Chancellor Warhol wins Road to Bonnaroo

Congratulations to Chancellor Warhol for taking home first place in the Nashville Scene's Road to Bonnaroo competition. That means he'll be performing at 2011 Bonnaroo!

You may have seen him on our most recent cover as part of our "Other Side of Nashville Story."
Here's the full interview we did with him in January (2011):

CONCRETE: We've seen you evolve as an artist over the past five years. How have you evolved from Chance to Chancellor Warhol? What is different?
Chancellor: Well I've always been Chance growing up. That's always been my nickname. I used it as my rap name when I got with Hunned Spoke in the early days. I was always into different cultures, different music. The funny thing is, my friend Al Lozano started calling me Chancellor. He'd be like, "Chancellor!" every time he see me. The name just kind of stuck. And in England that means like a dictator or chancellor of the country. So I use that. And I'm always a big fan of art. I'm an artistic person, creative. So I used Andy Warhol's last name, and put the two together.

CONCRETE: Is it a statement of being a child of Warhol and his art movement?
Chancellor: (laughs)It is I guess. I guess it's like being (Jean-Michel) Basquiat's brother. It is being a child of Warhol. If you can be an appreciator of art I think you should show that through some art form. I can't paint, but I can make the best artistic music I can make.

CONCRETE; Let's talk about your most recent project, Japanese Lunchbox. Can you give us an overview of that project and how it cam to be?
Chancellor: That album cam about I would say almost by accident. I was a part of the electro-rap group N.O.B.O.T.S. We made a couple of songs that are on Japanese Lunchbox. He was going in a different direction with his production, and I was going a different direction with my music. That's when I really took my project seriously. People were like, "You really need to put these songs out." And real life happens, so you have more to talk about. Then I met up with my good friend and producer Aaron Harmon who is out of Vegas. He engineered and produced like 70% of the album. He mixed and mastered and everything. He's in a rock band called Enjoy the Zoo. I actually got inspired being on the indy-rock scene with the N.O.B.O.T.S. I just put those two together and Japanese Lunchbox came out. I was going through real life stuff with a girl at the time. You want to talk about it in the best way possible without mentioning names.

CONCRETE: We know you're still pushing that project, but are you recording new music?
Chancellor: There is a new project coming up. Right now, not to veer away from that, but Japanese Lunchbox actually won Best Art-Rap Album of the Year from the Nashville Scene which is pretty cool. I was pretty taken back by that, that people would even recognize it. Now I've got a couple of songs off of that album in movies and liscensing deals.

CONCRETE: What movies has your music been liscensed to?
Chancellor: I got a liscensing deal with a movie called "Birthday" the indy film going to the Cannes Film Festival. That's big. There's also a Canadian beer company that likes my stuff. It's just little stuff like that. It's getting pitched to One Tree Hill and NCIS. Another thing to culminate the whole year, I performed with countless big names. I'm very humbled just to be on the same stage as N.E.R.D., Wale, Hot Chelle Rae. I also performed with the Ying Yang twins in front of 4,000 people. It was insane, crazy energy.

CONCRETE: We saw you did a showcase at Posh Boutique. That very different for Posh and for Nashville rap. How did that happen?
Chancellor: People know I'm a fashionista. I feel like I'm the freshest hip-hop artist in the city. I'll say that. I'll put that out there. You can quote me on that. I also own my own clothing line called Marti McFli, LLC. I own that. And then I'm a buyer at Posh. I actually work for them. I buy men's clothing for them. I'm very cool with the owner. The owner loves everything that I do as far as my style and what I've brought to them. She allowed me to have a showcase there.It was great. Amp Energy Drink sponsored it. J Shoes sponsored it, which is some big brands that helped me out. It was cool.

CONCRETE: Speaking of fashion you're rocking the Louis Vitton Kanye's.
Chancellor: Yes they are the Kanyes. The Dons! I got these in New York. I was actually at Fashion Week in September. Another perk of being a buyer at Posh, you get free tickets to fashion week. I went to Atrium and copped these. I was at the Phillip Lim show.

CONCRETE: How did you land that gig at Posh? That's a cool gig.
Chancellor: It is a cool gig. It's funny man, I got it by accident. I just walked in one time and the lady who was the manager at the time she was like, "I love your style. You should work here! Do you have a job? What do you do?" I've always been an entrepreneur, but I didn't have a 9-5 job at the time. So I was like, "Hey, Sure." I gave her my resumé, and she loved it. Next thing you know it's history.

CONCRETE: Are you leaking out any of the new material that you're recording? how do you get new music to fans?
Chancellor: I've been writing a lot with a lot of bigger names. A lot of people don't know that I just got a three song deal with Ryan Tedder's label Patriot Records which is under Universal. I've been working with Brent from OneRepublic. He is one the guitarists. Also Chris Lindsey who's been doing a lot of pop hits. He's done Adam Lambert's (American Idol) record. He's working with Carrie Underwood right now. It's crazy to be a hip-hop artist and get a lot more respect from the pop and country realm, because you really don't expect it. It's cool and I'l take it. They show a lot more love more evenly than the hip-hop community does here. I'm kind of glad it's evolving and everyone is coming together. You have people like Latino Saintwho's been a great, marquis person for hip-hop. Capo has been just amazing for hip-hop. So it's good to see people coming together. Another thing I want to say is, I think hip-hop artists here should think outside the box. For example, I'm probably one of two artists that performs with an actual band, me and Future the Artist. He's also on my album. I think that gets me into a lot more venues and genres.

CONCRETE: So how do yo get new music to fans?
Chancellor: I am very careful (about leaks) now that I have a situation, under contract with certain people. It's different with the pop world. They don't really leak music. You have to make sure everything is super-tight first before you give it out. But I have leaked a record that's not going to be on my album called "All Alone." It has a Michael Jackson sample. It's been great buzz. But I put everything on my blog or twitter. My blog is warholtheworld.com. You can find all my music there.

CONCRETE: Your three single deal. How does that work?
Chancellor: Basically if you track B.o.B.'s recent fame, he got a two single deal. It's better than a 360 deal, cause they Give a beat and choice of co-writing the hook. If it goes then you have the choice of making an album. If it doesn't then that's it. The slate is clean with those two or three songs. It's a win-win for the artist.

CONCRETE: Is there a timeline on those singles?
Chancellor: It will be like Spring time like April. I'll probably have the album drop in early August. Then I'm going to have like I did last year, do a big album release party. It will be great. I'm working in conjunction with Club Mai to do that.It'll be an extravagant event.

CONCRETE: Any last words, shout outs?
Chancellor: I just want to thank every artist who helped me make Japanese Lunchbox what it is, Rio, Mikky Ekko, Boss of Nova especially. And be looking out for my new project. It's going to be called "The Silver Factory". It's going to be bananas, crazy, just good music.