Chaz French on Parenting, Puzzles & Putting Himself First

Since emerging from the underground with his viral hit “Ready,” Chaz French has brought both free-flowing creativity and raw emotional honesty to his music. Although he started self-recording in a friend’s closet studio in his early teens, it was his 2014 debut mixtape ‘Happy Belated’ that first earned him major attention. Soon after putting out his follow-up project ‘These Things Take Time’, Chaz signed with Motown Records and set to work on the widely acclaimed ‘True Colors’.

Less than a year later, Chaz returned with “Can’t Stop Us” — a June 2018 single that served as the soundtrack to the trailer to “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”, igniting over 25 million views in under three weeks. Known for his captivating and endlessly energetic live performance, he’s also opened for Hip Hop heavyweights like Waka Flocka Flame, in addition to touring with Wale.

We recently caught up with Chaz French for the latest and greatest installment in our 2020 interview series. Aside from being a really chill and interesting interview, we chopped it up about everything from growing up in the DMV, parenting, puzzles, and Chaz dropping out of school in the 12th grade. Catch it below for some dope insight, and stay tuned for Chaz French’s new full-length project dropping soon!

Photo credit: Zhamak Fullad

Thanks for coming through! For those who don’t know, describe your come up.

I really just been rapping since I was 7 or 8. I didn’t start taking it seriously ‘til 9th grade. I did a talent show and I saw the reaction of my peers. So I was like, ”This is something I should take seriously”. Then I fell in love with music, the whole writing process, everything. And dropped out of school because of it. Long story short, I met my manager, who’s my manager now and ever since then it’s been on a roll. 

What was going through your head when you dropped out

I don’t know. I knew what I wanted to do. You know, I felt like school didn’t have anything to do with that. With what I wanted to do, I really didn’t need the stuff they were teaching me in school. I wish I would’ve stayed in school, in hindsight. But, if I had to do it all over again, I would do the same thing. So, it is what it is. I’m here now. 

What grade were you in when that happened?

My 12th grade year. 

That’s crazy, like the people that drop out when they have 2 credits left in college

You know, it was just being young and real in tune to everything

Yeah, I feel you... Like feeling that you don’t want to be there anymore 

You know, my dreams had nothing to do with it. So, I don’t regret it. It is what it is.

What was it like growing up in D.C. back in the day?

It just depends on your walk of life. I know for me it was like D.C. and Maryland are so close but are 2 different places. At that time, it was at an era where Go-Go was such a major thing and I wasn’t allowed to participate in that because I grew up in a Christian home. So, my mom wasn’t having me go out to Go-Go’s and you know all the stuff kids my age were doing. 

At that time, I was just doing a lot of writing and music, literally. Growing up, I would go to my Dad’s house and it would be a whole different thing. I could do more things that kids were doing at my age because my Dad lived in a different area. All in all, it made me who I am musically, as a man. As I got older and experienced some of the things I missed out on, I realized it was for the better. 

How do your parents feel about your career success now?

Oh, they love it. For me, it’s like an “I told you so” moment when things transpired how they did. But also, now that I’m a parent, I realize that at the end of the day, you just want what’s best for your kid by any means. You look at things differently and you know the outcome of everything when you have a kid. Because I go through that now even though they're younger.

I still feel like I know everything. But, at the end of the day I know that kids do stuff differently and most of the time, they be right. So, I know that you gotta let things happen how they're gonna happen and if something comes back and bites them in the ass, then as a parent I feel like we shouldn’t down our kids or even have those “I told you so” moments, you know. You gotta let people do what they do. 

That’s true. I have kids too. What do you want to teach your kids that you didn’t know when you were growing up?

I think I just want them to know literally anything is possible. I just want my kids to know that I will support them through whatever. I don’t feel like I would ever tell my kids “No you shouldn’t do this with your life or you shouldn’t do that”. I feel like I should do what I can as a parent to make sure they get to that by any means. 

Yeah, that’s real important as a parent. A lot of people aren’t even like that. So, it’s good to hear that you’re like that and teaching that to your kids 

Yeah, it’s just beneficial to them and if they’re really into it, it’s my job to do the research and figure out how I can make them be the best they can be without getting in the way. Because I see a lot of parents do that. They end up loving it more than the kids, and then it just becomes all about the parent. I want my kid to be the best damn possible. 

That’s real dope. Your sound, style, and image is also dope and very creative. Where did you draw your inspiration from? 

Thank you. For me, I’m inspired by experience. You know, like things that I go through, things that I may have gone through, things that I may not ever have had access to. You know, like I would see something that I always wanted and do my best to emulate it if I can’t get it, when it comes to style and stuff growing up. I guess it’s all in experience. And then, of course, on an artist level I looked up to Kid Cudi growing up, I still do. I looked up to Amy Winehouse. I looked up to Marvin Gaye. So I try to draw inspiration from things that make me happy and things that I feel like I could be just like in my own way.  

Yeah I feel you on that one. What type of things make you the most happy? 

Right now, I’m really into doing puzzles 

Oh yeah. I used to do puzzles.

I don’t know if it’s this whole thing, but I have been so adamant about puzzles. And like it’s really. I don’t know if it’s the thinking process or when I’m done, I just feel so completed. Like super completed even if it’s a 200-300 piece. I’m trying to work my way up there up there. I did my first 500 piece and I felt like, “can’t nobody tell me shit”. Right now, I love puzzles. But outside of this, before this whole thing... performing makes me happy. Bowling. Oh my god, I love bowling. That’s my thing. To be honest, which could be a good and a bad thing, seeing other people happy, makes me happy. 

