Chadio can rap for days about anything. His album releases are numerous and his affiliations have included, Imagination’s Treetrunk, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), 50 Fingers and Quoted Motives. Recently he moved into a more “bass oriented” style of music. This has expanded his fan-base, in addition to creating controversy.

Christabel: Your performance at Shambhala in 2008 introduced you to artists like The Glitch Mob.  Can you explain what happened when you came back from that party?

Chadio: Me and Azzy had no idea what dubstep was and I was imagining Shambhala to be an amplified version of the raves I used to go to in high school. We were asked to go up as performers for the hip-hop showcase. At that party, we got to see a bunch of crazy fuckers back to back to back to back. Nu-mark and Glitch Mob were doing all types of shit I could get down with: hip-hop mashups with tweaked effects on the vocals. Skream and Bassnectar just played the most insane bass-driven music I had ever heard in my life…just filthy whomps with hip-hop tempos…but way easier to dance to. When we got back to Van, my homegirl Pins would let me know about the local shows we had going on in Van and it’s pretty much a wrap after that.

Christabel: How has your fan-base changed?

Chadio: I think that tapping into this culture has expanded my fan-base. I’m meeting fans that are into hip-hop, but they also love the new music. I am not a traditional dub-style emcee, so maybe people are excited for a fresh breath of air. As far as knowing if my fan-base has changed, we’ll have to wait for my next project and see who bites.

Christabel: What’s your favorite music coming out right now?

Chadio: Well, from going to these parties and meeting the people that play, I started to realize how much of an intense scene we have here ourselves. I’ve been fortunate enough to befriend and start tunes with: Hexadecibel, some guys from Lighta! Sound, and lately I’ve been working close with the Integrated Grime Unit, which includes a top-shelf cast of bass makers including: Glitchy & Scratchy, Ill-esha, Jay Wikid, Application, and a grip of others. The above people I mentioned are killing it hard with their own originals and making some of my favorite music lately, but I’m always checking for new and old things. Gimme some new Radiohead, some new Outkast.

Christabel: Are you going to release an album in the near future?

Chadio: There have been ideas of working on an actual full-length with Glitchy & Scratchy. And there are other rap projects that I was supposed to have done already. But, at the moment I’m just taking it tune by tune, at the end of the day it’s all personal perception. Having a big catalogue is cool, but there has to be a degree of quality control I think.

Send me beats!