DD I read a tweet from you a few hours ago and laughed, and now here we are! What’s going on in your area right now?
CN I’m in Oakland right now, I’m not from here. Everyone seems to think I’m from here for some reason. But nah, I’m from all over da world shawty!
DD From someone living near this protestor/police situation, what do you see?
CN Well, I don’t really live near by the protests and shit, that’s more by 12th street, I’m more into west oakland. But it was hella funny, I was coming home from my homies crib by 12th street and I thought there was just cracking block party cuz there was hella people by the 12th street bart, just fucking mobbing and rapping and dancing. If I didn’t have hella shit to do I wanted to join the party! lol
DD I’m a big fan of sassy, independent women. Your music has some sharp edge to it, and you seem to carry that edge as well. What drives this?
CN Confidence and not really giving a fuck. From time to time I get like weird when people talk shit about me, because I find that it’s very easy to say mean things about me. I mean comon’ I’m pretty fucking outrageous sometimes. But I just gotta get over that bullshit. But I moved out of my parents house when I was 16 and came to San Francisco and I had always been an independent child as well. Also as a child, I moved ALOT. I was born in the Dubai, then moved to Africa, Zambia, then my dad’s job tried to transfer him to another place in Africa, but my mom was sick of being in Africa, so he quit his job and we were trying to figure out where we wanted to go, we went to London for a bit, then back to Dubai, but then my Dad finally decided that he wanted to go settle in Canada, so we moved to Toronto. I think moving made me really confident though, because I would have to just fucking make friends in a completely new place every 3 years or less! I think that really gave me skills to communicate with a large scale of people.
DD Did you ever feel destined to become an artist/rapper?
CN I feel destined to be a performer, mainly, and live this lifestyle with no rules or boundaries. Honestly, a lot of people might not believe me at this point of my career, I still haven’t released a solo track, but I really think I have an ear for production when working with a producer and I know what I want out of the track and the end product. Sometimes it might not be released exactly how I want it, but I still know what I fucking want. A lot of artists don’t they just come there, lay their vocals and depend of the producer to do the mixing.
DD What’s the electronic community like in your town? What kinds of shows are you usually at?
CN Well, there’s nothing really in Oakland, mostly just like mainstream hip hop shows and like some ratchet smelly punk shows. I used to be into all that. You will probably find me at mostly my homies shit, I don’t really be going out like that anymore. I lived in L.A. last year and I felt like I was like one of those socialite people you see on the Cobra Snake website that snorts a lot coke in the bathroom off their boyfriends dicks, you know what I mean? But since I got back to the bay I’ve been pretty lowkey, just recording and doing school shit. I’m going to L.A. this weekend though, in a few hours! WOO! Bout to get White gurl wavy!
DD Favorite album and mix of 2011?
CN Damn, that’s fucking hard to say. I wouldn’t really be able to narrow it down, also, I don’t be listening to full albums like that I be listening to select songs. And there’s sooooo many different genres I fuck with. From Kuduro, dancehall, club, bmore, pop, house, mainstream hip hop, up and coming hip hop artists. I was just listening to the Danny Brown XXX again with my homie James, it’s really fucking good and the production is sick, he got hella young upcoming producers to produce tracks which is fucking sick. My favorite song is I will, produced by Squadda from The Main Attrakionz, lol that sound is nasty and ratchet is fuck, just how I like it ;] . Most of 2011 is a blur, I’m trying to fucking think. I’ve been listen to tons of ASAP Rocky, obviously lately. I’ve been in a hip hop mood. A lot of club/electronic music is getting played out to me. Don’t get me wrong, I still get nuts in the club when they be playing my favorite club songs. I’m really excited for this new Label called Body High, it’s run by Samo Sound Boy and Jerome from LOL BOYS, they are going to have some amazing releases. Also I love anything released on Fade to Mind, with NguzuNguzu, Total Freedom and Kingdom, I think they are such fucking perfectionists that nothing they release is ever flawed, like really though, it sounds like perfectly created music, if that was possible. I’m trying to think what even came out this year. Lil’ B? I like him, but I can’t say anything he made is my favorite, he for sure made the most impact on hip hop in 2011, like who doesn’t rap like Lil’ B? Really though?
DD What do you have planned for yourself as an artist going into 2012?
CN Just fucking work. Put out as much stuff as possible out in 2012. 2011 was for me kinda finding what I want to do. Still kinda finding myself as an artist. It’s hard narrowing a niche when you have so many interests. But I was scared to release anything this year, but next year I’m go hard, for sure. I’m excited, it’s crazy how much support I’ve been getting from people, sometimes I get confused and don’t understand it, but then I’m like fuck it, they right, I’m da best ;] lol.
DD When’s the last time you laughed really hard?
CN LOL. Probably when I found out this old ass lady that I used to know in L.A., not going to mention her name or her public career, but I found out that she does porn, my friend, zak-MATIC had told me, to look at it. But it was hella funny because it was super boring like she was painting a wall or something for like 20 minutes, it’s like alright bitch, I get the point now lemme see you shake dat a$$!
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– Jimi Jaxon
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