Hot Karl is a Los Angeles based rapper who looks to put a little fun back in hip-hop. He had a record deal with Interscope that sounded very promising. While his project was in the final planning stages Interscope mysteriously hit the brakes. Karl is still on the grind. His latest CD-The Great Escape is awesome and the multitalented rapper/writer/art gallery owner often performs in the Los Angeles area.

How long have you been rapping?
Hot Karl-I've been rapping pretty much since the 3rd grade. I did "You Be Illin" for my third grade talent show and pretty much started writing my own raps around like in middle school around 6th grade and that's pretty much how it all started.

Where are you from in California?
Hot Karl-Calabasas, California. I live in Los Angeles now I grew up only a couple of miles from Malibu so it's a pretty gosh darn affluent neighborhood.

I read about it in the tabloids so I guess it's posh
Hot Karl-Yeah that's where Jessica Simpson and all of them live. There's a pretty weird dichotomy there because there are a couple of cities surrounding it like Woodland Hills that are just working middle class and I lived in Woodland Hills but I went to Calabasas High School but all those close and how rich they were it was kind of a whole world away from me. That is where the song "Home Sweet Home" comes from. Looking in on what happened in my neighborhood.

I really like the song Kyrk Gibson. What's the title about?
Hot Karl-Kyrk Gibson is a LA Dodger who won the 1988 World Series with the Dodgers. With me growing up in Los Angels he's always like the icon from the year 1988. The song is based around 1987/1988 kinda the feeling we all had the innocence and naïve feeling we all had.Kind of tying it in with someone who meant something to me and hopefully a couple of other people will be like, "I remember that name."

What kind of music did you like in the 80s?
Hot Karl-I like cheesy pop stuff. My hip-hop stuff always caught on

What do you consider cheesy pop?
Hot Karl-I do I buy anything, I mean I loved Soft Cell, I loved Loverboy . I dug El Debarge I bought everything that's the thing about my record collection. Up until about 94 I just would buy everything that came out. Sure I would get the new Rakim album but I would also pick up the new Motley Crue record and the new Def Leppard and the stuff that wasn't in the hip-hop genre.

I also run imissthe80s.com that's why I was asking. I just saw Duran last week. The last show on the US tour so it was cool.
Hot Karl-That's really cool. When I spin when I do DJ here I play 80's stuff. I will play Debbie Gibson, Toto, Taco.

I read you were with Interscope what happened there? Did you record and album and it just never came out?
Hot Karl-Yeah I did a whole album. They spent over a half a million dollars putting together the album and next thing you know something happened with the infrastructure of the recorded label. What happened we aren't sure and something happened and they weren't willing to put out the album. This is only weeks after I had my marketing meeting for my single and everything. There are tons of rumors but as far as what really happens no one knows. Either way it just sits on an interns desk, the album will never come out. We had Fabolous, and Red Man an Kanye West and DJ Quik.

Listen to Hot Karl discuss his deal at Interscope

Will you ever get the rights back to it?
Hot Karl-I probably will never get the rights to it. It's on my website Hotkarl.com most of those songs just cause I'm able to stream them on my website but as far as commercially releasing them I don't think that's ever going to be possible

I have my own theory.
Hot Karl-Yeah I think we all do.

I read that you write songs for other artists how did you go about getting a publishing deal?
Hot Karl-Well during the Interscope time I had been confronted by EMI and they were interested in what I had to put out whether it was with Interscope or not interscope and they ended up giving me a rather large publishing deal and during that publishing deal I wrote for other artists. They aren't always the most gleaming happy glamourous artists I would like to work with but you get to know other people outside of your genre I've written for O-Town, Girardo, Thalia, Sugar Ray and a bunch of people who are outside of the box.

Do you still have that publishing deal?
Hot Karl-Yeah.

Well that's cool. That's really interesting I know my readers are going to like this because we never have anyone this diverse.How would someone who is an aspiring songwriter go about getting a publishing deal? Just know the right people?
Hot Karl-I have no clue. It happened to me as kind of a fluke. What I would suggest is showing a lot of variety. I showed I can write all kinds of things. I didn't just write hip-hop songs. I went in with a couple of friends and recorded a couple of pop songs. I even recorded a reggae song. I showed my talents as far as writing in general and I think once EMI heard that in addition to the rap songs they liked it. Stay away from samples is a good thing too.

I know you are doing shows in the Los Angeles area are there plans for you to go out to the rest of the country?
Hot Karl-We hope so. We are looking at our best options. I also own and art gallery and I don't necessarily want to be out there for the sake of being out there. We are looking for the best situation verses just going out to go out.

http://www.hotkarl.com

Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2005
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.
Visit Dorrie on the web at www.sparkledoll.com or e-mail her at webmaster@thabiz.com.
May not be reprinted, copied or distributed.
Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com June 2005