Chamillionaire Biography
Hakeem Seriki ), better known by his stage name Chamillionaire is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and investor from Houston, Texas. He began his career independently with local releases in 2002, including the collaborative album Get Ya Mind Correct with fellow Houston rapper and childhood friend Paul Wall.
He signed to Universal Records in 2005 and released The Sound of Revenge under Universal. It included hit singles “Turn It Up” featuring Lil’ Flip and the number-one, Grammy-winning hit “Ridin’” featuring Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Ultimate Victory followed in 2007, which was notable for not containing any profanity. Chamillionaire is also known for his most anticipated Mixtape Messiah series, which ran from 2004 until 2009.
He currently serves as the CEO of Chamillitary Entertainment. Chamillionaire was also the founder and an original member of the Color Changin’ Click until the group split in 2005.
In early 2011, he left Universal Records, which led to his would-be third album, Venom, going unreleased. Chamillionaire released his first independent extended play Ammunition in March 2012 and was noted as his first major release since he left the label.
Another EP, Elevate, was released on February 17, 2013. He said it is going to be one of several to be released before his third studio album, and shortly after his third EP Reignfall was released on July 23, 2013. He is working on his third studio album, Poison. Chamillionaire joined Los Angeles-based venture capital firm Upfront Ventures in early 2015
Chamillionaire Age
He was born on November 28, 1979, in Washington, D.C., United States.
Chamillionaire Family
Chamillionaire was born to a Muslim Nigerian father and an African-American Christian mother in Washington D.C. and moved to Houston, Texas at the age of four. Chamillionaire’s parents separated in his early teenage years. He settled into the notoriously dangerous NW Houston neighborhood Acres Homes.
Chamillionaire Education
His education results are under review.
Chamillionaire Relationship
He married Deetra Seriki.
Chamillionaire Children
This information is under review.
Chamillionaire Music Career
Seriki’s stage name Chamillionaire is a portmanteau of “chameleon” and “millionaire” While promoting at an event, Seriki and fellow rapper Paul Wall met Michael “5000” Watts, a popular mixtape DJ from northern Houston. After proposing to do promotions for Watts’s company Swishahouse, Chamillionaire and Paul Wall came to Watts’s studio and convinced Watts to allow them to freestyle on an intro to Watts’s radio show on Houston hip-hop radio station KBXX-FM.
Watts, who himself was convinced to rap on the record, enjoyed the freestyle so much that he put the verses on one of his mixtapes. Soon, Seriki (performing as Chamillionaire) and Paul Wall became regular staples on Houston’s mixtape circuit, appeared on several of Watts’s mixtapes, and became permanent members of Swishahouse.
Chamillionaire and Paul Wall soon started their own group, The Color Changin’ Click. In 2002, Chamillionaire and Paul Wall collaborated for the album Get Ya Mind Correct, which went on to sell over 150,000 copies. The Source magazine nominated the album for the independent album of the year in 2002. Chamillionaire and the Color Changin’ Click, dubbed “Houston’s answer to 50 Cent and his G-Unit posse”, performed at the SXSW music festival in 2004.
2005–2006: The Sound of Revenge
Chamillionaire’s first major solo release The Sound of Revenge was released through Chamillitary Entertainment and Universal Records on November 22, 2005. The album debuted and peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart in the United States.
The album’s lead single was “Turn It Up”, featuring Lil’ Flip produced by Scott Storch, followed by “Ridin’”, featuring Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony produced by Play-N-Skillz; “Ridin’” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Its video also was named “Best Rap Video” at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2007, he won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for “Ridin’”.
He was at that time signed with Michael 5000 Watts’ Swishahouse label. Comedic performer “Weird Al” Yankovic made a parody of the song entitled “White & Nerdy”, for his own album Straight Outta Lynwood. The third single from the album was “Grown and Sexy”.
Additionally, the bonus track “Grind Time” was featured in the video game NBA Live 06. The album was certified platinum by the RIAA, and a chopped and screwed version, screwed by OG Ron C, was released in February 2006.[ Guest appearances for the album included Lil’ Flip, Natalie, Krayzie Bone, Bun B, Lil Wayne, Pastor Troy, Killer Mike, Scarface, singer Billy Cook, and his brother Rasaq. Chamillionaire won the Best New Artist award for the 2006 BET Awards
The second installment to the Mixtape Messiah series, Mixtape Messiah 2, was released January 5, 2006.[21] Later in 2006, Chamillionaire was featured in the singles “Get Up” by Ciara, “That Girl” by Frankie J, “Bet That” by Trick Daddy, “King Kong” by Jibbs, and “Doe Boy Fresh” by Three Six Mafia in 2007.
