on stage. Have a seat.

Alright, have a seat. Last year, you just showed up.

He showed up.

... and we put you on stage as an expert at the last minute. Yeah.

And the crowd was pretty impressed and so, we thought anytime we get you on stage to talk about things whether to the music industry or anything else, I wanna hear what you're thinking.

Well, actually today, I actually wanted to address that actual thought for why is Chamillionare here. Because I actually been seeing like, you know, the Twitter stream and some people are like, you know, Chamillionaire and MC Hammer aren't the only people that know about tech. And, you know, some people are, like... I actually saw a blog that came up in my Google alerts last and there was a girl that had wrote something about... she felt that there was somebody better to be up on a tech panel and I guess they felt that I was using my celebrity to be up here and, you know, just to, you know hang out with Mike and just, you know, I didn't have any kind of information about.

Yes, if you got nothing better to do.

Yeah, nothing better to do.

This is like the peak of being cool.

You're right.

Yeah.

So I want to address that because, I want everybody.

You sound like you're a little angry. No, I just gotta kinda get this now.

I can't wait to hear what you're gonna say. I want people to understand how the tech world dynamically changes my world. Now, a lot of people start up with a tech company and they have a startup and they're building it up and then their goal is to get acquired or whatever and mine works the same way. I started off with a record company a long time ago, 1998. I build up a big audience, a big user base. On the internet?

Yeah. No, I'm saying in the street everywhere.

Yeah.

Sold CD's. Had a lot of, you know, just sales, consumers, so that made Universal come and purchase my company. So they gave me millions of dollars and then from that point I put on albums and made millions of more dollars sold over 1. 5 million records sold. You know, 5 million ring tones. So, it made a lot of money with Universal. Now, that was back in the days when people used to receive millions of dollars from these major companies. And now, I've watched the dynamics of music completely changed to where we sold tapes, we sold CDs, and then everything started becoming music is free now. And technology is what did this. Technology is what made this whole music industry completely changed.

Now, if I go to any rapper, and I asked them what's the biggest tech thing that they recently know about. You know what they're gonna say? They say Napster, and Napster, you all know about Napster for a long time. This is the last thing they know about, and I'm wondering why this information doesn't trickle down about all these companies that are changing. You know the dynamics of music to us because what happens is these start up companies and these big companies they go to the laser CEO's and they start to tell them about their companies, but the major CEOs don't bring it down on artist like me.

And the reason why people like me need to know about these stuff is because we're the influencers. We're the people that your kids are trying to pretend, trying to be like, we're the people they're trying to emulate. We're the people they're listening to. We're the people that they are following on Twitter.

We're the people that are actually, you know, just influencing so many people traveling across the world. I just left Norway, I just left Dubai. I'm going all across the world and I have this little test where I'll be like, how many people - every show I do this - I say, "How many of you all got Twitter?" And everybody will start screaming.

And I say, "How many of you all got Facebook" And everybody will go crazy and I'll say, "Okay, I'm about to take a picture of the whole crowd and I'm about to upload it on my Facebook and my Twitter page and, I'm gonna include all of you on the picture so everybody throw your hands up." So everybody does it and then I take the picture and sometimes I don't even upload it on my Facebook or Twitter but everybody goes because they wanna see how you know, they wanna see themselves in the picture so my label is like how did you get, you know, 600,000 followers.

They thought I had like bought them or cheated, you know. And I was like, no I'm actually out here working to get those followers but I want real, real people. And you know after uploaded that picture, I started thinking like, man I started actually being in the market place and seeing the difference between, anybody can write a blog and tell you numbers.

They can be like this is how many users Twitter has compared to Facebook but, I actually was everywhere seeing it. I actually was in Norway and I talked to some students and they were like, they are talking about Spotify. So, I'm like so you all been on Spotify?

They're like, yeah man, streaming is the future, everybody streams. All, I can go to of 10 of my rap homies and none of them know. None of them know.

These are influences. They don't know what Spotify is. Now, I came to TechCrunch, the last TechCrunch, and I met a girl and she introduced me to people from Spotify they gave me Spotify so it's not in the US.

I have it on my phone. I'm looking at it and I'm like I kinda got a little scared because this is gonna dramatically change my industry, when people start doing this.

They start just streaming music. Not only buying songs for 99 cents, but they're just playing them all and paying a monthly, you know, service. And I understand this other company is in competition but, I didn't even find out about them until I found out about Spiderfly, and then I had to backtrack and find out there was other people that already have this.

And I started learning information so quick that it made me be like, "Man." Instead of asking why is Chamillionaire here, we should be asking why isn't everybody else here. Why am I the only here, why is Hammer the only one here because when Napster came, it completely changed my industry.

And ever since then, there has been a whole bunch of other technology companies that have came and we never get to find out about them until I come and meet somebody like Mike Arrington or, you know, whoever and they're telling me about these companies so that's why I'm here. I'm here for knowledge and a lot of people come up to me...

Are you here for competitive reasons, it sounds like, you want to know what's happening, so what's happening next?

