Genius Users - 2017 Genius Interview With SirChuckwagon lyrics

On January 31, 2017, I had the pleasure of interviewing SirChuckwagon, a bona fide hip-hop scholar on Genius and an outstanding editor. He is #2 scholar on E-40, and annotates some of the greatest hip-hop artists from the late 90's and early 2000's, including Ice Cube, Tech N9ne, and Mac Dre. He focuses on improving the community by sticking with annotating only a small group of artists, perfecting his expertise on E-40 and Mac Dre. I'd like to try to focus in on just a couple of my favorite rap artists, and just try to build up as much content on that as possible. Two guys that I want to focus on the most would be Mac Dre and E-40. Back when I first started using Genius, he was one of the users who helped me greatly, and was always very friendly. Getting to interview him exemplified that, and for 35 minutes we held an engaging conversation, discussing our mutual respect for Tech N9ne, some thought-provoking wisdom he received, and his a**ociation with a Minnesota Vikings super fan group called “The Viking World Order," a group that's so hardcore, you need to get a tattoo of their name just to join! So without further ado, I present to you, Genius's third interview of 2017 with SirChuckWagon. Madkol: So how are you? SirChuckwagon: I'm good. How are you doing? Madkol: Good, good. Alright, so what first got you interested in joining Genius, and what made you want to start annotating? SirChuckwagon: Yeah, so a couple of my friends told me about Genius, and I guess I wasn't listening well enough when they were talking to me about it. They were like, "Hey man, you should really check this out; you'd really like it." And I finally went on, and I was just thinking it was just a lyric site, and I didn't really know that you could actually go do annotations and stuff, so as soon as I found out that you could do annotations, I signed up, mostly because I'd listen to a lot of rap back when I was in high school in the early 90's. So as soon as I found out you could annotate, I knew that was something I wanted to do, mostly because I thought, "I know some of these references. When somebody says an obscure reference in a rap, I know what it is and I can say what it is." So that's kind of what got me started. Madkol: Yeah, so who are some of your favorite artists? SirChuckwagon: I primarily listen to rap, so some of my favorite rappers [are] Ice Cube, E-40, Mac Dre, Tech N9ne, guys like that. I also like to listen to some hard rock; I really like Guns N' Roses, Rage Against the Machine, Offspring, stuff like that. I kind of went in stages; I would listen to rap a lot in high school, and after college I would listen to a lot of rock, and the maybe four or five years ago, I started getting back into rap again. But even now, when I'm listening to rap, it's primarily stuff from the mid 2000's. That's the stuff I listen to a lot. I would go on and listen to Mac Dre, and then I would put it on Spotify and go to Mac Dre radio, and it would start playing other artists that were like him, and then I would start liking those guys, too. So it really expanded from there and got me back into rap again. I really enjoyed getting back into it [over] the last few years. Madkol: So I want to touch on Tech N9ne, though. He's one of my favorite rappers. What are some of your favorite songs and albums by him? SirChuckwagon: Wow, Tech is just on another level, man. When I listen to him, he's just so smart and so fast, and technically correct. I really like "Worldwide Choppers" and "Speedom"; stuff like that where he's going crazy. I really like that he's always collaborating with a lot of those artists that are on his label, too, cause I started listening to a lot of guys that were on his label, and he would just jump on a verse here or there. But from my overall album standpoint, I think I prefer some of his later stuff. Sometimes what I do, is I'll just listen to somebody's catalog from the front to the back, so that's what I did with Tech, and I definitely prefer his later stuff. I think that he's just constantly getting better and better, so his last two albums I really like a lot. Madkol: Yeah, same here. "Worldwide Choppers" and "Speedom"--the one with Eminem--that one was just crazy! That was just insane; how fast he can go. SirChuckwagon: Yeah, yeah. I feel like I could listen to that over and over again for a month, and you could just get more and more out of it, but the thing I really like about Tech N9ne is just how smart his rhymes are, and the things that he says. He just seems like a guy you could go hang out with. Madkol: Yeah, he seems down-to-earth, too, from interviews I've seen. SirChuckwagon: Yeah, I live up by Fargo, North Dakota, and I was going to this place for [a] company meeting, and when I got there, Tech N9ne's bus was in the parking lot. I didn't even realize that he had a show in Fargo that night, because for whatever reason, it wasn't advertised very well. So I just stopped where I was, and went to the ticket place. I got a ticket, and I'm just like, "I'm not taking a chance that he's not coming back here," so I got to see him, and the whole show, I was just like, "I can't believe I get to see Tech N9ne!" Madkol: That's a cool story to have, man! SirChuckwagon: Yeah, I was just like, "What the hell?!" I took a picture, cause our company had their flag out in the parking lot, too, so I had Tech N9ne's bus and the flag in the same shot. I was like, "This'll probably never happen