SOLO ARTISTRY: The One Chadio

BRONX, NEW YORK | THE ONE CHADIO

Interview KB Tindal

When you hail from one of the more popular Hip Hop groups of the 90s your love for the art and craft is probably a lot deeper than most. The One Chadio who is 1/3rd of the group CRU, will attest to this fact. CRU had a stellar album, Da Dirty 30, which dropped in 1997 on Def Jam and Violator Entertainment and it was heralded as one of the best albums of that year. The album spawned hits like “Just Another Case” featuring Slick Rick, “Pronto” and “Bubblin’.” 

Even though it’s been almost 25 years since his debut album Chadio is still in love with Hip Hop as much as he’s ever been. He’s still releasing music to this day. Validated Magazine got a chance to catch up to The One Chadio and we talked about an array of topics including his new projects. Tap in and enjoy the ride. 

VALIDATED: The first question, that's on my mind and I'm sure that's on other people's minds. What happened after the “Da Dirty 30” album fizzled out. What did you guys go on to do after that? What became the situation with Def Jam? How did all of that turn out for you?

THE ONE CHADIO: Well, after the “Da Dirty 30” we actually did go into the studio, and we completed more than half of the second album. We even had a tentative title for it. I guess you could say, I am trying to put this right, politically correct. But things happened where people's ears were getting spoken into, and they started getting interested in other things. I learned then, I guess a lot of groups go through this, that people start veering toward those other lanes, and they start neglecting the group.

I'm not saying it's on purpose, sometimes it's not on purpose. It's just that you are trying to do too much, and you start neglecting other areas. Basically, that's what happened. It didn't stop, but it started slowing down as far as recording and doing what we needed to do to complete the album. People started venturing off to other ventures, and that's kind of how it fizzled out. It's not probably what people want to hear, you want to hear like an incident that occurred. It wasn't one incident. It just kind of happened.

VALIDATED: That happens, you guys got your foot in the door, you're in the industry now, you are in the game and people see other avenues and other things that may look better to them than what's actually happening. That happens to a lot of groups, but I can respect that. What's your earliest memory of Hip Hop and the culture?

THE ONE CHADIO: You want me to be honest, check this out. I don't remember not being involved in Hip Hop. That's how far back I go with it. I'm from the Bronx. It’s the maker. That’s where it began, and it was all around me. Since I was a baby. I don't have any memories of being without Hip Hop. I had an older brother too so forget about it. Hip Hop was always around me. And a lot of it came through him and his people. I would learn a lot through them because he's six years older than me. Him and his people. There was a gang culture in New York back then but they used to call themselves “crew” a lot. He was down with this crew called The Sundance Crew. They were doing their thing.

But I remember he was a big time graffiti writer, he used to bomb the trains and all of that. I used to see all of this. For example one night, I remember I was young, and I'm sleeping in the room. We shared the same room, I’m sleeping in the room, and I start hearing this noise and when I wake up, he's digging in the closet, pulling out a black hefty bag filled with spray paint cans, and you hear the clack clack and I am like what’s that, what are you doing? He's showing me and his man whistles out the window real low. I look out and his man is like, “You ready?” This type of stuff I'm seeing as a kid. The culture was always around me. Jams in the park right outside and all of that.

VALIDATED: I can identify. I was born in Harlem, but I was raised in Castle Hill until I was like 12 years old. My first experiences came from those park jams when I was a kid and my brother bringing home Sugar Hill records and all that kind of stuff. 

THE ONE CHADIO: Do you remember the cassette tapes? They were having like the jams indoors. My brother used to come home with them. I used to beg him all the time.

VALIDATED: What has been up to this day, your most memorable moment in Hip Hop?

THE ONE CHADIO: I would say personally, for me, it was when I did the Puerto Rican Day Parade. I was on the Hot 97 float. The Puerto Rican Day parade for those that don't know, it's like the biggest parade in New York City, it’s crazy. It's like a million and a half people lined up and it's a big one. But then I find out KRS One’s going to be on the float with us. Because he had that hot joint “Step Into A World.” We had “Pronto.” We were going to do “Pronto” going up Fifth Avenue, he was going to do “Step Into A World.”

We just kept passing the mic back and forth. Now, what's so big about that to me is that coming up, he was my number one, dude. BDP was it for me. I remember hearing “Poetry” for the first time, I'm walking through Monroe Projects in the Bronx and there's like a white 190 Benz, coming down a block with the sound system and I'm hearing “Poetry,” but I heard “South Bronx” before that, and I'm like, that’s that dude. Ever since then he was that dude for me. Here I am now fast forward. I'm looking at him on the float like this is crazy. I remember this is my guy in Hip Hop, and now I'm rocking with him. That was a big moment for me. That was the most memorable one for me. Because it touched me personally. I can't speak for the other members, but for me it was that.