Listen. if my sink is about to ship over there, my ship is about Hey, I just, if I need I life raft, I wanna know ahead of time, you know? WhenNapster came, it blindsided my whole industry of artists, because they didn't know and urban legend tells you that Napster came in to the major labels and had discussions with them first about doing business. The major labels decided no, we don't want them. We're gonna shut you down, 'cause that's what they do to a lot of start ups. Gonna start up lease, they built something great and then they take over and the company comes and tries to want to take your company and that's what happens. And then they are like no. S o they're controlling the whole game just like the iTunes is. You know, I had a conversation with people at iTunes and they called me and I was like, why are you calling me? And they were like, you understand different audiences. S Justin Bieber fan, a Lady Gaga fan. Completely knows about iTunes. That's the number place to go get the music. They understand the story is, everything. A chamillionaire fan. A lot of these rap fans and these, you know, keep in mind a lot of people that consumed in these music, they don't necessarily understand that iTunes is the number one store for music. They don't go and consume their music from there. They go to a torrent go download it first and they we're like, we need people like you to train this audience to understand that thats the number one story.

And are you trying to do that?

I think I should. I think they should know about it because we can't fight the future, it's inevitable. It's gonna change eventually music whatever is freer than free, that's what music is gonna be eventually . And I made millions of dollars off of this and I'm watching it shrink. A company that will give you half a million dollars, a million dollars now complains over $5,000. That's a big problem That's the big problem. And I think a lot of the people that are the creators people that, and another thing that bothers me is that there is a lot of people that has start ups and then, you know they have the shirts and you know they've make a whole bunch of shirts and car and stuff, and they walk around and they talk to other tech people all day. They go to the same tech conference, they keep speaking to the same people over and over again and I'm talking to this one guy...

Yeah, hold on here. Hold on here. Tech conferences are good things, right?

Yeah, I love tech conferences. I love tech conferences. I just want to address the person at like You know, some people think because you have on a shirt, you have a card, you deserve more to be right here speaking about tech. You know what I'm saying. I'm trying to understand, let people understand why they need to talk to other people. Yet it needs to, like this guy was going through six companies. One of them got sold and the other 3, I mean other 5 failed. And I had never heard of none of them. But, a lot of them probably would have been something that would have been beneficial to me and a lot of my peers. So, I was kinda feeling like he's going to all these tech conferences in the valley and where is it really going, it's not going to the rest of the world.

Think about in the Apple, in the app store. How many, you look at the top 50. It shows you the top 50 but think about all of the hundreds of thousands that are down there. They probably could have been better or greater. It's not that they didn't have a good idea, it's that we just didn't know about it.

Man, it's sounds like, at first it sounds like you know, you've always been on the cutting edge of technology. All the way back to the 90's, and because of that you've been super successful. You've had a better much label deal than most people have had. and at first, it started like, you know, you're continuing that, was modifying, you just know what's up. But now you're starting to talk as if you want to help even your community understand more to be more successful. Is that what you want and now you want to put the time that or you just, you know ..?

And that's why I'm so adamant about letting everybody know why I'm here, just so they understand that it's a big deal because there's some company out here that has some, kind of, search engine and it might have nothing to do with me.

But, you gotta understand there's a whole audience of people that are influencers that everybody in here is not... they're not seeing none of these companies. None of them. Like, I read TechCrunch, I read Mashable, I read CrunchBase or whatever, but everybody else, they don't.

Why don't you have a conference and we'll take half of our people and you have half of, like, the rappers and guys you know and like, be like a mixer.

I don't wanna say, I don't wanna generalize with these guys.

I mean, I just don't know how to get these from, like, an idea to... I mean how do these guys even know how to get in to that world just like some of the people in your world have no idea that this conference exist.

I mean, starting with you know, just how I came, and most of people, I saw a lot of people, actually I saw a lot of people saying that I didn't deserve to be here before listening to see what I had to say. And now, I'm just trying to explain and understand that the last time you did a Tech conference right? video went so many places it wouldn't went before, right? All these kids, they didn't know about half of these companies I was talking about now knew because I was up here talking about it. It's gonna go to a bunch of hip-hop sites that you all aren't visit and you aren't know anything about it and now these kids they look up to me, and they're gonna start trying to emulate what I'm doing.

I'll say this. It sounds like you've been told and you're reacting to it a little bit because every time we have you on stage, it's been like sort of best feedback. It's like, wow, that's really smart and it's like you have a point of view that, you know, no one else up on stage has. So...

Yeah.

Can I ask you a couple questions ?

Yeah. go ahead. Are you ever gonna release your next album? You've been sitting on it for 3 years and it's, what's the deal? The next album, I'm actually man, I got to be careful what I say because...

No, you don't. Just say it. Like are you gonna sew Universal? Are they gonna sue Universal? Are they gonna sue you? Or... One thing I know about Universal is that they get the Google alerts and they all get this, you know what I mean? They'll see everything I say.

We know people from Google, and we can turn them off.

Oh you can turn ?

Yup.
Can you do it for me? Yeah, I really. I just don't want to do business man you know the business model has change so much that you know, this is the thing, you spent millions and millions and millions of dollars and cannot not make them back because music doesn't sell as much as you...

