1st off Happy New Year and Welcome To 2009 in the 269! This month we'd like to introduce you to Charles Hamilton. Charles first got our attention when featured in a YouTube video (coming soon) of him holding his own against Hip-Hop heavyweights Kanye West and The Game. They all went in but Charles showed something special, something that caused some curiousity that made me want to check his background and see what I can find out. As I went on I found a string of videos, street singles, and mixtapes, most of which were hosted by mixtape DJ Legends such as DJ Green Latern. Now when you can get the attention of icons such as DJ Green Lantern, Kanye West, and The Game you deserve some recognition.
This recognition was given in the form of XXL magazine. This magazine reulted in him joining "XXL's Hip-Hop Freshman Class of '09" well Charles is definately in the running for Validictorian. His classmates will be on the site in time, most as up and coming artists of the month. XXL also released a mixtape as a showcase of sorts for Charles and his classmates which will be up before you know it. And just so you get an idea of the talent level of his classmates he is joined by Mickey Factz, Ace Hood, Cory Gunz, B.o.B., Wale, Blu, Curren$y, Asher Roth, and Kid Cudi. If these names are new trust me your finding out ahead of time this is the next generation of Hip-Hop superstars. And we're giving you full coverage with Charles Hamilton at the forefront.
Charles Eddie Lee Hamilton Jr is a true Harlem representative though he was born in Cleveland he always says on wax that he is Harlem till death. Even though he's from the home of Mase & Dipset Charles is obviously in a league, better yet a solar system of his own. Once when asked to describe himself he claimed to be the Harlem version of Good Will Hunting, now that's a bold comparison. And for all those who aren't familiar with Good Will Hunting it is a movie that starred Matt Damon as a troubled genius who runs into trouble with the law and is left in the custody of a witty therapist who helps him find himself and a college professor who tests his intellectual limits (thank you movie review haha). But I'm getting off the point this dude Charles Hamilton is mad talented and mad creative. He is blowing up on the web as you can see in this post and his buzz is crazy. He is signed to Interscope and his album is on the way, he is planning to name it The Pink Lavalamp, but with Interscope representing him lets see how that works out. Charles is also the cousin of female Hip Hop legend MC Lyte, though he claims he didn't know how big his cousin was until seeing her honored in the 2006 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors. But he doesn't use that as a crutch and he claims if he makes it in the game he wants it to be by his own merit not his cousin's legacy.
Now I've been where you are, you're probably looking at the picture and thinking "why should I waste my time on some Good Will Hunting wanna be in pink wearing a Sonic The Hedgehog T-Shirt, even if he is MC Lyte's cousin." But trust me he is mad talented and he is very deep with his reasoning for the pink and the Sonic. The pink comes from his deep rooted belief that God is a woman he also believes “pink is the color of life because pink is the color of a woman’s womb”. With that belief he goes hard with the pink as you'll see. He also digs deep into meaning of "Sonic the Hedgehog," no pun intended. He explains:
- Sonic means sound, sound can also equal music
- Hedgehogs submerge themselves into the ground,
Charles takes the name as submerging himself into the music, because he believes without the music the result wouldn't be pretty. Now trust me dude believes this with a passion and is dead ass serious.
But there is a reasoning behind his belief that without the music he's be nothing; when Charles was 16 he had a falling out with his family and was forced to move out, effectively making him homeless. Now a 16 year old homeless kid in Harlem is not the ideal situation. Now sidebar a lot of rappers brag about living in the studio, this kid literally lived in the studio. Hamilton ended up moving into a recording studio on the third floor of his High School, Fredrick Douglass Academy. Hamilton even went on record saying “if the janitor kicked me out, it was the park bench, cold pizza in my pocket.”Hamilton ended up dropping out of High School and getting his GED when he was 17, but even though he was no longer a student at the school he still lived in the third floor studio. He only moved out at 20 upon signing with Interscope in March 08. Hamilton still seems to be in transition saying “last week I was so uncomfortable in my bed, I had to go find a bench.”
Now considering that he literally lived in the studio you have to expect that he would have some skills on the mike. Hamilton has a laid back flow that varies from song to song, Hamilton is truly a musician to the core and he believes that the beat is a collection of instruments, so when he's rapping over the beat he is just adding another instrument. He says you can't play the same instrument to the same tune to every song, so with every beat you have to change the flow (I told you dude is deep). But even with a flow that's bonkers dudes lyrically skills are no joke. In his song "Millions of Musicians" (where he raps over 2Pac's "Ambitionz As A Rider") Hamilton spazzes saying "Ambitions of musicians like Theloneous Monk, Mixed with a little punk for the homies to bump, I am not a little punk for the homies to jump, I'm Scarface smokin blunts while I'm holdin the pump." Damn Charles those are pretty hardcore Harlem lyrics for a man who claims “I’m more of a hippie than a Harlem nigga.” Haha I'm playing dude was just showing a little diversity, with lines like that 2Pac would have to pay homage!
By simply listening to Charles you soon realize that he's bringing a refreshing new aspect to Hip-Hop. So many rappers go for the "hipster image," saying that they don't care about the game or about fame but you can really tell he was a hipster before there was a hipster. So many rappers disregard the game saying they could simply drop it and go back to this or do that, but back to the Sonic the Hedgehog thing he is putting his all into the game. He puts everything into the game and as he constantly says when it comes to music he is "dead ass."He constantly rejects comparisons to rappers, probably a result of the fact that he is a rapper last. As you could guess from one of the lines in "Millions of Musicians" his influences are mainly Punk Rock. He has also said on wax "I only stuck with rappin cause I gotta gift." He constantly denounces the title of a "rapper" saying that he is actually a blogger, that's right (Click Here to check out his blog).
But despite his hatred for comparison he is constantly compared to Kanye but I see Lupe in there as well. And it's apparent why he gets the Kanye comparison but its a new generation. Instead of college dropout we have a high school dropout. And the production is bananas as well, with a hard core sample game, but instead of Aretha and that era you get more recent artists, Kanye for one haha. If you remember Kanye's verse on "Barry Bonds" Charles samples the "Doing it pretty hood in my pink polo" along with his song "I Wonder" to make his master piece "My Wonderful Pink Polo." The sample style is reminiscent of Kanye while the selection is more Nick Cannon or Mighty Mouse of Gnarles Barkely. He also samples rock and The Peanuts....trust me you'll find out in time.
So this month Charles is going to go up on display, and you are about to take place in what Charles likes to call the "Hamiltonization Process," which is basically giving you a feel for his style and sound as well as prepping you for his upcoming first studio album.
But all in all this kid Charles Hamilton has a lot of potential. He's dope now but with time and musical maturity the sky is the limit. So keep your eyes open for this pink Prodigy.
