Fun Facts and Trivia

  • Brian Canini, the graphic designer responsible for the album art for "Fresh Donuts" and "PayDay," many of Chalkskin's photo shoots, the original web site, and the famed "Whitey" T-shirt, was the other creator for the web show that spawned M.C. Chalkskin.  The show was loosely based on a comic book that Brian had been doing entitled "My Neighbor Satan."  The series, called "According to Satan," was one of the earliest web shows on youtube, but due to a problem with the only actor that wasn't named Dave or Brian, production ceased just short of the finish line.  If you had told either Dave or Brian that Chalkskin would still be going strong this many years later, they probably would have laughed you out of the garage they used as a sound-stage.
  • Because both Kariem and I approached this as actors, we created a lot of backstory for our rapper personas.  For example, MC Chalkskin's real name is Whitey McChalkskin (middle name: Ivory).  He's from a wealthy family in Orange County, was in a boy band in the 1990's (The Boy Heat Boyz), and always secretly wanted to be a rapper.  DJ Pop'N'Fresh's name is Darius Limner Jackson.  He's from South Watts, was a sergeant in the Marine Corps, suffers from post-traumatic stress, and has a vast knowledge and love for art and classical music.
  • DJ Pop'N'Fresh's name comes from the Pillsbury Doughboy, who is sometimes referred to as Poppin' Fresh.  The name was suggested by Stella Ingram during the brainstorming session for the web series.
  • My father, Pastor Greg Grant, thought I should rap under the name Fresh Donuts.  I didn't care for it as my moniker, but loved it for an album title!
  • "Fresh Donuts" was a milestone of an achievement.  It was recorded over a marathon three day weekend.  During this time, the music video for "Peace in the Mid East" was also filmed, and a live show - Chalkskin's Benefit for the Unloved - was mounted the day after recording wrapped (Valentine's Day, 2011).  This was truly ambitious for more reasons than immediately apparent.  After all, the music video was being shot in part before the song was ever recorded, and the crew had to perform their songs just hours after they were finalized.
  • "Don't Hassle Me" was supposed to be the very first rap MC Chalkskin ever recorded with DJ Pop'N'Fresh, way back in 1985.  That would have made Kariem and I about six, so I guess Chalk and Pop would be a tad older than us.  Certainly if Whitey was in a boy band in the mid 1990's, he'd have to be a little older than me.
  • We wanted "Tijuana" to sound like Cyprus Hill, and they use a of instrumental samples.  Here's where Yochanan Sebastian Winston, PhD's understated genius comes into play.  We explained what we were going for and asked him if he could help.  He knew exactly what we were after and delivered the cuts live in the booth.  He'd just pick up an instrument, do a take, layer it with a new track, switch instruments, and repeat.
  • The breakdown in "Party 'Round Back" required a decent amount of research to get all of the references just right.  The part is what it is thanks in part to a list of the most popular country songs of all time and the added assistance of Chalkskin's facebook buddies.
  • As far as we can tell, "Peace in the Mid East" is the first song ever recorded in Arabic, English, and Hebrew.  Glen Beck later made this claim when he created material for his "Restoring Courage" rally in Israel.  We tried to contact him to inform him of his error, but he never returned our e-mails or calls.
  • "40 Oz." was the first official song recorded.  It was meant to feature Rich Prophet and J-Man merely as guest emcees, but MC Chalkskin and DJ Pop'N'Fresh liked working with them so much that they asked them to do more and more until eventually Chalkskin, the rap group, was born.
  • We all have day jobs to work around.  For example, the reason why Rich Prophet wasn't on the mixtape song, "Chalk City," was because it was being recorded in Hollywood, and even though he had requested the time off, he was called in to work and could not make the trip up from San Diego.  Incidentally, this made the photo shoots for PayDay's album art very tricky, since it was being shot during the same time.  Our graphic designer for that album, Brian Canini of Drunken Cat, did such an excellent job that you'll never be able to tell, but Rich had to be digitally added into every picture!
  • While "Fresh Donuts" was recorded over a very short period of time, it took nine months of intensive work to complete "PayDay."
  • Friend and Marine, Aaron Frantz, helped out with organizing the finances during the "PayDay" era.  His favorite track from "Fresh Donuts" was "Padded Rooms."  He liked it so much that he blew out his speakers in his car listening to it.  It was with his suggestion, encouragement, and vast knowledge that "The Last Oorah!" came about.
  • Chalkskin's facebook friends again came to the rapper's aid when he was writing "Hip Hip Inhibited."  The suggestions for subjects in the third verse are all actual random subject matter supplied by his social network.
  • Late one night after doing a show at the House of Blues in Hollywood, Jason, Kariem, Stella Ingram, Charles Castro, and I were eating at Pink's Hotdogs.  As I am prone to do, I was drinking a bottle of grape soda.  Pretty soon we were all free-styling about the beverage.  Despite three the warnings to keep it down, we couldn't contain our glee and were eventually run off by the police for disturbing the peace.  Thus, a classic Chalkskin song was born.