Interview: Curren$y Talks "Covert Coup," "Muscle Car Chronicles," and New Warner Brothers Deal

Curren$y just keeps on rolling. The New Orleans native is seemingly always in the midst of releasing new projects while working on even more new material. He's coming off a banner year in 2010 (where he released two thirds of his acclaimed Pilot Talk trilogy), but he's not ready to slow down just yet. He kicked off 2011 right by releasing his mixtape Return To The Winner's Circle and just inked a new deal with Warner Brothers. We got Spitta to stop by the office to discuss all of his upcoming projects, including his Covert Coup EP with Alchemist, his Muscle Car Chronicles, and what his new deal with Warners will mean for his career. It's Jets fool.

As told to Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin)

On his Covert Coup EP with The Alchemist

“I got to know Alchemist through beats. I reached out to him on Twitter about some beats. When I went to L.A. to finish the Warner Brothers Deal, I went to Al’s studio, and that was the first time I met him. We were on the same page. We were just in there rolling up, smoking, and I felt like I was around somebody I had been around forever.

“It was a good time, we got a lot of same shit in common. [In the studio] there was like four or five hours of fuckery. Just a lot of rambling, because it’s two high people. A lot of talking about missile silos and being safe in case there was any type of civil unrest, that kinda stuff because you gotta be prepared for anything. We were drinking a lot of triple ginger, apple, lemon juice. Some kind of crazy concentrate that you’re supposed to mix with water but we were drinking it straight.

Everybody in the industry knows how much an Alchemist beat costs. To get a double digit number of Alchemist beats for free is a sacrifice made.

“Once we recorded a song, I wanted to give it away on the Internet. And he was like, ‘Let’s record a backup record so that we still have one.’ Then it was like, ‘Wait, let’s keep that one and record another one.’ And it grew into, ‘Okay, I’ll come back tomorrow and knock out four more joints.’ One day in New York at Stadium Red, we did two more. And the next thing you know we had ten records and a project.

“When you’re friends with somebody you gotta figure out how you’re gonna pick some money up with them. He’s my friend, he understood what I was trying to do. And I was able to convey to him that what I was trying to do could be done more effectively with his beats. And he believed in what I was trying to do so much, he knew if that was what was going to put it at this level, then here you go. That was an alley-oop right there. Everybody in the industry knows how much an Alchemist beat costs. To get a double digit number of Alchemist beats for free is a sacrifice made.

“We’re putting it out for free on April 20, a little 4:20 thing. We just can’t call it a mixtape because it’s all original music. Smoke DZA, Fiend, and Freddie Gibbs are all on there. It’s just ten records, more of the same of what I do. I want to release an instrumental version too. I think Alchemist needs to put those beats out.”

On his upcoming Muscle Car Chronicles album and movie

“Muscle Car Chronicles will be through BlueRoc and the dealings I had to Dame Dash. I recorded that before I did Pilot Talk I or II. We’ll put it out this summer, we’re just trying to find the right date. With all these other projects and the deal with Warner, we definitely want to give everything room to breathe. It's usually my thing to stack so much music, but I’m going to spread it out and give these retail projects time to do what they got to do. Cause I like money too, so I need to give them time to cash in right.

The movie is a cornucopia of cinematography inspired by Muscle Car Chronicles.

“We also got the movie, Muscle Car Chronicles. It’s a short film, the playing time might be a little over 30 minutes. Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah [of Channel Zero]—they shot a version of ‘Jesus Walks’ with Kanye and they’re partners with Dame on Creative Control—they directed and wrote the movie. [They heard the album] and just started scribbling the script. They had the movie [planned out], so when I got there they were like, ‘Let’s do this. We could pull it off in three days.’ So once they told me it would only take three days, I was like fuck it. Let’s see if we can do it.

“The movie is a cornucopia of cinematography inspired by Muscle Car Chronicles. In the movie, my name is Melvin and it’s me and this chick driving around in a Winnebago and dressing up as birthday clowns. We come to kid’s houses and do one-two steps with the balloons and shit, but we also burglarize the homes. But that money is to fund my musical takeover. I was in some Master P movies before. I was in Still Bout It counting money and talking like a gangster. But I’m still new to movies.”