again!" Madkol: That's cool, though. So, this might be a little diffuicult. If you could only listen to one artist for the rest of your life, who would you pick? SirChuckwagon: Ice Cube's definitely my favorite rapper. He's number one for me, but if I had to just pick somebody to listen [to] for my whole life, I think I would go with E-40, cause he's real high up on the list, and his catalog of stuff that he has is just....He just released his 26th studio album, or something like that, so he just has so much volume of stuff, and I think he's gotten better and better through the later years. I think just cause I'd have more variety by listening to him. I think if Ice Cube had put out a few more albums.....Everything that he put out, I just love, but if you look at the number of songs he has, compared to E-40, it's just crazy how many songs E-40 put out. Madkol: Cool, so what's the best vacation you've ever taken, and what made it so special? SirChuckwagon: So last year (I'm married and I have two daughters), we went to San Diego, and I think that was probably the best vacation that I ever went on, because we did stuff for both the adults and the kids. We went to the San Diego Zoo, and Legoland, but then I also got to go to some breweries when we were down there, and we got to go to the beach and nice restaurants. There was just a lot of stuff to do, and stuff that we could all do--a variety of stuff, and the weather was just great. It was nice to be able to turn on the radio, and there was hip-hop on the radio. There's not a hip-hop station in Fargo! Madkol: Yeah, there's a lot of hip-hop stations here, cause I live In Oceanside, so I'm familiar with the area. So yeah, they have a huge variety of radio stations here, it's crazy. There's a lot of good places to go sightsee, so you picked a good spot. SirChuckwagon: Yeah, I was surprised how much fun we had. We went to the beach, and there were seals on the beach, so the kids got to see that. Everybody had a good time there, so it was one of the only places we've ever gone, where everybody agreed that we should definitely go back there some day. I think that would be our choice. Madkol: Cool, so if you could star in any TV show, what would it be, and what character would you play? You can pick old or new shows. SirchuckWagon: I asked my wife this earlier today, and she thought I could be Kramer from Seinfeld. That would be somebody that would fit my personality in some ways. Kind of crazy and loud, off-the-wall stuff. I don't know if you watch Silicon Valley at all; it's an HBO show about these guys that are software engineers, so a lot of the personas on that show are a lot like the people that I work with in software, but I could see myself being Kramer, cause he doesn't have any care in the world. He just goes around and does whatever he wants, and complains about weird stuff. Madkol: Yeah, I love Kramer; just that wild, frantic personality. SirChuckwagon: Right, exactly, just kind of always into something. Madkol: So what's the most embarra**ing thing that ever happened to you? If that's okay to share! SirChuckwagon: That's alright. So the thing that's always come to my mind, is back when I was in high school, I was the cameraman for our football team, and our football team was really good, and it was the game before the state championship game, and I was in this press box, filming it by myself. It was a good game, and I was really getting into it, cheering for everybody, I was like, "Go, go, go!" I was just starting to yell and get really into it, and the mic was recording the whole time, so I didn't really realize this video's taping the audio of me, and anyway, that was okay. The guys at practice might see it and listen to it, but we had this video newspaper that we would do every week, and they would show highlights from the football games, and they'd usually be over-dubbed with music, so I was like, "Oh, okay, if they show anything, it'll be over dubbed [in] music." But for whatver reason, that week they didn't over-dub it with music, so the whole school is listening to me sound like a damn fool on this thing, so that's always stood out as something I could've done without. Madkol: That's funny. The one week that they picked to have it without music! SirChuckwagon: Yeah, it was just funny, because I was talking to the guy that was supposed to do the music, and he's like, "Well they're not having it this week, because I didn't do the music," and I was like, "Oh no, they're doing it, cause I talked to somebody," and then it started going, and I was like, "You see that?!" And then it got to me and I was like, "Oh, crap, it would've been better if it wouldn't have been on!" Madkol: Besides Genius of course, what are some of your other hobbies? SirChuckwagon: Well, like I said, I'm married and I have two daughters, so I spend a lot of time doing stuff with them. I play Hearthstone a lot, I don't know if you know that game at all, but that's kind of been my addiction for the past couple of years. When I have some free time, I play that. I watch the Minnesota Vikings a lot, but Hearthstone's probably been my biggest addiction. I used to play Battlefield a lot, but then somebody got me into Hearthstone, so it's like I replaced my Battlefield addiction with a Hearthstone addiction. Madkol: Well speaking of the Minnesota Vikings, I've heard that you're part of a Minnesota Vikings superfan club that's so hardcore, you need a tattoo just to get in the group. What made you want to join