The creative 21 year old emcee from Harlem, who graced the XXL Freshman Class of 09 cover last winter, has been dropped from Interscope Records before his first major album was even released.
Rumors surrounding Charles Hamilton’s drop from Interscope buzzed around blogs and Twitter this past weekend.
These rumors were solidified when his debut album, This Perfect Life, leaked last night. In case you aren’t familiar with Charles Hamilton’s music, let me offer you a quick overview of his career.
The Cleveland born artist grew up in a musical home, playing the piano, guitar, bass, and drums from an early age. This background helped Charles develop into a noted emcee and producer, but it was his freestyle skills that helped him gain nationwide attention and an eventual record deal with Interscope.
Check out Charles’ 16 minute freestyle with DJ Green Lantern at Sirius Satellite radio. When this video hit the internet last year, the hip hop world thought they had found another newcomer who was going to help change the game.
Click here if you want to see the next 8 minutes of his freestyle!
After signing with Interscope, Charles started to release mixtapes displaying his creative potential. To give you a taste of this creativity, check out “The N Word” and “Windows Media Player.”
That song obviously samples the theme music for the children’s show, “Mister Rodgers’ Neighborhood,” but Charles sampled the song in his own unique way. He makes it clear where his samples are from, making them as much a part of the song as his lyrics.
A perfect example of a sample driven song is “Windows Media Player,” where Charles produced the entire song off of the noises his computer made!
That has to be one of the most creative songs I have ever heard. However, as much hype as his freestyles and creative music brought him, Charles received equally as much hate from a number of horrible situations he got himself into.
One of these mistakes was a short-lived beef that Charles started with label mate Soulja Boy, after being compared to the rapper in an interview. Charles Hamilton said that because of Soulja Boy, artists like himself could not succeed in today’s rap game.
He also released the video for “Word, Aight,” which is a Soulja Boy diss track. Unfortunately for Charles, Soulja Boy responded with this video that ended the beef.
Another mistake was crediting the deceased J Dilla with the executive producer spot on his debut album. It was Hamilton’s idea to put J.Dilla as executive producer and give Dilla’s family some of the money from record sales. However, Dilla’s family and friends did not appreciate having the hip hop legend’s name put on music which was not truly his.
Perhaps the biggest mistake Charles Hamilton ever made, was to battle a female friend of his in the now infamous Hood News video seen below.
Charles got punched in the face by a female, while he was wearing a pink panther stuffed animal on his arm in a Hood News video… Do I really need to explain how embarrassing that was?
Aditionally, people were quick to criticize the rapper’s lazy flow and obsession with Sonic The Hedgehog. This obsession had Charles mentioning Sonic in the majority of his 24 mixtapes, some of which were even named after the video game.
Charles explains this obsession by stating that sonic means sound, and hedgehogs bury themselves underground, so therefore he is Sonic the Hedgehog because he buries himself in sound, aka lives in the studio. If you are interested in hearing more about this philosophy check out this video.
All things considered, hip hop was still hoping the young emcee would help to change the game. “Jeezy Hamilton” shows Charles’ promise.
With this track, Charles Hamilton called for the end of autotune, and for an increase in intelligent hip hop a year before Jay’s “D.O.A.” dropped.
“Hip hop died because of hip hop,
Forget Pop and Rock,
We’re the ones who pop and lock,
And use autotune and all sorts of tunes…
I’m blessed to be in a position, to expose the truth,
If they kill me for it, let me die alone in the booth.”
The sad thing is, it looks like he finally paid the price for trying to “expose the truth” and being extremely creative with his music.
Is this the last time we hear from Charles Hamilton? Probably not, but in the mean time, check out This Perfect Life to hear what the labels consider to be unmarketable material.