That’s dope 

Yeah, like just seeing, I love to watch other people just indulge in happiness. Being around family and of course, new clothes. 

Yeah, you can’t forget that

Can’t forget that. The smell of new clothing is amazing.

Have you gotten to 3D puzzles yet? Do they still make those? 

I haven’t. What is that? 

It’s 3D. They were back in the 90s and 2000s. I don’t know if they still make them, but they’re real-life models. So, you would have a building and you would put it together, and it’s like 3D, but it’s a puzzle so they cut it into pieces. I don’t know if they still make them but they are crazy hard. I never finished one. 

Oh yeah. Imma try that for sure. But after I’m done with my 1500 piece, I can tackle that. But I gotta do a couple more 500 pieces because that kicked my ass. I was sweating, like I was getting frustrated. And I know people who can do 500 in a day. I had a homegirl, we would text while I was doing my 500 piece and we were texting while she was doing her’s. She was like “I’m almost done” and she wasn’t looking at the box. I’m like “ Yo, what type of Adderall are you on.”  That is insane, it took me 2 days to finish that one. 

Yeah they are hard. Once you get to 500 and past, that is like a week or two to finish. 

Yeah. It’s like once you get to a certain level of a puzzle, you think it’s gonna be “I got this figured out”. Oh no. That’s when it becomes stressful. I would have to say “Aight, imma take an hour break and then imma come back to this.” That’s how intense it got. 

You know what I noticed? Recently, a couple of artists have been putting out their own puzzles. I think that’s dope. 

You see, I was talking to somebody at Capitol about that, but they never got back to me. I want it to have to do with my rollout. Just you know, creating different pieces. But you know, we’ll get to that point.

That’ll be dope. So you just dropped a new video and a single, “Me.” It’s already doing numbers. What type of vibe were you going for when you made it?

I just wanted to make a good song and I just wanted to bring back that nostalgic feeling of that Trick Daddy sample. Growing up that song was one of my favorites. So, when I heard the beat it brought back so much nostalgia for me. Just everything about the beat. So, I was like “Imma just have fun with this record.” I called it “Me” because I feel like everything that comes with my lifestyle is for me and a lot of times, people can misinterpret it as being selfish. But, I don’t think that selfish is a bad thing when it comes to putting yourself first and doing what’s best for you in order to make sure that everything around you is intact. That’s what I was going for. 

I feel you on that one. I was telling someone the other day that I would rather have high self-esteem than low self-esteem.

Yes. I’d rather know that I’m good. Because if I’m not good, then how can I help somebody else out. I’ve noticed that I’ve been in situations where I put other people’s well being before mine, then I end up shitted on and they end up good. Then once they end up good, they just totally forget about me. So, it’s just like “OK, I can’t even be mad at them.” For real for real, if I had I done the same thing myself, put myself first, we wouldn't even be in this conversation, we would be in this situation. So, it is what it is. People are ultimately going to look out for themselves first. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

They are. How did you know Cam Wallace would be perfect for the hook?

I did it because to be 100, we had a whole different hook before this hook even came about and a couple on my team didn’t really like the hook. And I was just like I don’t want nobody else to do the hook, so let’s figure it out. I enjoyed the hook that I had, but ok. This is what team players are all about being. My A&R was like “Just trust me one time. Imma send it to this kid and I think you’ll like it.” So, a day later, he picked me up from the hotel I was staying at and he was like “Bro, I think this is going to be the first single.” I was like “Yeah, we gon’ see.” As soon as he played it, I was like “Oh yeah, this shit is hard.” Shout out to Shawn for putting that together and shout out to Cam because he definitely came through. Now me and Cam got 6 other records together. 

Oh, that’s dope. Aside from Cam Wallace, you’ve also collaborated with Curren$y, Raheem Devaughn and Angel, amongst other people. Who do you want to work with next?

I would love to work with Anderson .Paak. I would love to work with Summer Walker. There’s a lot of people I want to work with. I think Smino is super dope. I would love to work with Cudi. There are so many people that I would love to work with. I think music is in such a good space and everybody is really doing their thing. It’s so open and free. So there are a lot of people I would like to work with. 

It’s been a minute since you dropped a full project. Are you working on anything new?

Yes. My next project is complete and I think that’s all I can say about that. But, it is done and we’re getting everything together. I'm excited.

What's the main message you want fans to take away from your music? 

That everybody’s gonna go through bullshit. Everybody’s gonna have good times, everybody is gonna have bad times. It’s just a part of living. You just gotta make the best of what you got and if you want it, you gotta go get it, you can’t depend on nobody. You gotta just stick to what you believe in, even if people don’t understand it from the jump.

Like even an overnight success took some time and we can’t get discouraged looking at other people’s come up and how other people took their road to success. Just because it’s not happening right now doesn’t mean it’s never going to happen. Just because it doesn’t happen tomorrow, doesn’t mean it won’t happen next month.

You still gotta work. You gotta trust the process, cliche as it may sound. You gotta work towards it. Even when you’re not working... even when you feel like nothing is going for you, you still gotta stay positive and do whatever is best for you.