a group like that, and how has your experience been since? SirChuckwagon: I've been a Minnesota Vikings fan my whole life, and a friend of mine had season tickets, and his season tickets just coincidentally just happened to be right next to the Minnesota Vikings superfan. You know, every football team has a superfan, and his seats were right next to that guy. He's this big, muscular, wrestler looking guy, with a Viking outfit, and his thing was like, players would used to jump and kind of do like the "Lambeau Leap," but at the Metrodome, they would jump up to him, because he was this big guy. He sat right in the front row, and when Randy Moss used to get touchdowns, he would jump up and the guy would catch him, so that guy got to be really famous, because he was the guy that kept catching Randy Moss. And I was at a game a few years back, and I was sitting right by that guy, and Adrian Peterson ran a touchdown, and he jumped in the crowd, and me and him caught him together, so it was one of the craziest things ever, because I've been a Vikings fan my whole life, and I was looking at the scoreboard, because it was so far away, and I was like, "Holy crap, he's coming right at us!" And he jumped up, and it was crazy. It was on the front page of the newspaper the next day. Madkol: Oh, that's cool, man! SirChuckwagon: Anyway, I found out that they had this superfan group that they started a few years back when the Vikings needed to build a new stadium, or they might have to move. So him and these other hardcore fans that had been instrumental in getting that stadium bill pa**ed, found out about it, and said, "Hey, this sounds like something I want to be into, and we know you because we caught Adrian Peterson that time." So it's just been real fun, that brotherhood of guys where everybody's super into the Vikings, and we have a good time tailgating before the games, and now that new stadium opened, and a bunch of us have season tickets that are right all in the same section, so it's just an opportunity to hang out and have a good time, and cheer loud for the Vikings. It's been really cool so far. Madkol: How long have you been part of the group? SirChuckwagon: Let's see here, I've been part of the group for just over three years. That's how long I've been part of it. Madkol: What is one of your guilty pleasures as far as music goes? You know, like that one artist you would never admit listening to. SirChuckwagon: I think Queen is one. I used to listen to a lot of Queen when I was growing up. I had fifteen of their tapes, so I listen to them a lot. I think ABBA is another one. ABBA Gold is a really solid album, it's just kind of a fun type of thing. I think those are probably the two, but I don't really care what people think. I think people know that about me. They're like, "Oh, [he'll] listen to whatever he wants." Madkol: Yeah, I've always been really open about the music I listen to. I don't care what people think, you know, music is music. Everyone should listen to whatever they like. SirChuckwagon: Yeah, definitely, definitely. Madkol: So if you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? SirChuckwagon: I would definitely live somewhere that's warmer than North Dakota. I think it's a hard thing to know, without going and checking a lot of places out first, but we really liked San Diego when we were down there. I think if I had to pick a place right now, I'd say somewhere kind of near Sand Diego. Maybe not in the greater, metro area, but somewhere where you could drive 90 minutes and have a bunch of stuff to do, and better weather, and the beach. I think that's probably what I'd go for right now. Madkol: Nice, so I've heard that you and some of your buddies started a business of creating mobile apps, called SquareSharp. What inspired you to start doing that, and what kind of apps do you guys make? SirChuckwagon: It's just me and a couple other guys that I've worked with for several years. Probably the main thing that sparked us to want to do it was just [that] there'd be certain things that we--we all have kids--there'd be certain things that we would have to do for school for the kids, and we were like, "Man, I don't know why we're still using paper to do this?" One of our apps is called Sight Words, it's just, when kids first get into kindergarten and first grade, they're supposed to know a bunch of words by just looking at them, and when our kids were getting that, they would send these pieces of paper home to cut out, kind of like cutting out these flashcards, and it's like, this should just be an app. [You can] easily put this on your phone, so it kind of started with it like that. I guess we're all kind of thinking that one idea will be the right idea, and completely take off and make us all rich. That's for sure our hidden agenda behind everything. It's just fun to be able to do something outside of our day jobs, and get to use different technologies that we don't get to use there. The only app we have right now that's available for public use, is that Sight Words one. It's mainly for parents to use instead of having to cut those flashcards out. But we're working on a couple other things with some other groups; more targeted apps with some other businesses, so we're hoping that that will get us some good press--that type of thing--some good word of mouth out about our apps. It's just been fun to be able to do things, because in your day job, sometimes it seems like you can't do something that you're building on, where