A Closer Look - Hip-Hop Artist, Prince ChaChing

Happy New Year; 365 New Days and 365 New Chances! Speaking of chances, we’re kicking off the new year with a splendid start, as I was given the opportunity to speak with an inventive artist! DMV AUX presents to you, the admirable, skillful, Hip-Hop artist, Prince ChaChing.

As a child, Prince moved around frequently and was raised vaguely in the entire DMV area. In the beginning, moving around was problematic, and took a toll on him throughout the years. He stated, “The steadiest part of any building is the foundation, and It’s hard to build a foundation when you’re constantly moving around.”

Despite his life's challenges, Prince in-school education was cut short due to getting expelled in 10th grade. Subsequently, he began homeschooling himself until he could obtain his GED, equivalent to a high school diploma. At the age of 16, he was accepted into college, and it was there that Prince started taking his talent seriously.

Fast forwarding in time, he ended up moving to Florida with a friend; but things didn’t work out for the two, leaving Prince without a producer. Although he considered it a “blow” to his creative process, Prince quit his profitable paying job as a credit consultant, learned to create beats, and started his clothing line, ironically named, No Middle Man.

He stated, “Don’t wait for the next man to execute your plan, because by giving an individual a task, you've now emotionally tied yourself to that person."

When it comes to his musical style, Prince differentiates from others by utilizing his tonality and authenticity. When asked what keeps him motivated and consistent throughout his troubles, he stated he’s his biggest consumer. Hence, he must continue to produce the music he enjoys. “If I don’t record at least every three days, I’m going to die,” he exclaimed with a laugh.

In other terms, he admits he isn’t the best at communication and rightfully expressing himself. However, with music being a therapeutic outlet, it allows him to convey his emotions/thoughts into bars, and when I say bars, I mean many bars! Since 2018, Prince has released shockingly eight projects, not including the 12 mixtapes he released in one year, challenging his inspiration, Gucci Mane’s record of ten.

In light of the DMV music scene, Prince recently moved back from Florida after reaching the glass ceiling in the DMV. “I was rapping during the time everyone was transitioning from GoGo to Rap, but I felt like there wasn’t much more here for me.” He’s aware of the rise of artists blowing up in the area, but he stated we still need work on becoming a unified whole.

Regarding the future, Prince prefers shorter goals. “Two years is too far, because so many things I’m going to do this year, is going to change my goals for the next.” In the meantime, Prince plans on releasing a new project and will be gracing the stage of many venues, stay tuned!

Aside from music, he’s a videographer, photographer, and CEO of his fashion line “No Middle Man”. As we can see, he’s incredibly skillful, and enjoys wearing many hats to get himself into rooms, which his rap career may not. “No Middle Man” was created and thought of after Prince became exhausted of looking like everyone else.

“I wasted so much money on stupid things, and I got tired of appearing the same as everyone, so I created my own label to physically stand out. I’m not like a Kanye or anything, but my consumers are unintentionally pushing my music, so it’s also good marketing.”

When it comes to advice for aspiring artists, Prince will tell them not to follow anyone’s advice. He stated, “The origin word of advice is to advise, and when you're advising someone to do something, you’re telling them what you would do in that scenario. In every problem, variables are creating different solutions. "We can go through the same thing, at the exact time, but variables will still be altered, creating a different outcome.” Therefore, Prince wouldn’t give out any advice, because most the time when people are asking for advice, we’re asking those who haven't walked the same path.

Read more about Prince ChaChing with a closer look below.

Say you're at home and a natural disaster is coming, you have to evacuate immediately what 5 items are you taking?

My laptop, camera, weed, sheets to roll up, and my microphone. I have all the things I need to make money.

If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?

With eight new hours, I’ll read for two, exercise for one, record music for two to three hours, then create merchandise for the last few hours.

What’s one thing you absolutely need in the studio?

Weed

What’s one thing you wish you didn’t have to pay for?

Marketing, it’s so expensive I wish everything was blasted for free.

Would you rather be an extreme couponer or an antique hoarder?

I would want to be a healthy balance of both, but I’ll be an extreme couponer.

What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?

When someone doesn’t eat all the chicken of a chicken wing. You gonna leave all that chicken on the bone?!

(He told me to tighten up, I’m sure you can assume how this conversion ended! Yes, I feel attacked, haha all jokes.)

Magnified Topic of the Week: Prince ChaChing’s album “Still Got It”

Prince typically releases a project annually around his birthday, which is also the day countless celebrate Halloween. Why? Well, since it’s his birthday, in his opinion, it gives him a natural marketing advantage.

“It’s the best time of the year, you get so many fake people and fake engagement on your page, so why not get all the fake love,” he stated.

Originally the project was titled, Sideshow Moe, but due to the cover being, as one would expect, Sideshow Bob; It ended up getting copyrighted and removed from AppleMusic. The interruption delayed the release date, though, in due time, he changed the title to “Still Got It, which is also the last track he recorded for the project.

“I was in the studio one day with my mans thinking of titles, we couldn't settle on anything, so I ended up just recording. We ended up coming up with the last track on the project, Still Got It, and thought it was fire, so it also ended up being the project title.”

Stream “Still Got It” on all streaming platforms and check out his most recent music video of the project for his track “Elroy Jetson”!