has it's me against the world and
I don't plan to lose feel toit, and I love that that whole
vibe. Yeah, a lot ofit sounds like I am fighting uphill and

(44:43):
I'm going to keep fighting until Iget to the top. It's really cinematic
the way there's the strings to thelady that's introducing it. Behold my serpent's
hair, like Perseus bro. Flashof the Titans happens to be one of
my favorite movies, so I'm like, yo, Tino has remarkable technic skill.
The way he puts the craft together. You can get lost in that.

(45:05):
But then he's also one of thosemcs that will actually go into how
he feels, when he feels weak, what he struggles with, what his
doubts and fears and flaws are.And I never want to miss that because
I'm caught up in technique with GinoExel. It's hard to separate because he

(45:25):
articulates the pain with that technique.Nights i feel like I've sac victors plays
like Spielberg that I'm a stop forhim to be that technical skill lyricist MC
and to also show that vulnerability.It's kind of mind blowing to me because
the lyrical MCS wants to show noweakness. Right. It's like you said,

(45:50):
it's mind blowing. It's impressive,it's unexpected, and it's risky.
Where he writes from isn't a spacepeople spend a lot of time in.
You don't get stories that are reallyabout pain and trauma without hiding behind the
facade of bravado and masculinity and beinghard. That wasn't there. But that's
probably also why his fan base lookslike it does, is people from all

(46:15):
walks, because they actually can feelwhat he's saying. And those are the
artists I find when they're able todo that on purpose and are conscious and
cognizant of what they're doing and whatit means to listeners. Those artists careers

(46:35):
are consistent. It's not, oh, you've got this hit record here,
and you've got a hit record there, but now you're kind of they have
fans that will support basically everything theydo every time they put something out because
you feel like you know them right, and you know them intimately through their
music, right, so they arethey're friends of yours. Now. It's
not they're giving you this service andyou're like, oh, this is cool,

(46:58):
I'll play it this summer and forgetit. That's not how any of
this goes now. A note fromour editor. This is the Mojo king
here. I hope you are enjoyingthis reaction review celebration of Chino excels Nunka.
Before you listen to the final partsof our discussion, I wanted to
spotlight a couple of things we don'thighlight in this episode. Number one,

(47:19):
if you like what you're hearing,please subscribe to this podcast and also share
this podcast with anyone who might enjoyhip hop hidden gems as well. We
think we're doing quality work here,but ultimately we are only as good as
you say we are. Every listencount, every subscription count, every share,
download and review is huge. Sosincerely, thank you for any and

(47:42):
all support. We appreciate you.Number two, speaking of support, if
you like what you're hearing, pleaseconsider supporting our featured artist. Hopefully,
Willie and I are making a convincingcase. Chino Xcel is the MC I
told you so is the album,and Nunca is the song. Both the
song and the album deserve more respect, They deserve more listens. I'm just

(48:06):
saying a few minutes from now mightnot be the worst time to download the
Chino Xcel Classic. And finally,we are obviously talking about a moment in
time in this discussion, but let'stalk a bit about today. Chino Xcel
remains a highly active artist. Recently, he dropped a single with Ransom named
scriptures. He also hinted on workingon something new with Madlib and oh no,

(48:29):
we'll have to see if it's asingle, an EP, or an
album. But what is for sureis that a full length project is coming
out with the producer Stu Bangers.On. Top of music, Chino has
just dropped his second comic in hisgraphic novel series. This edition is named
Lucy and once again drawn by GiftRevolver. It is also accompanied with a

(48:51):
video on YouTube, so check thatout. You can get the comic at
Chino XL dot com and you couldconnect with Chino on Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter. Support hip hop hittingGems, support Chino XCEL, and support
hip hop culture everywhere. In aBlack Mass, one of the things that
I found absolutely amazing, and thisjust speaks to my heart on seventeen different

(49:14):
levels, is Chino has produced acomic for one of his current song and
is called in a Black Mass,And all of the words in the comic
are basically the lyrics of the song. The comic is telling the story of
the song, and I don't wantto spoil the story, so I'm going
to limit how much I actually talkabout the story itself. But he's having
a dialogue with someone that goes frombeing a guide to a foe and it's

(49:37):
a really intense journey. But thenhe released a video for the song,
which is the comic animated. It'sa really great project and it's called in
a Black Mask. Name of thesong, let's name the comic, Let's
name of the video. Chino wroteit and it's a passion project for him.
It's something from his heart. Thearts by dude named Gift Revolver.