you can actually see it getting better and better, whereas this is like, if you start kind of small, you can actually see these things getting better and better, so it makes you feel good. Madkol: Yeah, totally. So if you could only pick one, which song would you say sums up your life, personality, or aspirations in the best way? Your theme song! SirChuckwagon: Yeah, there's kind of two different things that I could think about. One thing that came to mind was Tech N9ne's "Slacker." That'd be a good aspiration, I think. If you were in a position where that's all you needed to do, was just kind of sit around and play video games and listen to music, that'd be good. But one song that I was thinking of is an E-40 song called "Same Since '88." It's just kind of about how those guys haven't really changed; they're the same guys that they were back then, and I think that that kind of sums me up to some point, cause I think that somebody could come talk to me now, that I haven't seen in fifteen years, and they would still think that I'm the same type of guy that I was then. Same solid guy, and funny guy. So that's kind of what comes to mind when I think about it. Madkol: Would you consider yourself to be a leader with a sense of knowing when to step back, or an observer who takes charge when needed? SirChuckwagon: I think it's really situational for me there. If I know what the problem is, or if I know whatever the subject of the deal is, and I know it real well, I can definitely step in and be a leader there, but if it's something that I'm not that familiar with, I'm definitely going to just observe what's going on and make more tactical decisions, cause I'm not going to just say stuff to say stuff. I'm not that kind of guy, but if it's something that I really know, I'll definitely step in and say that I can lead in that case. Madkol: Yeah, for sure. Do you have any hidden talents? SirChuckwagon: Well, to most people, the fact that I know a bunch of stuff about rap is talent, so that's one thing. I used to do some karaoke quite a bit, so I like to do that. I used to sing at our holiday parties that we would have. We had a live band that we would come up with. People don't usually know that, so the one about singing. I can bust out some old school rap off the top of my head. People don't really....if they look at me, they don't think that's something I would be doing. Madkol: So that actually brings to mind another question. I've heard that you've sang "Rapper's Delight" at several parties and weddings. Why that song? Does it have some kind of special meaning to you? SirChuckwagon: Yeah, when I started college, I had just seen something on MTV that was a history of hip-hop, and this was back in the mid 90's, and I remember they showed the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" on there for a little bit, and I just kind of got the beat in my head, and then sometime when I was in college, I heard that, and I was like, "Man, I'm gonna go get a CD that has that song on it." So I got it, and I didn't realize that the original song is like ten minutes long. So I went online and I printed out the lyrics for it, and it was like seven pages of lyrics, and I just hung it up on my wall, and I started trying to get a little bit more of it everyday, and then we'd be partying in the dorm, and I'd be like, "Hey, I'm gonna try this and see how far into I can get." Usually, I could get five verses into it, and once I started doing that, whenever there was a party, people would be like, "Oh, [he's] here, he's gotta do this!" Once I had done it so much, it was just there, and everybody that knew I could do it--if they were getting married or something--at the reception, they'd be like, "Oh, you're definitely gonna do this!" That's definitely another thing that people are really surprised that I can do. Like I said, I like to do karaoke, and it's always fun to do karaoke and then pick "Rapper's Delight," and the song comes up on the monitor, so everybody can see what you're going to do, and everybody's just like, "Oh my God, he's gonna do 'Rapper's Delight,' he's gonna be terrible," and then just like not even really need to look at the words. Madkol: How many verses is that song? SirChuckwagon: It's kind of weird, they all kind of blend together. The original one has like ten verses. Madkol: Does it really?! SirChuckwagon: Yeah, it's three guys that are alternating, so I'm trying to do all three guys' parts as it goes through, and the other thing that's weird is that there's different versions of the song, because since it was so long, they cut some of the verses out, but in some versions, it'll go like the first verse, and then the fifth verse, and then the third verse, so you kind of have to listen to it, but I can usually make it about six minutes in, but towards the end, it's like nobody told them to shut up! They're just rapping about some real random stuff, but that's always been something to smile about for me. Madkol: Yeah, cause I remember when I first heard that song, when it would get to the end of the song, I was like, "Is this still the same song?" Cause it was so long, that ten minutes later I kind of lost track. SirChuckwagon: Yeah, when I was with one of my buddies, it came on XM Radio--the original one came on--and I was like, "We've driven 18 miles since this song came on!" Madkol: I didn't even know they played anything that long on XM Radio. SirChuckwagon: Yeah, I was surprised they played that, too. Madkol: What are