The Curious Case Of Chamillionaire Posted by Lucas G. on 03/11/14 | Filed under Opinion, Chamillionaire, Ask RefinedHype Nation

This rap music of ours is an ephemeral business. One minute, a rapper can be on top of the world with a hit single and just as quickly as they became everybody's favorite, they can be totally forgotten. One minute you are hopping on tracks with Jay Z and the next, you are headed towards obscurity and are applying for jobs at PetSmart before the ink on your record contract dries. It's happened a million times (see Mike Jones) and it will happen a million more times (Migos..hopefully) but still it is always worth a minute to stop and think about. There aren't too many businesses where you go from zero to hero to zero in the blink of an eye. I usually skip writing articles about them because who the hell want's to read about what about Shawty Lo or Plies is doing?

However, I can't get off my mind of one case in particular, because it's just a little different than the others and I'm hoping RefinedHype Nation can help me get my finger on the pulse. Let's investigate the curious case of Chamillionaire.

Now for all you kids who were too young to rememberer, or those that forgot to make room for important things like jobs, kids or spouses (aren't you lucky you have people like us who can waste time on this shit?), let's take a quick look at Chamillionaire's reign. I say quick, because it was literally quick. Way back in 2005 (when Andrew Bogut went number one in the NBA draft over Chris Paul), Chamilitaryman's "Ridin" was the hottest song on the planet. A la "Blurred Lines", you couldn't go an hour without hearing it; I remember at one middle school dance they played it three different times in a two hour span. Even Weird Al mocked it with "White & Nerdy". You know if he is spoofing you, your song is one for the ages. Surely, after a hit like that - one that is solely responsible for the success of his album, The Sound of Revenge - you would think that he would have some success after, but even with a sophomore album that charted at number 8, Chamillionaire never really had another hit, but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. So what happened?

Now the typical answer is they just stopped releasing music. Once an artist loses a label they lose funding, thus losing the money to record. Mike Jones hasn't been popular because he hasn't really put out much music since "Still Tippin", the same goes for every other rapper who you can't think of, but Chamillionaire is different. People exalt Lil Wayne from the heavens because of his mixtape work, but Chamillionaire, self-dubbed the Mixtape Messiah, dropped sixteen mixtapes from 2005 to 2011 and two EP's in 2013 and still Cham gets slept on like Rumpelstiltskin on Ambien. I get that he isn't on the same level as Wayne was, but anyone who drops sixteen projects is bound to have another hit right? Look, he isn't a great rapper, I won't argue that, but he is no worse than half the emcees getting love today, so what is it about him that makes him get looked over? It's not that he should be nominated for a Grammy or the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, but an above average emcee who drops that many mixtapes should get some love right? Shit, "Bad Man" and "I Got" still get me juiced to this day.

I have been racking my brain trying to come up with a reason why an authentic emcee with a unique flow couldn't churn out at leas one more decently selling album or moderately successful single in the last decade, but I just can't. I mean if Paul Wall, who was a friend (and foe) of Chamillionaire is still more recognizable than Cham, then something is amiss, right? I can't figure it out, which is why I am turning to RefinedHype Nation. It was briefly discussed on the Mike Jones article, but it deserves its own discussion. If anyone can spend too much time on something nobody really cares about it's you guys, so help me out. Oh yeah, and if you were curious, Cham is back with a new single off a new album (Poison) but barring a "Ridin' Dirty" redux, I doubt it'll make this article meaningless.

UPDATE: From the man himself

@refinedhype You sure are typing a whole lot of words over there. Eventually you will figure it out.

— Chamillionaire (@chamillionaire) March 12, 2014

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