(49:58):
Adrian Young is there with He producedit and Adrian Young's gifted as a producer
to start wars. So the track'spretty tight. So I'm going to send
you a copy of it too,because you need to really see this.
But you do know that I purchasedone. I just haven't received my copy
here. Oh no, I forgotso yeah, you know, where's my
car? When this came, Iwas actually at a point where the projects

(50:23):
I'm working on, I was startingto kind of struggle with why I'm not
being quite as productive as I wanted. And I was kind of at this
crossroads. I'm doing things that Icare strongly about, but I didn't feel
like anyone was asking for But whatended up happening. Is when this arrived,
I was thinking it was something Ihad randomly ordered from Amazon thing and

(50:45):
then when I opened it up andit says it's from Chino Excel Derek Barboza,
and I pull it out and it'sthis comic book. The coloring this
dope, the artwork is dope,and it signed and it says Willie keep
crafting, You're necessary, signed ChinoXL. And that pushed me over the
edge of Okay, I'm done questioningany of this, because here is a

(51:08):
dope MC who is lyrics, firsthip hop, first true head from the
Golden era, that has made acomic first of all, and I produce
comics that is making independent music andI do independent music and read the comic
comic was incredible, and then wentto the YouTube and found the video that
animated the comic, And that wasa path that I was struggling with,

(51:31):
how to I visualize the things thatI do and seeing someone do it telling
me to keep going. Finding outthat you talked to him about what I'm
doing, so it's not like he'sjust writing a random message. It just
it blew my mind. Couldn't thankyou enough couldn't thank him enough, got
on ig wrote him up about it, and that lit a fire under me.

(51:51):
And to have someone that's this lyrical, that's always lit lyrical fires under
me light these other creative fires wasvery, very imposed for me. That
made a big difference. The mancontinues to inspire. That's one thing that
I would say is consistent throughout isthat he's an inspiration. Yeah, I
would want to point out that.All right, short version from my understanding

(52:12):
was that I think he was goingto mail it out to you and had
lost your address. So it waskind of funny. My phone rang and
I didn't answer my phone. Andanybody knows me, I'm good for that
because I never answered. Most peoplejust text me anyway, they already know.
So I was holding my phone stilland I looked at something else,
and then I looked back and Ihad a text and it said, Yo,
this is Chino XL. I needthe address. And I'm like,
all right, this is not ChinoXL. This is his manager or whatever.

(52:37):
And I'm like, all right,cool, give me a second.
And I wrote him back. Butlike I said, I didn't really think
it was him. So what wouldhappen was I would send a little text
and he would respond back, whichwould force me to respond again. Yeah,
if this ischo I don't want tobother him. So everything I would
do would be really short, likeyo, I really appreciate it, thank
you, and then that's it.You would respond back. So at one

(52:59):
point he respond on the back andasked me what he should put on it.
Whatever I said was very generic.What am I gonna do? Tell
him some deep thought? The righton the thing. What he wrote to
you was his mind somehow connecting andknowing what you needed to hear. That's
crazy. That was one hundred percentGino XL. I take no credit for
that. Now. What was funnyabout it was he sent me a picture

(53:22):
of what he wrote. That's whenI understood that it really was Gino XL.
Because I have the Poisoned Pen albumin my catalog. I got a
signed version of it. That wasthe signature, that was the handwriting.
Oh okay, so you were ableto actually recognize this is the handwriting.
Yeah, this dude on the levelhe is, was like, I'm going

(53:44):
to take this to the post officemyself. Yeah, oh crap, I
don't have the address. I'll reachout to this fan that I don't have
any clue. Who is right,not knowing that I had a podcast?
The true, very true. Sohe did it for an individual. Yeah
right, He was like, you'resupporting me, so I'm looking out for
you. I can't tell you thelevel of depth that I appreciated it.

(54:06):
Same here. That's the thing,man, to see someone being real on
the level, just communicating with someonewho's buying a product because he's already got
the money at that point. Yeah. Listen, if it was me and
I had just sold something and Iwent to the post office and I didn't
have it, I would have wentback home and be like, all right,
you're getting it tomorrow or whenever Ihave it, whenever I get back
there. Yeah, next time Iget around to the post office. Yeah,

(54:34):
never, can you stop my hostility? I like how the choruses are
slightly different. Each line is different, but it has the same point,
you will never defeat me. Butit also has some spiritual stuff in it
as well. So the beginning isan angel talking to him. Right,

(54:55):
A lot of the chorus sounds likemore standard rhyme battle stuff. You never
mentally conquered me, never return topoverty. Right. But then he also
talks about never blocking his destiny.Now that's outside of a rhyme, that's
moral life. And then he getseven bigger never food by Satan's jealousy.
You know, is he from heavenor is he from hell? This song,

(55:17):
particularly the Courses, also weave betweenrighteousness and an evil path, and
I think in that pretty much anybodycan relate to. Am I on the
right path doing the right thing?Or am I own a path of doing
bad things and being destructive? Andhe weaves in between that all this skilled