You're better Mark Zuckerberg at avoiding answering a question when you want it. What do you want me to say?

When are you going to release your next album?

I'm not gonna give it to Universal. I'm not gonna give the album to Universal. I wanna get off of Universal. I don't want to be on a major company. I don't want to build up a recruitment and hold million and millions of dollars...

Is that news? Actually, I don't know if that's news. Is that news?

Yeah, that's news.

What you said? That's like a major piece of news .

I don't think my fans know that.

I was just kidding about turning off Google alerts. We don't actually have that power.

OST. It's too late now.
You just Can we give it to your fans on iTunes? Sell it directly on iTunes?

No, no, no. One thing about me is, I've been successful my whole career, pretty much. When I started with some of the the mixed tapes. It was the biggest mixed tapes, there were independent album that I've put out on before I signed on a major label with the biggest independent album.

Yeah. My first album went platinum, won a Grammy, on the major, my second album was the only one I didn't do as good but, because I was the administrator of the album, I actually made money from that and was not in the rail. I was the administrator of the album, I actually made money from that and was not in the rail. So now, I'm just in a business of winning and in my business right now, you can spend a lot of money to make nothing. Don't get it twisted by all the rappers you see with 18 chains and Ferraris and all these types of stuff. A lot of them are not making no money.

So, I don't wanna embrace something that I know is gonna fail, like I talked to a couple of people and they were like, "Man, why don't you just come get a start up." And I was like, "Okay, well what's your take on start up?" And he was like, "It doesn't matter if you fail. You just start another one." And I'm looking at somebody like, "How can you have that kinda..." When I go in, the first time I don't wanna...

It makes it fearles. Well, I'll tell you, it makes you fearless. You know, failing doesn't matter, it makes you fearless, it also can make you do dumb things. Yeah but, I think if you're already from the junk thinking about failing, like, failure is not an option for somebody...

Yeah but, you've always succeeded not... most people, you know... I've always kept the mindset of, "I'm gonna win with this one." The first one was my last one. Even though I know it could fail and I can go in to the next one, it was always like whatever I jump into... like somebody came up to me and he was like, "Hey, I got this search engine and I want you to be the face of the search engine." They did?

And I was like...

Was it Blekko?

No, no.

The Blekko guys are here.

No, it wasn't them. It wasn't them. But I was like telling them, "You're going about it wrong because because you're already setting yourself up for failure to come to me for your search engine."

I hoped that it was Blekko, I hope it wasn't Cuil. I mean but, it was like, you know, a millionaire and a rapper in a search engine doesn't go well together. After this conference is, after I talk, people come up to me and people are throwing me shares at the company and all kind of stuff but sometimes, you got to understand everybody is not here to take all your money. I'm here to learn.

I wanna know the tech ecosystem. I want to understand who's who. I want to understand the shakers and movers, I wanna understand how it works. You know, I talked to VCs like Ron Conway, Angel investor...

He's one of the guys that helps make it all work, you know.

Yeah, you introduced me to him and the minute after I met him, everybody around was like, "You know, introduce me to him, I need to get some money." And I was like, y ou know, and I had just finished talking to some people and they didn't have no user base, they didn't have nothing.

So I was already thinking, like, I wouldn't put $2 in it. So, you know, I was... I won't put $2 in it. So, that goes to say that search and stuff is cool, but you gotta have something like... in my world, a lot of the people that know it all, they sit up in these rooms and they talk about, they use all this big jargon and they talk about, "This is why this is not gonna work, this is why this didn't work."

But they're not going out there and testing it with the people. They're not going out there. The people have to like it first. Think about all the technologies you see as people sitting up here and using all these big words, and they don't know what's gonna work. It might be...

You're starting to rip on the conference again.

No, no. You all understand what I'm saying right? I know you're filming, so you know.

I agree with everything that you said except for the stuff that you said about the conference. I think that was the irony. You're going to also be an expert, right? And you're gonna... Yeah. I'm actually gonna judge but trust me when I judge, I'm a lot nicer than this.

Well I'll tell you, 'cause you've always been in such a good mood, you seem to be in a bad mood . I hope you don't take it out on...

I just want people to understand and that, you know I think there should be more people from my world here.

Will you take a picture of the crowd doing it and uploaded to your Facebook?

That would actually be very good if I did it on my Twitter page. I got a camera if you don't have one. I can do it right now.

Let's do that. You wanna do that?

Everybody. I need everybody to take your hands and throw your hands up in the air. Shine your grill, fix your weave, whatever you got to do to get ready for this picture . He's is gonna take it.

No man, you got to take it.

Oh, I'm gonna take it, okay. That what's up. All right, I'm gonna let everybody see TechCrunch. Well, you just got. Damn, where did it go?

Something there's no way I could've gotten.

There we go, there we go.

I'm gonna upload that on my Twitter page. seconds. So, everybody will probably follow me...

But you said sometimes you don't even bother doing it so you'll do it this time?

No, no, no, This time, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I haven't even tweeted in, like, two weeks so that would be perfect.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it as always.

Thanks.

Yeah, that's great. Watch your step, man. So we're gonna switch for