your biggest aspirations for Genius? Where do you want to shine the most? SirChuckwagon: I'd like to try to focus in on just a couple of my favorite rap artists, and just try to build up as much content on that as possible. Two guys that I want to focus on the most would be Mac Dre and E-40. Like I said, E-40's got tons of songs, and a lot of those aren't even transcribed yet, so there's significant effort ahead to go through and do that. I think I'd rather build up on two or three artists, and be a subject matter expert on those guys; not just the lyrics, because I watch a lot of videos and interviews on YouTube for the guys that I really listen to a lot, and track a lot on Genius, so as I go through that, I'm going to start to build up an interview timeline with those guys, and maybe put it up on a website where I can say, "Here's how they progressed through the years," in kind of a chronological timeline of when they put these albums out, and some interviews they did then. I'd just like to get into a little bit more detail, so I can say "Here's how these artists really changed over the years, and here's turning points for them." Madkol: That would be a good article to pitch to Genius, I bet. And I've seen some of your annotations on E-40; they're really great, so I appreciate what you're doing for the community, you know, really zeroing in on specific artists, cause you can really go far that way, versus just spreading yourself out, so that's really great that you're doing that. Madkol: So which album is the best? Doggystyle, Appetite for Destruction, Ronald Dregan: Dreganomics, Ready to Die, or Rage Against the Machine. SirChuckwagon: So that's kind of an eclectic bunch there, but I think Doggystyle is my number one album of all time, just because it's a solid album from front to back. A lot of albums, you could just take a few tracks here and there, and that's it, but all of those, you could just listen to over and over again. Doggystyle was one of the first rap albums that I had, and it was like a new art form to me at the time, so it's got some nostalgia, and has a different sound. Some of my buddies will just sometimes put that on, and we'll just sing over it the whole time, because we both listened to it that much. I think that one is my number one. Madkol: Cool, so I know you like Snoop Dogg, E-40, and Tech N9ne, so I'm sure you've heard the song "p**nographic" from Tech N9ne's All 6's And 7's; it's a cool song. SirChuckwagon: Yeah, whenever there's a track with two of my main five on there, I'll just immediately go on Twitter and start tweeting about it. I really like listening to those guys, because Tech N9ne will talk about how E-40 has taught him some stuff about the independent rap game. I'm glad to see that there's guys out there who will hook up and do that on a semi-regular basis, and they're not beefing over some stupid crap. They really appreciate what everybody's doing. So yeah, whenever there's a track that has two or three of those guys together, it's just like, "Bookmark that one." Madkol: Yeah, I love it when that happens, too. SirChuckwagon: Yeah, exactly. One of my favorite albums that came out last year was from Big Scoob, he's a guy from Strange Music. He had a track on there with E-40, and it was the same thing on that; when those heavy hitters get together, it's never a crappy track. Madkol: Yeah, cause I remember when I heard "Speedom," you know, Eminem and Tech N9ne are right in my top three, so I was just in love with that track! SirChuckwagon: Hell yeah, man! Madkol: So you brought up rappers beefing, just a little bit ago, and I want to touch on that. I've always tried to avoid getting into social media and reading about all that stuff, like with Drake and Meek Mill, and Lil Yachty and his..... I've never really gotten into that. I think rap music should be rap music, and beefs just kind of get in the way and take away from that. SirChuckwagon: Yeah, it's kind of funny, this one guy had made this series of documentaries that was about rap beefs over the course of the years, so I think it's good to study up on what some of them were about, but today they're just saying stuff to say stuff. It's nonsense. Madkol: Yeah, a lot of it's just crap now. So one last question. What's the best advice you've ever been given? SirChuckwagon: Well, I've been kind of going through some hard times, and one of my co-workers came to talk to me and said that being put in certain situations, and going through low points in life.....one of the things it can do, is maybe the reasons that those types of things happen is so that when you recover from those things, and then you know someone else that's in those situations, you can help them. Because a lot of times, when you get into a certain place, you really need to hear from somebody who's been through a similar thing, so I thought that that was some real profound advice from a way that I hadn't thought about it before. Even since that's happened, I've revisited that, and I've been able to help some guys that have been in the same situation as well. So that's one piece that really sticks out to me. Madkol: Yeah, that's incredible advice, becasue if you're trying to confide in somebody, I think it would be much easier if you know they've gone through the same exact thing that you have. That way, you can open up more and be real about it, so I like that. Madkol: Well, that wraps it up, it was great talking to you! SirChuckwagon: Yeah man, it was good talking with you, too.