VALIDATED: When you get touched by a legend that sticks with you. Give me one pro and one con about Hip Hop from the 90s and from today.

THE ONE CHADIO: The pro of the 90s was that it was genuine as far as when you were getting put on, or trying to get put on, trying to put the work in with people who will recognize you from a street level, like from the ground up. You had to really earn it. I hate to talk negatively about anybody, I don’t like doing that. There's two sides to a coin but if you want me to point out a con of now is that it's the opposite of that. It seems like people are getting put on, not really for their talents sometimes. Not all the time. But sometimes you can tell who.

They are there because maybe they are shaking their butt or something and they look good, or whatever the case may be. It really ain't got nothing to do with the culture or the talent of the culture. But as far as a con back then, I guess it was the labels for me. Many record labels, that genuineness I was talking about, they stripped that away. I'm not knocking them. That's their job. That's what they do. They are not us. We're the artists and we got this in our hearts, and we are getting busy. They are there with a whole different mentality. They just want to make money. We got to make money. The clash is right there. I can tell you from my own experience they strip you away of certain ideas and stuff. Creative ideas, you'll have some “Illmatic” creative ideas, and they will chop you down and be like no, hold on, we got to dumb that down. I don’t think that will work. Because the people this, the people that. They want you to follow a certain format of the day, whatever is successful. They want you to stay on that curve. Don't get too creative homie. We know you are an artist, but don't be too creative. That was always the thing that bothered me that would be a con for me. 

But as far as a pro of today, I will say a pro today, lyricism did evolve. If you look at battle rap for example, they took it to another level. Thank God for social media because I don't know if I will be able to say that I heard anything like that if it was just labels involved like us back in the days. There was no Facebook or Instagram, or any of that. Thank God for that because I tell you right now, some of these guys we would have never heard of. We had to resort to Mr. Magic, the radio, or Ralph McDaniel’s Video Music Box to hear stuff that would never get played on the radio. Definitely Video Music Box and definitely the radio, Red Alert, Mr. Magic. You know who else I used to listen to, I want to give them love too, The Awesome Two. I used to stay up for them. I never went to bed. They came on late like 4 in the morning. On WHBI, believe me I was one of those dudes that was up late night making those tapes too. You know what was bad. They only had like an hour. I used to be tight. He always played the dope stuff. One hour, that's all you are getting.

VALIDATED: That's all you got is that one hour. Those were the days though no question. As a Hip Hop artist what do you feel your responsibility is to the Hip Hop culture?

THE ONE CHADIO: I really think it is to uphold the culture and the essence of the culture. I'm not saying that people can't do what they are doing now. But at least respect the essence of the foundation. Most people do, but you do have some that disrespect the pioneers, the foundation, the foundational elements of the culture. You can't do that. We got to hold that because once you start cracking the foundation, the whole house is going to fall eventually. I see that sometimes and I don't really like that. Because I don't do that. When I look back and I look at Cold Crush, and I look at Fantastic Five and all of them, Funky Four Plus One More. They are getting nothing but utmost respect from me. Those are the pioneers, nothing but respect. They were dope too. I want the young kids that keep coming up, even after I'm gone to just respect those that came before you. That’s all I’m saying.

VALIDATED: The last project that you put out was Internal Insurgency. Tell me why you chose that title. Tell me the theme behind the project and give me like one or two tracks that you think people should really, really tap into.

THE ONE CHADIO: With that Internal Insurgency, it was funny. Because I started doing the music and I like to do hardcore Hip Hop. But then I found myself doing a lot of social awareness joints, and it was a new lane for me, but it was coming from my heart. When I do the music, I like to let whatever's inside come out. There was a lot of stuff going on in the world that I was paying attention to, and I felt it dripping into my music. I saw the joints I did and I said damn half of these joints are street official hardcore joints and the other half is social awareness. I was pouring my heart out. It seemed like I was having an insurgency inside my body. I'm battling right now. The title just came to my head, internal insurgency, because I was going through it like that. If you notice, the first five songs is like, some hardcore, official authentic Hip Hop and then the next five is dealing with a lot of stuff that was going on, current events at the time. Like “Feel What I Feel”. I'll tell you, you say, two joints that people should check out from there. One of them, I'm going to give you one from the social side, the joint “Feel What I Feel.”

That joint right there definitely, people should check that joint out. I was pleased with that joint, “Feel What I Feel” is official. And then on the hardcore side, there is a couple of them. But you could get with “Who's That.” Which is the first one on the album. I like “Who's That” because I implemented a lot of scratching and all that in there. In the video I did, I had a bunch of graffiti writers doing a piece behind me. So there's a lot of elements involved with that. That's why I like that one in particular. 