2007–2008: Ultimate Victory
To promote his new album, Chamillionaire released Mixtape Messiah 3 as a prelude to his new album on July 18, 2007, at 11 pm Eastern Time on his website. Chamillionaire released his second mainstream album Ultimate Victory on September 18, 2007. Ultimate Victory was made without a single profanity said by Chamillionaire.
Guest appearances included UGK, Krayzie Bone, Lil Wayne, Famous (Lil Ken), Tony Henry, Devin the Dude and Lloyd. The first single was “Hip Hop Police”, featuring Slick Rick, which both Chamillionaire and Slick Rick performed on the CBS television network program Late Show with David Letterman on September 14, 2007. The following single is “The Evening News.”
Mixtape Messiah 4, the fourth title in Chamillionaire’s Mixtape Messiah series, was initially set for release on December 18, 2007, but was released on August 27, 2008.
2008–2010: Final Mixtape Messiah, Venom, and Major Pain
In November 2008, Chamillionaire announced his plans for his third album, Venom, for release in early 2009. His sixth installment in the Mixtape Messiah series was to be a “prelude” to Venom.[ The first single from Venom was initially planned to be “Creepin’ (Solo)”, which featured Ludacris and ended up reaching #1 on the Billboard Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.
However, it is unclear whether or not the song will be included on Venom after Chamillionaire canceled and then reinstated the album. He announced that Mixtape Messiah 7 would be the final installment of the “Mixtape Messiah” series and that he canceled Venom to create different material for his third album. Chamillionaire awarded his final Mixtape Messiah 7 to 100 winners of a contest which he ran on his website.
The first disc from Mixtape Messiah 7 was launched for free download on August 4, 2009, just after 11:30 pm EST, while Disc 2 was released on August 6, 2009, just after 2:00 am EST. The next day the next Disc 3 & 4 dropped making it a 66 track compilation.
On September 29, it was officially announced that Chamillionaire’s third album would indeed be entitled Venom after a fan vote on his Web site. The first single from this upcoming album is titled “Good Morning”. The album was scheduled to be released on June 22, 2010.
Chamillionaire appeared on the remix for Weezer’s song “Can’t Stop Partying”, from their album Raditude. He also joined Weezer for live performances as Lil Wayne, who is featured on the original version of the track, was convicted on gun possession charges and was unable to perform.
On December 11, 2009, Chamillionaire performed a set for “Fort Hood Community Strong”, an event described as a day of “healing, fun, and entertainment” for those placed at the Fort Hood military base who were affected by the shooting that took place on November 5, 2009, killing 13 people. Other performers at the event included Nick Jonas, Dana Carvey, and Zac Brown Band.
On December 23, 2009, Chamillionaire announced via his YouTube page that he would be initiating a new mixtape series entitled “Major Pain” through his website by dropping a disc entitled Major Pain on February 2, 2010. Due to the 2010 NBA All-Star Game taking place in Dallas, Texas, Chamillionaire released a new song, “The Main Event”, on February 11, 2010, via free download.
It features fellow Texas rappers Paul Wall, Slim Thug & Dorrough. “Every artist on the song with me has independent hustle and strength in the streets,” he said. “It’s an All-Star song, so what better place to shoot the video than All-Star Weekend, right here in our own backyard.”It was later released to iTunes on June 8, 2010.
On Chamillionaire’s official website, he stated: “Right now the Venom album is set for March 16 and has been pushed back just like Lil Wayne’s Rebirth, Game’s Red album, and countless other hip-hop albums that this happens to.”The date was later pushed back to June 22 but was not released that day. Venom has been confirmed as canceled as Chamillionaire has parted ways with Universal. Venom was later released on DatPiff in 2011 as a bootlegged mixtape made by the fans.
2011–2012: Departure from Universal Records and Playlist Poison
According to Kanye West’s engineer and producer Andrew Dawson, Chamillionaire and Universal Records have parted ways. “I’ve been working a lot with Chamillionaire because I produced some tracks for him. He got out of his deal with Universal [Records], which wasn’t a good situation for either of them,” revealed Dawson.
“He and I have an active producer agreement that is now null and void because they got caught in the legal shuffle, but I’m like, ‘I just want the music to come out. Let’s find a way to make it happen.’ I was emailing him stuff back and forth when I was [with Kanye West] in Hawaii. Some big stuff will be coming out this next year, so I’m stoked to see it going.” Chamillionaire also tweeted that he’ll be doing a Ustream session on January 14 to discuss his future plans.
During his live UStream on January 14, 2011, Chamillionaire announced he was officially leaving Universal Records.[41] As part of this deal, he is not allowed to release Venom or any material recorded during that time. He is currently working on a new series called Playlist Poison and will release tracks on a random basis.
