Chamillionaire at CrunchUp tech conference

[Taddd]

7-30-2010
Grammy award winning artist Chamillionaire (a.k.a Hakeem Seriki) has become a regular at tech conferences, perhaps because the hustle and flow culture of the rap business and the hustle and flow culture of the tech business are surprisingly similar. His stories of struggles between artists and music labels are resonant to anyone who’s experienced the relationship intricacies of startups and VCs.

Chamillionare got his first taste of the magic of the Internet in 2004, with the launch of his first website Chamillionaire.com. The community around the site’s message boards exploded unexpectedly, “at the time it was really creative and really cool,” he told Mike Arrington at today’s Social Currency CrunchUp.

Other highlights from the interview include Mike Arrington calling the hip hop artist’s entourage “goofy,” asking, “What kind of rims are cool now?” and ending the memorable,”You guys know how to manipulate the tech industry to get what you want, but you have the lamest phones …”

In retort, Chamillionaire insisted that he carries around his 3 phones, a Blackberry Curve 8700, an iPhone 3Gs, and a Sidekick XL, for “simplicity” and joked that he checks in as “Mike Arrington” when he stays at hotels. On why he attends tech conferences, “I just want to get a business card from each of you.”

Curious, we caught up with the artist after the panel and asked him what exactly he thought the tech community had to offer?

“Everything. Access to people through social networks. We don’t build these social networks, we don’t blog on TechCrunch. People here are like what would a rapper care about TechCrunch for? It’s crazy, it’s about distribution of information. It’s just getting information to people, that’s just what major labels are. They’ve got companies that distribute for us now so it’s like cutting the record labels out – I’m doing you a favor, you’re doing me a favor and I’m getting to where I need to get to. “

On his future plans? “I just want to innovate.” He said, insisting that he couldn’t reveal any more information.

Video of his onstage interview, below:

You Tube

You Tube

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/30/cha...business-card/

[ajbish]

that website jeffy has hidden on cham.com is lookin cooler everyday. i'm suprised they haven't locked my ip from the site yet

[Saigon]

King. Koopa.

[T-Mo]

Originally Posted by ajbish

that website jeffy has hidden on cham.com is lookin cooler everyday. i'm suprised they haven't locked my ip from the site yet

o your cool for bein a hacker

[ajbish]

Originally Posted by T-Mo

o your cool for bein a hacker

how am I a hacker? or how am I cool for that? I even posted a thread about it you smartass.

[T-Mo]

your a hacker cause you can see things others cant which means you hacked into the site DUMBASS and if you couldnt tell the cool part was sarcasm cause your a cornball fa real

[Mr. Vengeance]

Originally Posted by T-Mo

your a hacker cause you can see things others cant which means you hacked into the site DUMBASS and if you couldnt tell the cool part was sarcasm cause your a cornball fa real

lmao

...

[Miclo22]

Originally Posted by T-Mo

your a hacker cause you can see things others cant which means you hacked into the site DUMBASS and if you couldnt tell the cool part was sarcasm cause your a cornball fa real

[ajbish]

Originally Posted by T-Mo

your a hacker cause you can see things others cant which means you hacked into the site DUMBASS and if you couldnt tell the cool part was sarcasm cause your a cornball fa real

thats where you wrong buddy. Anyone can see it. Hacking into a site is way different then just typing in some url.

you obviously don't know what the meaning is for hacker/hacking.

and the only reason u saying it was "the cool" part is you thought i was bragging and making up false info until i told ya i posted that thread about it.

Geesh t-mo you gotta beef with everyone lol haha

[T-Mo]

you posted a thread but i dont see it????????? and find out the real definition of beef before you jus throw that term out there