VALIDATED: “Internal Insurgency”, people check that out, for sure. As far as putting out music are you still doing shows or are you traveling? Do you do stuff overseas? Because I know overseas has a huge love for hardcore, boom bap Hip Hop, especially from the 90s. I know a lot of artists still go over there and they are still touring. They still do dates and stuff like that. Is that something that you're also doing as well?

THE ONE CHADIO: I'm not doing it. But to be in that I'm coming back into the game like this. I've been tapping in. I didn't know it was like that, like that. But I have been tapping in with a few of them overseas cats, and I realize their movement is big over there. It's different with the elements. They are really, really trying to preserve it, upholding it, which is cool. I had a couple of people saying when you ready come over here for some shows and all that. I'm getting ready for that. That's definitely in my future. Right now I'm just in the studio heavy.

VALIDATED: I know you said you were planning on releasing a new project called “External Insurgency”. I was going to ask you how the two projects tie in together, but I kind of get it now that you described how “Internal Insurgency” came about. With “External Insurgency”, what should we expect to hear from you? How far are you into the project… producers, features, what's going on with that?

THE ONE CHADIO: “External Insurgency”  is already done. The thing about it is, you know how I said “Internal Insurgency” was everything that was going on within, but now it's not within because I already released “Internal Insurgency”. So it's external now. Anything after that would be external. So this right here, this project is along the same lines as far as I'm going to have a lot of official Hip Hop, but I'm going to drop a couple other joints in there too, like to feel what I feel and all that. It's kind of similar so I said, you know what, this is external because it's already out, you already out with what was going on inside. So we're going to name this joint “External Insurgency”. I got the same dudes I was producing on “Internal Insurgency” on “External Insurgency”, I got my man from Turkey. My man Chilat Hilgars is on there, he is official. I got my man Steve King producing on there and my man EQ and DeMano is producing on there.

VALIDATED: Any features on there that we should be looking forward to?

THE ONE CHADIO: No features, I didn’t do features on “Internal Insurgency” or “External Insurgency”. It’s personal joints, I kept it on me.

VALIDATED: What are you working on that's coming up after that? Any kind of music you're working on, any kind of merch that you got, any other avenues of creativity that you're working in? Tell me what's going on in those areas?

THE ONE CHADIO: I just released a video. I just dropped the video today matter of fact, for this joint called “And So It Begins” with my man Kloke. Kloke did this joint “And So It Begins,” we dropped the video today. It should be on the streaming platforms as well. I also got a joint with Bishop Lamont from the West Coast. I got a joint on his album. His album is called “Just Don't Die”. But the joint we are doing is called “Music to Drive By.” With him and a few West Coast brothers in there, as well as myself. Dope joint. I like it.

VALIDATED: I like Bishop Lamont.

THE ONE CHADIO: He's a dope MC. He's a dope person. He's a good dude. Another thing is, I'm working on a solo project, too, that’s tentatively titled, “Kang Chad”. Because the brother I was talking about Steve Kang, I might get him to produce the whole joint. So if he does, it’s going to be “Kang Chad” because I want to give some light on that side to put his name up there. But it's also a play on words because it's like King Chad, like a king with a crown. But it's “Kang Chad”, his name actually. We are going to play around with that. Also I have another project I'm doing, I might be doing some other features. But the project I'm doing is the “Brown Bag Project”. If you look at the video you'll know why it's called the “Brown Bag Project”. Tap into that video. You are going to see why. I got a couple of more features possible, but I don't want to say it because if it doesn’t happen, then I look crazy. That's where I'm at right now though.

VALIDATED: Do you see you and the original members, Yogi, and Mighty Ha getting back together and doing some of those overseas dates, because I'm sure there's a market for you guys over there? Do you see that possibly happening at all?

THE ONE CHADIO: No, I am going to talk for myself. So speaking for myself. I'm with it if Yogi and Ha was to come tomorrow and say let's go do XYZ, whatever. I'm with it because I'm in the game. But I can't speak for them. The real answer is I don't know. But anything's possible. It could happen. I'm definitely open to it.

VALIDATED: When you put a project together, and you finally release it, what do you want people to get from you as an artist? What do you want them to take away from your word play, and from the music that you put together?

THE ONE CHADIO: I just want them to basically enjoy it. I want the music to be pleasant to their ears. “He's official, he's dope, and his music is dope.” I just want to release material that the masses can listen to, they can appreciate. I definitely want to keep the foundational qualities too of Hip Hop, and definitely uphold that. I want to uphold that as long as I'm here because it's important. The elements, the foundation is very important. Because at the end of the day, remember, this is just beats and rhymes at the end of the day. From when we were tapping on the walls in the staircase, my man playing a beat with his hands, and I'm spitting, while we are passing 40s around, or in your high school, hitting a beat on a table, on a desk, or whatever it is up until now. At the end of the day, that connection, that line of connection is beats and rhymes and you just have to uphold that.