The first Playlist Poison song released was “When Ya On” which featured Nipsey Hussle and was followed by “This My World” featuring Big K.R.I.T., “Charlie Sheen” featuring Rock D & Killer Mike, and “Passenger Seat” featuring Short Dawg. On April 18, he released the next installment in his Major Pain mixtape series, Major Pain 1.5 for free download from his website, and subsequently released 3 other mixtapes entitled Badazz Freemixes, Badazz Freemixes 2 and Badazz Slowmixes.
Chamillionaire’s 8 Song EP titled Ammunition was released for digital download on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, and all physical bundles will be released on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. He will be releasing his third studio album complete with unheard material in 2013. The album will be titled Poison and will feature a music video for every track on the album.
Also, he has been seen with Krizz Kaliko’s, of Strange Music, ‘Kickin and Screamin’ album on the track ‘Mayday’ featuring himself and Rittz. Chamillionaire was featured on Saigon’s 2012 album; The Greatest Story Never Told Chapter 2: Bread and Circuses on the single “Keep Pushing”.
On December 4, 2012, Chamillionaire released Show Love to iTunes and it features D.A. of Chester French. This was the first and only music video he had released of 2012, despite being in the music video on the song “No Room in Hell” for the upcoming video game; Dead Island: Riptide.
2013–present: EPs, finalizing Poison and Upfront Ventures
On January 17, 2013, Chamillionaire announced he had been working on a new extended play. The EP, titled Elevate, was released on February 12, 2013. Elevate includes 7 songs and featured no artists. He also stated that this EP will be one of many he will release in the promotion of his Poison album.
Chamillionaire announced that despite leaving Universal, Poison is likely to be released through a major label, unlike the various promotional EPs. On July 23, 2013, Chamillionaire released the third EP in the promotion of Poison with Reignfall. Reignfall would be his first project since his second studio album to chart on a Billboard chart.
On February 13, 2014, Chamillionaire released his first single of the year titled Watching Breaking Bad, in recognition of the TV show Breaking Bad and featured Tami LaTrell. The single Go Getta followed on February 28 and End of a Knife, produced by Kato, was released on March 21, 2014.
On February 23, 2015, Upfront Ventures, the largest early-stage fund raised in L.A, since 2000 appointed Chamillionaire as an entrepreneur in residence. This marks the first time honor of this kind has been bestowed upon a rap artist.
Chamillionaire hopes that this pivotal new role will allow him to help usher in the next generation of tech entrepreneurs as well as continue to offer valuable advice and investment capital to worthy start-ups. Chamillionaire met Upfront partner, Mark Suster, in 2009, becoming one of the earliest co-investors in Maker Studios, now a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.
Chamillionaire Controversy
On November 19, 2004, Chamillionaire’s younger brother, Rasaq Seriki, was allegedly attacked by Paul Wall and his entourage at a nightclub. Chamillionaire expressed his disappointment in Paul Wall, arguing that they all used to be family and that these events should not have happened.
Before the entire incident between Paul Wall and Rasaq, they were all part of the group called “The Color Changin’ Click” which now has become fragmented. Chamillionaire released a diss track with Rasaq titled “Go Head”. The dispute ended in 2010 when the pair reunited for a full tour.
Paul Wall stated “It took a long time and is growing. You know, we started off as a group and a lot of times when you go your separates ways, a lot of people say, “Oh you can’t do it without him” and so you wanna prove them wrong. I know for me, I wanted to prove everyone wrong and prove that I could make it on my own.” Chamillionaire replied; “We had been bumping into each other a lot.
It’s kinda been died down for a little bit now but we just kinda needed that stamp of approval. I think the tour kinda just solidifies it for other people. It’s not like today we just stopped beefing, we stop beefing along time ago, but nobody believed us.
Chamillionaire Nationality
His nationality is American.
Chamillionaire Net Worth
He has a net worth of $15 million.
Chamillionaire Measurement
He has a height of 5 ft 10 in.
