Camilly
By: Ms Rivercity
For people who haven't heard your music, is there someone you would compare your style to?
I change it so much but what you hear a lot of from me is flipping my words real fast. I guess you would say it's like Bone or Twista every now and then. I like to emphasize my words a lot, kinda like Ludacris. I mean, I can't really say cause I wouldn't want someone to expect to hear something like that.
As far as your lyrics, where does your inspiration come from?
I used to be a poet before I was a rapper but my style is a little different from most spoken word artists. People started telling me to get into the rap game. I'm pretty much poetic, as far as how I put my words together. I get a lot of my inspiration from just being myself.
Tell me about the content in some of your past songs.
Me and my homeboy always joke about this because most of my songs be about back in the day and how hard it was coming up. A lot of my songs are laughing in people's face cause I'm making it so quick without them. It's a type of revenge but it's more of a mind trick game. I'm beating them without really doing anything. So I'm telling them, "look at me now; you can't do nothing about it." (laughs)
Were you ever involved in battle rapping?
Ha! Everyday in school, everybody would want me to battle rap them. After I would win, I would move on to someone else. I got paid a couple of times to do it but I don't mainly battle rap. That was just when I was coming up.
Have you ever won any talent shows or competitions?
Yeah, I did a couple of shows back in high school. I did the Philly Brown show in Jacksonville; it was on TV. I won a contest at The Ritz Lavilla Theatre. It was an amateur show, kinda like The Apollo. I think I got second place out there.
Have you done any other shows?
Besides those, I've opened up for Lil Wayne in Tampa and also Young Dro.
What does making music do for you personally? Why do you do it?
It's liberating, kinda like flying. Everybody has problems in their life; everybody has complications, but with this I get to escape. Not saying that it's a fantasy world, but if you want it to be, it can. A lot of tension builds up in me sometimes and I get to let it out. I just do a lot of wild stuff sometimes and just jump around to get it out. It takes away a lot of tension and pain.
What do you want your fans to get out of your music?
Nowadays when everybody talks about hip-hop, everybody's disappointed because the rappers don't put too much time and effort into it. They just make up whatever. I'm not trying to diss anybody but the majority of everyone is following everybody else. I take my time when I do my music. A lot of people right now are trying to copy Jay-Z – freestyling without writing it; but what they're doing is taking away from the artistic side of it. I try to make sure every line grabs your attention. I put a lot of work in mine. I try to keep it classy. I don't take it for granted; I don't do it just to do it.
Where does your production come from?
Back in the day when I was like twelve, I had no producers and I got so mad at how bad people were doing beats so I just taught myself how to do it. I started using little programs from the internet and I got good. Right now, we're trying to find different producers. It's kinda keeping me in the background cause I want to surprise everyone with it. I don't want everybody to hear me while I'm still in my stages. But I produce everyday or write songs for R&B singers or whatever.
Tell me about your past projects.
I did the Dark Angel mixtape. I have the songs posted on the internet at www.soundclick.com/thedarkangel.
Are you working on your next project?
Yeah, we're trying to wrap up all the songs I did in 2006. I'm getting them all finished and ready to push them. We use Myspace as a test market. A lot of people look up to me and support me on there so therefore I give them a preview before anybody else. We're going to release a single in the first quarter of '07. Right now I'm all about promotion and promotional tours.
Elaborate on your promotional plan.
I network whenever I meet somebody with any kind of connections. I'm trying to get into song writing more. If I don't necessarily want to do a song myself, I can get somebody else to do it. Besides that, I'm bringing everybody to my Myspace page. I started out with two fans and now I got almost eleven thousand. Actually, Myspace is my main promotion. I get on it everyday. The address is myspace.com/therealcamilly.
Talk about the indie label you're currently with.
I'm with BWP, which stands for Burnin' With a Passion Entertainment. It started a while back. I was in a group called Up N Flamez; we kinda played off the words from that. It grew into something more than just a label. We started making a movement. We're not just signing people that are fads; they have to be passionate with it. I'm not going to sign anyone who hasn't done as much work or had as much hunger as I did at a young age. I have to see them doing what I did. I'm just trying to be a CEO.
What have you been the most proud of as an artist?
The fact that I'm not known on a major level yet but because of Myspace, a lot of people say that I'm one of their favorite rappers. Some people even say that I "am" their favorite rapper. Some people are shocked that I write them back, saying they've never had a star write them back. You know I'm not a star yet but it makes me feel good because they look at me like that. I would have never thought it would be this big a year ago. Just getting all that support on my own, with CP – my manager, has been the greatest thing so far.