Champion — popular American rap artist. The peak of his popularity was in the mid-2000s thanks to the single Ridin', which made the musician recognizable.
Youth and the beginning of the musical career of Hakim Seriki
The real name of the rapper is Hakim Seriki. He is from Washington. The boy was born on November 28, 1979 in an interreligious family (his father is a Muslim and his mother is a Christian). The boy was fond of rap since childhood.
Parents forbade Hakim to listen to this music. But in the evenings he secretly ran away to his friends and acquaintances. There they listened to recordings of legendary bands (NWA, Geto Boys, etc.). Thus, Hakim formed his own musical taste and his own vision of the genre.
Over time, the young man began to write his own texts. Selecting available music and mixing it, he and his friends performed recitative in clubs. That's how he met Michael Watts. Michael "5000" Watts was a popular local DJ.
He created his own mixtapes and played them at parties and clubs. Watts invited Hakim and his friend Paul Wall to the studio, where the guys recorded several verses. The DJ was very impressed, even using one of these verses for his new mixtape.
Chamillionaire activities in tandem
The guys had the opportunity to often record songs in the studio. They became frequent guests on Watts' mixtapes and later on his music label. Here Hakim and Paul formed the duo The Color Changin' Click. They even released the successful CD Get Ya Mind Correct.
It was a very successful album that sold over 200 copies. The guys hit the top Billboard 200 chart. Magazines wrote about them, and their album was named one of the best released in 2002.
Solo career
After such success, Chamillionaire began to think about starting a solo career. Moreover, all the prerequisites and opportunities for this have already been. The release was now released on a major label, Universal Records.
The Sound of Revenge (the debut album) was released in the autumn of 2005 and turned out to be really successful. Turn It Up is an undeniable hit that has topped the charts in the US, UK, Australia and other countries for a long time. Ridin' made the musician famous all over the world.
It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Grammy-winning, the popular ringtone was downloaded for mobile phones all over the world. It was a real success for the musician.
After such a resounding success, it was urgent to release new material. Hakim and the production team understood this.
Therefore, during the break between the first two albums, Hakim released the Mixtape Messiah 3 mixtape. The mix showed what the atmosphere of the second official release of the musician would be like.
Second album Chamillionaire Ultimate Victory
In September 2007, the second album Ultimate Victory was released. The release did not repeat the success of the debut album. However, it was impossible to call it a "failure". The album contained a number of interesting and popular compositions, and the album itself showed good sales. In addition, there were many interesting guests in the album.
Hakim did not try to arouse the interest of the public with the help of outrageous and collaboration with pop artists. As guests, he invited Lil Wayne, Krayzie Bone, UGK and other musicians.
They then created classic but progressive hip-hop. There were no obscene expressions in this release (which may be due to the strict upbringing of the musician).
Venom's next album was scheduled for release in early 2009. The rapper was still under contract with Universal. Before the release, he wanted to release an interim mixtape to show what kind of material "fans" should expect.
Second attempt at a third album
After the release of the mixtape, a promotional campaign for the new album began. The first single was released, recorded together with rapper Ludacris. Then two songs came out: Good Morning and Main Event (Hakim's friend Paul Wall took part). All three singles achieved excellent results and became popular.
They were bought, downloaded, listened to, put on the leading positions in the charts. After that, the "fans" began to wait even more for the release of a new release.
But here the situation has changed dramatically. A series of conflicts with the label began. The first led to the fact that the release of the video for the song Main Event was disrupted. Subsequent - to the constant transfer of the album.
Mid-2009 to 2011 Hakim has released several mixtapes. Then he announced his departure from Universal. Then there were several successful singles, mini-albums. In 2013, Chamillionaire released his third full length solo album.
The release was released without the support of the label. The public has not received full-fledged releases from the musician for a long time. The third solo album was significantly inferior in popularity to the first records. To date, the release is the musician's last full length LP album.