Chamillionaire Awards
-American Music Award
2006 Chamillionaire Favorite Breakthrough Artist Nominated
-BET Awards
2006 Chamillionaire Best New Artist Nominated
-BET Hip Hop Awards
2006 “Ridin’” Hip Hop Track of the Year Nominated
Hip Hop MVP of the Year Nominated
Ridin’ Best Collaboration Nominated
Chamillionaire Viewer’s Choice Award (Wireless People’s Champ) Won
2007 “Hip Hop Police” Best Hip-Hop Video Nominated
-Grammy Awards
2007 “Ridin’” Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group Won
Best Rap Song Nominated
-MTV Video Music Awards
2006 “Ridin’” Best Rap Video Won
-Ozone Awards
2006 “Ridin’” Best Video Won
2007 “Doe Boy Fresh” Best Video Nominated
2008 “Hip Hop Police” Best Video Nominated
Mixtape Messiah 3 Best Mixtape/Street Album Won
-People’s Choice Awards
2006 “Ridin’” Favorite Hip Hop Song Nominated
-Teen Choice Awards
2007 “Ridin’” Teen Choice Award for Choice Music: Rap/Hip-Hop Track Won
Teen Choice Award for Choice Music: Summer Song Nominated
Chamillionaire Discography
-The Sound of Revenge
-Ultimate Victory
-Get Ya Mind Correct
-Controversy Sells
-Greatest Hits
-Chamillitary
-The Mixtape Messiah
-The Truth: From the Ground Up
-Man on Fire
-Mixtape Messiah 2
-Chamillitary Therapy
-Mixtape Messiah 3
-Mixtape Messiah 4
-Mixtape Messiah 5
-Hangin’ Wit’ Mr. Koopa
-Mixtape Messiah 6
-Digital Dynasty 4
-I Am Legend: Greatest Verses
-Mixtape Messiah 7
-Major Pain
-Major Pain 1.5
-Badazz Freemixes
-Badazz Freemixes 2
-Greatest Verses, Vol. 2
-Greatest Verses 3
-Ammunition
-Elevate
-Reignfall
-“Turn It Up”
-“Ridin’”
-“Grown and Sexy”
-“Not a Criminal”
-“Hip Hop Police”
-“The Bill Collecta”
-“Industry Groupie”
-“Creepin’ (Solo)”
-“I’m So Gone (Patron)”
-“Good Morning”
-“The Main Event”
-“This My World”
-“Show Love”
-“Don’t Shoot”
-“Some Things Never Change”
-“Go Getta”
-“Get Up”
-“That Girl”
-“Bet That”
-“King Kong”
-“Doe Boy Fresh”
-“I’m On 3.0”
-“Draped Up”
-“Make A Movie”
-“When Ya On”
-“Charlie Sheen”
-“Passenger Seat”
-“U See It”
-“Oh No”
-“Day 2 Day Grindin’”
-“Playa Roll”
-“I’m a Balla”
-“Talkin’ That Talk”
-“I Ain’t Never Heard”
-“Call Me”
-“Can I Take U Home”
-“It’s Okay (One Blood)”
-“Platinum Starz”
-“Roll With Me”
-“Ride With Us”
-“Candy Paint”
-“Overstand Me”
-“Ain’t No Other Man”
-“Do Our Thang”
-“Pop the Trunk”
-“Sleep”
-“Get It Shawty”
-“Playa 4 Life”
-“Up Your Speed”
-“Coming Home”
-“Get Dirty”
-“Here We Go”
-“Party Like a Rockstar”
-“Its Hard Not to Think About You”
“Come And Ride”
-“Bollywood to Hollywood (Immigration)”
-“Get It Big”
-“Ball With Me”
-“How We Do It”
-“Underground Thang”
-“Big Money, Big Cars”
-“2 MPH”
-“Obama 08”
-“Bounce”
-“Welcome 2 Houston”
-“Don’t Give Up”
-“Leave Another Behind”
-“For The OG’s”
-“Daze”
-“Club Go Crazy”
-“50 In My Pinky”
-“Round Here”
-“Love 2 Ball”
-“Diamonds Exposed”
-“Get Off Me”
-“We Will Rock You”
-“My Hood”
-“Time Machine”
-“In Da Wind”
-“One Way”
-“The Way You Are”
-“Breakthrough”
-“Houston”
-“Po Pimp”
-“Mayday”
-“No Mercy”
-“Throw It”
-“Money”
-“Anywhere But Here”
“Keep Pushing”
-“Cat Daddy”
-“No Room in Hell”
-“Nothing You Can Do”
-“Don’t Piss Me Off”
-“Swangin”
-“All On Me”
-“Sweet Dreams”
-2005 “Turn It Up”
-2006 “Ridin’”
-“Grown and Sexy”
-2007 “Hip Hop Police”
-“The Evening News”
-2009 “Good Morning”
-2011 “This My World”
-2012 “Show Love”
-2013 “Overnight”
-2006 “Get Up
-“Bet That”
-“King Kong”
-2007 “Doe Boy Fresh”
-2012 “No Room In Hell”
Chamillionaire Filmography
-2007 Punk’d Himself
-The Game
-My Ride
Chamillionaire Videos
Chamillionaire Facebook
Chamillionaire Twitter
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