(55:39):
lyricism that not many, if any, can touch. Right. How he
keeps that duality going is in itselfthat in my head, goes beyond normal
planning. That's something when your spiritjust connects to your pen. Usually you
go in one direction, or maybego one direction and come back to this
and then come back to that.The fact that he can do both at

(56:00):
the same time, and it justkeeps going and going. You're looking for
okay, when does it stop togo? Wow? It doesn't stop.
That approach in the middle of thesong saying I've been through a lot,
I'm not gonna give up. I'veseen failure, I'm not gonna stop and
then still paint these kind of imagerypictures and it it's just it's amazing to

(56:22):
me. I'm sending from the skylike Gabriel, the all angel with the
way the world of shoulders, likeAnna read the frink of angles. You
lie as I'm flying the ball youthink, jomp Den the tails. The
only time y'all seeing Grahams is wheny'all drink them. James Abrams. So
one of the big differences I feltbetween Here to save you all and I
Told you So. The covers andthe conversation is happening just visually because with

(56:45):
I Told you So, you've gothim standing there. He's in the wife
beater of the jeans, but he'sgot the fire and the wings behind it.
First he says he's here to saveyou all, and then the next
time he shows up, he's showingup with the wings like he's an angel
here to do so. But thewings are lame. Everything behind him is
burning. And the way we talkedabout reading of a line of the two
influences, they could be angel wings, they could be demon wings. I

(57:07):
just think that the way the coverwas put together says so much about this
album. It captures this whole vibeof he's both walking through this towering inferno
and at the same time he maystill be, like his first album,
here to Save you All. That'san interesting interpretation of it, because what
I was going to ask, washe here to save you all in the

(57:30):
first album but it didn't really poplike it should. Is he now back
to burn everything down? It verywell could be that's the crazy work.
It's like, all right, youknow I came in peace, you didn't
want to, So now we're bringingwar. You know my flow was water,
you didn't like it. Now I'mbringing the fire. Yo. It's
the kid Desmond Pole, host ofHip to the Games, where the brilliance

(57:51):
of basketball and hip hop's past andpresent is genuinely appreciated, and you're listening
to hip hop hidden gems and weare a part of the nineteen media Group
family seeing things that are not there. But honestly, given the way he
rhymes, the capacity for extending metaphors. When I look at the four covers,
the first is here to save youall. Then when you go into

(58:12):
I Told you So, like Isaid, He's coming as this creature with
these giant wings and through the flames, and then I believe poison Pin was
a solid black cover there was nothing, and then his name is in white,
which still captures that duality. Andso we went from here to save
you too, all right, Itold you so. And now there's all
this fire and destruction, etc.And maybe he's saved you from it,

(58:35):
maybe not. Next album there's nothingvisual. And then the fourth album,
Reconstruction called the Black Rosary, he'sstanding there, he's got the skull mask
on the bottom half of the face, and then you've got all these skeletons
and undead beings, and in theback as a hill with a crib and
a scary looking kind of angel reachingfor the crib while something like smoke is
coming up out of it. Soit's almost like it's starting the cycle over

(58:59):
again. The angel could be agood angel or bad angel coming up after
like some post apocalyptic thing. Tohave your four albums have this potential visual
story that's being told. I don'tput past someone who puts this much effort
in the lyrics. Yeah, everyline, he's clearly obsessed about making a
point and making it perfect, andin the next line, making it perfect.

(59:22):
If it's perfectly that the album coverswould have a theme to go along
with it, Translucent fugueses and darkcatacombs out of scandones with the pheromones of
bow bones in Germany eternally, myvictim hemorrhages eternally until the sension became flesh.
The company manafing death. This albumwas a gift. But this next
part, this goes for almost everyChina Wixel album. They are potent,

(59:45):
and they're packed with not just barsbut meaning an expression and lyrics and lines
that you didn't expect, etc.To the point that you're constantly having the
pa and rewind to process what's goingon. Yes, and for me,
this is going to sound like sayinga negative but I'm saying it for only

(01:00:07):
positive reasons. I have a toughtime listening to a whole Chino XL album.
If I zone out for a second, I missed about five things that
I needed to hear. So Ineed to stay focused all the time.
It's tough to stay focused for awhole album's worth of just so much stuff
packed in, because even when you'repaying attention, you miss stuff. So

(01:00:27):
Chino's exhausting, I'll say it.Chito is exhausting because he is so talented.
I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes hemakes me feel kind of dumb,
no doubt. Like I said,he only has an a game, he
has no b I'm falling off.This is hip hop, hidden gems perfect
You to man, Thank you Maxieso much, appreciate you. Unna is the Colombia