VALIDATED: I completely agree with that. I try to do everything in my power to preserve the culture, no matter the cost. We got to do that because if we don't, people that are not from the culture or of the culture will take it over and run it into the ground.

THE ONE CHADIO: Oh, absolutely. You know what other problem there is? Another problem is, we could be the problem at times for not teaching the young cats. We got to share that information with the young cats. There's some stuff that I listened to from some young dudes that got bars that spit heavy, and I'm really into their music. And then there's other young cats that spit and I'm like you are not really saying nothing. What you're saying is detrimental. It could really hurt your people. But it is what it is. You got a fan for every different type of music. So who am I to knock you when you do what you do, it’s not getting no play in my ride. It is what it is. Everything is not for everybody. You got your own lane, and the next man has his own lane. There is something for everybody.

VALIDATED: How do you feel you've grown as an artist since you've come into the game, since you were a kid to where you are now and the work that you're doing now? How do you feel you've grown as an artist?

THE ONE CHADIO: Going back to when I started, it was like writing graffiti, DJing, breakin’ and all of that. And MCing was last for me. It was the last thing I did. After I did all that other stuff I started penning, I ended up sticking with it and never letting that go. But as far as growing as an artist, I think, like what I mentioned before, I don't have just one lane where I could just spit some hardcore Hip Hop. If I need to spit about what's going on today or what’s going on wherever, I have grown as far as social awareness and knowing what's going on around me in the hood, or current events nationally, and internationally. Sometimes I'll write joints like that too. I've definitely broadened my spectrum. Before it was one lane.

VALIDATED: That's what you are supposed to do as an artist. You are supposed to grow. You aren’t supposed to be in the same spot that you were at 10 years ago. One last question, if you had to sum it up in one word, what does Hip Hop mean to you?

THE ONE CHADIO: Life… Hip Hop is like my life. Like I said, I was born into it. I was raised in it. Because I was born and raised in the same neighborhood. I was born into it and raised into it and it ain't going nowhere until I go somewhere. In that dirt… When I go down in the ground, then Hip Hop will go somewhere, or it might just come with me. That's my life. That's my culture.

VALIDATED: I tell people that all the time, that even in the worst times of my life when nobody was there, Hip Hop was always there. There was always a soundtrack to my life going on from some artists that I could identify with and the different elements that I participated in. As far as Hip Hop is concerned, it’s just going to always be in my blood no matter what, to my last breath. Tell the people where they can reach out to you, follow you on social media platforms, support your music and your merch and things of that nature. Just let everybody know, give them the final word on that.

THE ONE CHADIO: I'm on IG, that's where I'm mainly at. I'm on IG at @RealCru.  I'm selling merch there. I am selling hoodies, T-shirts with the logo. I got these hard enamel pins with the logo. I got stuff on there that I’m selling merch wise. Also, if you want to get clips of the new music and all that, order old music, it's on there too. I'm heavy on IG. That's where I'm at. That's my main focal point right now where I have been pushing myself at.

VALIDATED: You brought up one more question, did you have to go through anything to still have the rights to your logo? And as far as masters are concerned, I know that after 30 years, you can apply to get those masters back. Did you have any issues with the logo and are you looking at getting your creativity back?

THE CHADIO: I would love to get the creativity back, it hasn’t been 30 yet. But that’s on the horizon. I would love that to happen. But we'll see what happens. I will have to do some research as far as the parameters and how you go about that. It is 25 years this summer. As far as the logo, I was the creator of that logo and I brought that to the table. That wasn't a hard thing to get a hold of. But what you brought up is very interesting. That's true. Those masters, that's on the horizon. That's the goal.

VALIDATED: The reason I asked that is because I talked to Dres from Black Sheep probably about a couple of months ago. And he told me that after 30 you could get it back. But you gotta start the legal process 24 months prior to the 30. That's what he told me. I was like, that's probably a good thing for people to know because you're thinking okay, after 30 I can sign up for it. But those two years are crucial.

THE ONE CHADIO: That's a jewel right there. I'm going to reach out to Dres too. We got a connection through the Legion and all that. Legion is my people. I need to tap into him so he can drop some jewels on me pertaining to that.

VALIDATED: Preserve the culture, by any means that's what it is. Chadio thank you so much for tuning in with me. I really appreciate the vibe and you coming through.

THE ONE CHADIO: Any time. You know now me and you got a connection. That's how I do it. When I have a good vibe with people, we don't end it here. We are going to stay tuned.