This is a long awaited interview with an artist who is taking the streets by storm. My personal favorite and is a regular on my play list. I usually don’t compare artists but in this case only one comes to mind thats B.O.B. Him and City are both alike because they are both so diverse city’s style is so complex because he combines a little bit of everything to make it his master piece , I’m not going to give away anymore so sit back get your knowledge on and enjoy the interview .

Current city: South Bronx / Brooklyn, New York

Label Starr Scream Net. / Universal

Genre: Hip-Hop / Rap / R&B

I’m going to jump in right away, the buzz is here, NYC and the world are listening and you just took home an UMA.

How are you feeling right now?


CH: Every day I wake up feeling more & more motivated to just keep doing what I’m doing. The U.M.A’s is a very huge event that happens every year here in NYC and they give a chance to shine. It’s almost like warming up to bringing home a Grammy in the near future.

After only a short time you have managed to generate a huge buzz, your sound is progressive, new, and fresh and takes a different spin on hip-hop, explain to the fans what is the inspiration behind it?

CH: I guess you can describe me as not being a “one-sound artist”. I grew up listening to 80’s and 90’s R&B, Pop & Rock. So that basically explains why people will always hear me on something different as far as production.  As an Artist/Songwriter it’s very important to tackle every sound corner because different sounds get attention of  different people.  I also grew up being a huge fan of entertainment which explains why I love to get the crowd involved when it comes to me performing LIVE.

Terrell and city haze – what describes the two and how do they come in to 1 person?

CH: My inner circle and close  friends know me as Terrell.  As far as being City Haze…I aimed towards trying to pull off a “Frankenstein”. Creating someone who would be seen as a musical monster to the eye of a man. I think that’s the perfect analogy to just appearing to the world as an artist who is different and can’t be placed in a box with everyone who is titled to just being “Average”.

As a new artist, what reaction do you come to expect from people when they listen to one of your songs?

CH: People respond differently to all of my songs. For example…Early February I released a record titled “Lost In Tokyo” which was produced by The RZA and it was a straight up Hip-Hop cut. Right after that I released a single titled “Tell Me What’s Good” which leans more towards female consumers. People who have followed my career since 2008 are more familiar with the smooth R&B/Hip-Hop side of City Haze. Once they heard “Lost In Tokyo” their reaction was more like”What the f*ck !?” [Laughs].  It was a record that was completely left field but the feedback from fans was “Haze is real versatile”. I can honestly say that my sound is well balanced and so far it’s keeping my career in lane 3, a lane that no one else is riding in.

The track ”Keep on winnin ” is one of my favorites and is featured many places including XXL. What was going through your mind when you were in the process of writing and producing this track?

CH: Props to Philly Blunts, Hippo Funk & Beats Myth. We were in the studio from 8PM to 9AM recording this record. Being that everything was recorded LIVE, the session took much longer than I expected but at the end of the day…we got it done! The production is real funky so I just wanted to be less lyrical and just have fun with the track. I didn’t want to write anything that was lyrically mind twisting because I want people of all ages to be able to remember the record word for word and not become confused. So in that case I kept the concept very simple and went towards more of a swaggerriffic approach.

I know you do much work with Beats myth, how is that friendship /partnership going?

CH: Man that’s my brother [Laughs] straight up! . We go back since Kindergarten! This industry is filled with snakes so you have to keep your true friends and let them be a  part of your every day circle because at the end of the day you’ll trust them before anyone else. I partnered up with Beats Myth right after I landed my deal with Universal which was not too long ago. I wanted to add something fresh and more fun when it came to my LIVE performances and of course adding his talent to some production. Beats Myth is blessed with one of the most important elements of Hip-Hop and that’s Beat-Boxing. Which is a talent that is very rare in our current generation of music. Our work chemistry is ridiculous! So it’s definitely a blessing and being that we’ve been cool since knee-high. And you can quote me  ”he’s going to be set for life.”

Describe a working day in the life of City haze and beats myth?

CH: Honestly? Music, more music, and grabs some food…then back to music. If people catch us in the street it’s always “Yo beat-box! beat-box!! Go ahead Haze!” We have a lot lined up between now going into next year, which will include us  going  on tour but i can’t tell you guys too much [Laughs].

What are some plans that you have in the works for the near future, tours, special performances maybe an album?

CH: All of the above!

The 2010 UMA winner

FUN FACTS

People can’t seem to get enough of you now days, so lets give em some fun facts.

Name 3 random facts about your self that most people never had the chance of knowing?

CH: I love shades, I play Xbox 360 on my spare time and my sense of humor is through the roof.

When you hear NYC what runs through your mind?

CH: Liiiiiiiights!

If you had a time machine where would you go?

CH: Come back to 2010 because im past my time, haha.