Former No Limit MC Choppa, best known for his hit "Choppa Style," is set to release his new album "Coming Back Home" July 18th.

I know you get asked this all the time but I want to get my own answer. How did you feel when Choppa from Making The Band came out as Choppa too?
Choppa-Well have you ever had somebody who tries to do like you do and be you?

Yeah.
Choppa- You just wanted to slap their face right? That's how I felt. Like I just wanted to slap him.

Did you ever feel like you had to change your name or did you feel like you had to fight for your name?
Choppa- Change my name? That would never happen. Everybody knows who Choppa is already. I just keep doing what I do.

So where are you from?
Choppa- New Orleans..ya heard me.

I knew you were down with No Limit at one time I just had to ask. Do you still live in the area?
Choppa-Actually, due to Katrina no one lives in the area anymore. I'm stationed out of Houston right now unfortunately.

Do you think when they rebuild that you will go back?
Choppa-Oh yeah believe that. I will try to be the first one back if I could.

Tell me all about your new album?
Choppa-Well it's called "Coming Back Home." Everybody's spread out Texas…Atlanta…it's time to come back home. You know what I'm sayin'?

What happened with your situation with No Limit?
Choppa-Yeah I had to branch off and do my own thing in life. I'm a chief myself so I had no time to be an Indian basically.

"Choppa Style" was such a big single for you. What was your life like around the time that song came out?
Choppa-Heaven. I was traveling all around the world, doing shows with everybody. Just feeling real blessed at the time.

What's a typical day for you like now?
Choppa-Well since Katrina it's been hell for me. Just going through so many things and trying to get my life back in order. Helping my family out. I'm there for more now for my family because we lost everything.

That's pretty terrible were you down there when the storm hit?
Choppa-Unfortunatly, yeah I was. I mean that was like three days of hell. No way in, no way out. It's like you saw nothing but dead bodies floating in the water, kids, dogs..it was just hell on Earth for three days of my life.

I know a situation like that, being that you are successful and wealthy, and you were in the same situation as everybody else I know it must have been hard that you couldn't help people more.
Choppa-I know cause I was in the same boat with everyone else. It was hurting me because there was nothing that I could do. Usually when something happened in the family I could say "Here's a couple thousand dollars ya'll alright now," but there was nothing I could do. No money, it's only the grace of God I got out of that situation.

Listen to Choppa

I know it had to affect you as an artist. Do you touch on any of that as an artist?
Choppa- Yes I do. The song "Coming Back Home," I talk about how they did nothing for us. I mean we didn't have nobody guiding us or telling us where to go. The places they told us to go they were just traps. Like they told everybody to go to the school shelter and people went to the school and died because they couldn't get out of the roof of the school. So much drama. FEMA wasn't doing what they supposed to do. Red Cross didn't do what they were supposed to be doing. Actually they did for people that didn't need. A lot of people that got what they got didn't really need. The people who needed it didn't get it and still aren't getting it. So I like to put a middle finger up to FEMA right now.

How were you able to make an album in these past 10 months?
Choppa- Did you have to get it out through your music? So much was going on when did you find time? I was really venting through my music you know cause they wasn't listening on the phone maybe they can listen to my song.

Prior to Katrina and in between the Chopper Style album and 2005 what were you up too?
Choppa- You know the average day of Chopper. Just out in the streets, out performing. Just traveling, after Katrina it just slowed a lot down for me because I wasn't focusing on music at all. That was like my last priority right there. I had to entertain my family and be there for my son, being a family man now. I lost everything but I didn't lose my family and I think that's more important than anything.

Do you have any featured artists on the new album?
Choppa-Yeah I really kept it New Orleans I got a lot of New Orleans rappers on there. Juvenile, B.G., Lil Wayne, Roy Jones, yeah that's about it.

What should fans expect from this new album?
Choppa-The new album expect the unexpected. I feel like I'm back like I've never been here before and like I'm about to eat like I've never ate before.

Related Links-http://www.myspace.com/darealchoppa

Choppa interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2006
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She is the founder of Thabiz.com and Imissthe80s.com and writes for the Rap, Teen, and 1980s section at Bellaonline.com. She is an ASCAP member as a writer and a publisher. Please contact Dorrie for advertising inquiries, lyric writing inquiries, reprint rights, paying entertainment jobs, or general comments.
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Choppa interview may not be reprinted, copied or distribute without permission. You may link to this interview.Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com July 2006.