With a Grammy on his mantel, a platinum plaque on his wall, and four million ringtones sold, Houston’s slick-spitting Chamillionaire rode dirty all the way to the bank. Anyone doubting he’s got cheddar to spare will get their proof on July 18 when his new mix tape/DVD, MixTape Messiah 3 drops for free on Chamillionaire.com. Before you cop the free download, read up on what the man had to say to Complex.com about his next socially-conscious album, the N-word, and why the beef isn’t worth it. Keep runnin’ homie.

Complex.com: So the first single “Hip-Hop Police” features Slick Rick.  What was it like working with him?
Chamillionaire: It was real cool. He showed up by himself real cool, none of the jewels, nothing like that, you know, a real humble guy.

Any coincidence that Ridin’ the single from your first album, and Hip-Hop Police, your current single have to do with the special-attention cops give to rappers?
I really just made a song.  And actually, my whole goal on this album was just to make a whole bunch of conceptual songs with a little bit of social commentary to them. If you think about today’s current events, loving hip-hop is like the equivalent of committing a murder. With the controversies nowadays, like the n-word, I wanted to tell a story, and who better to help tell the story than somebody who pioneered the art of storytelling, Slick Rick.

So you’ve already debuted the single and now you’re giving away a full mix tape and DVD?
Yeah, Mixtape Messiah Part 3 is a CD that I’m going to drop on July 18th and it comes with a DVD also.  We’re gonna release it online for free to all the fans.  My album Ultimate Victory doesn’t drop until September 18th, and this free mix tape kind of holds them over. I’ve been working on the album for a little bit so this is just to remind them why I’m dope. The mix tape is definitely a lot of freestyles that fans have wanted me to do that I haven’t been doing because I’ve been working on this album.  

For the album, you’re working with Lil’ Wayne, Pimp C, Lloyd, who’d you vibe with the best do you think?  Was there anyone who came in and just clicked right away?
I didn't get in the studio with Lil’ Wayne.  Lil’ Wayne just sent me the verse, but he worked the quickest. I sent him the song and I couldn’t believe that he sent it back that quick. Maybe Lloyd, when we were actually in the studio, we talked for a good three hours before we even did anything.  

The Sound of Revenge went platinum plus, obviously hip-hop sales are down, are you feeling the pressure come September to have healthy sales or what?
Nah man, I don't care about that. Everybody always says that, “Oh I don't care, I don't care about the first week’s numbers.”  But I really don't care about first week’s numbers.  I leave that to label-heads. I feel like if you go out there and you push it hard enough and you got some kind of purpose and some stuff that can last a little bit, some legs on your album, you’ll be able to do well. You gotta have faith in yourself, man. People got little faith nowadays.

You’re the one who broke the whole ringtone game wide open with “Ridin,” what’s the impact of downloadable ringtones?
Ringtones are really the new hustle.  Rap and hip-hop itself are turned to the digital age right now. I look at [ringtones] as a whole other realm that some people take for granted. I sold over four million ringtones, that’s crazy.  Like who wouldn’t want to take advantage of that?

How are the royalty checks for those, are they pretty serious?
The ringtone checks are bigger than the album checks. And I’m one of the people that I know is eating off the ringtones. So I’m gonna push it even harder this time. You would think that hunger disappears once you start having success, but with me it just kind of steps up. I’m gonna go back to all the little small places that I went the first round where most artists who say they're big artists don’t want to go now.  

Shifting gears, do you have any regrets about like in the past, like the Mike Jones diss-mix tape you did?
Nah, never regrets.  I don't look back and regret nothing. Everything you do, in life just makes you more understanding, makes you a better person. You gotta go through some things to see the light. Right now if we talk about the state of hip-hop, people always want to be like, man, it’s so hard and so gangster and whatever, right? Then the minute somebody dies, say for instance Tupac, everybody, the hip-hop community, the whole world is just sad.  [They say] ‘Man, we need to stop this, we need to chill out.’  And then it goes right back to the same thing again.  But it’s like situations and the moments that lead up to something bad happening is what makes people humble themselves down. My goal now is to always stay humble.  I just pay attention, I look at other people’s lives and stuff that’s going on with them, all these other people getting arrested, all these other people beefing with each other, people dying and I’m remembering that. This is not the first time this controversy with hip-hop has happened. I remember they were steamrolling over Snoop Dogg’s CDs a while back.  They're back to it again.

Who do you think’s pushing the “beef” envelope in rap nowadays?
Well, I mean the corporations really just do it because they make money off it.  They’re gonna make money off it, they’re gonna keep on doing whatever’s making them money, but it’s not them, it’s the actual artists that are sitting there arguing over nonsense and don't even realize it.  People are like, ‘Oh, well we got to do this to sell records.’  Or people kind of make up little beef and arguments because they think it brings more hype. But if you look at it nowadays, they're not really even selling records like that.  That doesn’t really help you sell records.  It might get you a little more exposure, but it still doesn’t sell the records.  The music just got to be that.  You can’t really fool the audience. I don't really see too many beefs that are something real serious. If you get to the real source of the problem, it’s really just little childhood stuff. Like I said, people always want to think that it’s the end of the world until somebody dies and then they go back and look at the source at why they was beefing and be like, ‘Man you know what, this was a dumb argument.’  But they realize later after somebody done lost their life.

Do you have beef with Ashton Kutcher over the MTV Punk’d?  
Nah, nah, nah, that’s dope that I got punk’d.  Because I’m not gonna lie, like halfway through I was like, ‘Man something’s gotta be going on.  Like, there’s no way all this crazy stuff could be happening.’ That’s an honor for them to pick me.  Like, I never really thought they would punk me.  I ‘d be watching Punk’d all the time looking at all these big stars that I don't know.  I’m like, ‘Oh they wouldn’t get me.’ And they got me.

You’ve won MTV Music Awards, BET Awards, American Music Awards, and a Grammy.  What was the most fulfilling for you?
The Grammy.  That Grammy is just like [pauses] you know that’s big dog status right there when you get that.  People work their whole career and whole lives to get those and for me to get one my first album. It’s crazy, because once you win a Grammy you can always say “Grammy-Award winning” for the rest of your life. Really, the actual medal and statue doesn’t mean anything to me, but it just lets you know how much you’ve accomplished in such a short time, and that they’ll always put you in the list of “The Greats” or everybody in history that’s won one.  I’m in good company with that. Home » CELEBRITIES » Web Exclusive » Chamillionaire