Across the tides in the good ole US of A, Cazwell is a name that strikes up images of colourful and vibrant videos, explicit lyrics and music that gets you in the mood to dance your ass off. A fan base has grown steadily in Europe for the last number of years, as we’ve watched his videos, bought his albums and followed his antics on his website.
As an artist, Cazwell’s music is difficult to summarise, preferring to keep his lyrics simple and his sound as something that anyone would one to dance too, there is something infectious about his music that stays with you long after you’ve listened to it.
Having performed with other artists like Lady Gaga, Amanda Lepore, Cyndi Lauper and Rufus Wainwright, Cazwell has proved his music has a place in the hip hop world. His latest single and video to hit the internet is ‘Ice Cream Truck’, with over 1.2 million views online the song has become one of the sounds of the summer and a video that is going to give any girl or guy palpitations!
Speaking with Cazwell during the week, it’s really clear why he has made such an impact the world of hip hop and grown such a huge fandom – his passion for his music is unmatched, devoting his life to creating some fantastic and memorable beats but also his relaxed nature and fun spirit are very catching, sharing laughs with us as he told us all about his adventures and his work.
Oh and have we mentioned that he is one of the most beautiful men on the planet?
Can you tell us a little about how you got started?
I started off as a duo, just me and this girl from Massachusetts, we used to rap at parties, keg parties, we did mix tapes and we’d go on before bands at gigs and stuff. We moved to Boston and then onto New York but she lost interest in it and moved to Seattle and I’ve been going solo now since 2003.
Does your sexuality have an impact on your music?
Sure but not directly, I guess because I am gay I have connections with gay clubs and the scene here and those connections have impacted on music and the type of beats I listen to and use. It doesn’t contribute or impact on my music in the sense that it is my music, being gay is part of who I am and in small ways it has been involved in my music.
There’s a huge difference between a track like ‘Tonight’ and another piece like ‘I seen Beyoncé at Burger King’ – they are both great but for very different reasons, how do you write your music?
I hope that doesn’t deter people from my music, I mean they work on different levels. For the likes of ‘Tonight’, I had a sample of the music track before I had the lyrics for that so I was listening to the piece and I had to write the words to the music and it’s very dark you know it’s about asking someone to not leave you.
‘I seen Beyoncé at Burger King’ was just as hard to write, it’s harder to write something simple. In rap, it’s the lyrics that come first and then the music. As you get better and as you become known people send you beats and you end use those to write a song.
In Boston it’s all about the words, it’s very competitive, the place is known for its poets and its talent and New York has such a great music scene. I go back and forth and that works for me.
You’ve performed quite a bit with Amanda Lepore and you’ve also worked with Lady Gaga – can you tell us a little bit about working with two very popular ladies?
Ok yeah, Amanda and Gaga are both trannies at heart, they’d admit that themselves.
Your videos are very popular on the web, do you have a favourite?
Ice cream Truck. I love that video and it’s very simple but for me personally it takes more to work on something simple and keep it that way than to work on something huge and extravagant. I like all my videos though they are my kids.
People are always looking for new ways to make a statement but sometimes it just works if you keep it simple. That whole video is shot in my studio apartment, the backgrounds are all fabric and the pink room, I painted that myself, this Mexican rose colour.
It got stressful towards the end, because you’re on a budget and you work so hard on it and I had to get a little bit stoned in the end and we were still shooting and I ended up have to wear those sunglasses.
Rappers tend to get a bit of slack for using semi-naked women in their videos – have you gotten any for using the guys in the Ice cream Truck video?
I really don’t see that, we expect to see these women in those videos, it’s all about objectifying something whether it is women, cars or money. I wanted to make a hip hop video all about objectifying hot Latino boys.
I’ve heard nothing bad about it so far and the guys in the video are my friends, they work in clubs, they are dancers! Not strippers! They dance in clubs; everyone is used to seeing those! The director for the video was is a promoter on the scene here and everyone knows everyone so it wasn’t meant to be seedy or anything.
I think people are happy to see it, especially gay people because it shows that it’s ok to put ourselves out there and show what we like, in a cute fun way.
Speaking about the guys in the video, some of our readers want to know are any of them single and up for long distance relationships?
Who wants a long distance relationship? You can’t mail dick!
They are all gay but one, that’s Jerome, he wears the red baseball cap. I think most have boyfriends but I will check and get back to you.
You currently have two albums out, ‘Watch my Mouth’ was released last year, can we expect anything new in the near future?
Yeah I’ve a new album coming out in February or March of next year and we’re working on the videos for that because I want to get those done. There’s no name on it yet but yeah it should be ready by spring 2011.
I also have an EP coming out in September with Amanda Lepore that will be available to buy online – it’s got tracks and videos on it from the Amanda’s album that I feature on and some of my new stuff that Amanda features on.
You’ve toured quite a bit as well, are you still travelling or do you plan on doing so again soon?
I don’t think I tour in the traditional sense, I mean I’m not out on the road like bands and stuff. I fly out to gigs, I might be gone two or three days and I come back to New York and then if I have gigs here or outside the city I’ll go again because the audience are in the clubs not in big open air concerts.
When you’re not making your own music, what stuff do you listen to?
I listen to a lot of beats to get ideas for new stuff but other than I listen to loads of different things. I like a lot of Thunderheist lately. I’m crazy about that song ‘Elastic Love’ off of Christina’s new album, M.I.A. was involved with that and it’s her that I can hear the whole way through that song. I love the Scissor Sisters new album and I’m listening to a lot of David Bowie recently too.
My favourite band of the year though has to be Sleigh Bells.
What’s your dream or goal for yourself and your music?
The dream is a lot of money. No, I mean I am going to be happy as long as my life revolves around music and music revolves around my life. I am DJing four times a week now and I’ve been doing that for four years and I still feel like I am only learning so I want to see where that goes and get better because there are so many good DJ’s here in New York that I admire.
Just as long as my life has music in it and the bills are being paid I am going to be happy but it would be awesome to have a studio and four houses and more money.
Finally if you were trapped in an Arcade for eternity, what one game would you play to pass the time?
Ms. Pacman! I used to have it on my old phone and no matter how much I tried I could never get passed stage four. I don’t have it on my new phone but it’s a game I could keep playing forever.
To find out more about Cazwell and his work please use the following links:
Cazwell Official Website / Facebook / YouTube Channel
Both of Cazwell’s albums are available for download on iTunes.
