Chucky Chuck Talks About Weed, Expanding OC Hip-Hop and Not Giving A Fuck

Tonight, a gathering of misfit OC rappers are celebrating one year of survival in a County in desperate need of a live hip-hop scene. Expanding OC Hip-Hop, a collective spearheaded by lovable punk rap psychopaths Terminally Ill is taking over the Doll Hut once again for their monthly Monday night residency which invites rappers from all corners of the County and the world to come spit bars for their crew of hip-hop degenerates.

For most emcee crews, a one year anniversary would be a truly momentous, occasion. But hey, it's Terminally Ill we're talking about, so we're pretty sure they don't give a fuck.  Which is why they enlisted the help of Mr. DGAF himself, stoner rap extraordinaire Chucky Chuck to headline the night. For years this Redondo Beach emcee has excelled at inhaling blunt smoke exhaling bars that are twice as potent. Recently we caught up with the rapper born Charles DeVries to talk about his sound influenced of dope rhymes and dope in general.

OC Weekly (Nate Jackson): You’ve had a pretty busy year on the road. Talk about what new music you’ve been developing in your off time.

Chucky Chuck: The first batch of hip-hop I really got involved in was Kottonmouth Kings and they really repped Orange County, but I was always into different shit like Kool Keith and LA rappers. When I met C4mula, he brought me into that scene so I’d have to say one of my biggest influences out there is C4, he’s dope. As of recently, I did a couple tours earlier this year with this record label United Family Music. It’s just a platform to release my stuff so I’m really blessed to have my own management and backing so I’ve just been taking my time with different producers and finding a sound I like. I’ve been listening to different beats and creating a little bit. I stay constant with shows like the Hi-Life Festival, Cannabis Cup, I just did the Gathering of the Juggalos. I stay busy.

Talk about how you developed your sound and style as a rapper.

When I was a kid, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and the Chronic were my main influences, Daz, Kurupt, all that West Coast Shit. Then of course I loved a lot of East Coast shit and a mixture of punk rock energy. Because the neighborhood I grew up in was all about Pennywise, Descendents, Black Flag. So taking the best of both worlds has been fun. Now I’m trying to come up with a different sound. It’s crazy, music is ever changing.

What’s your opinion on the legalization of weed in last week’s state elections?

It’s crazy, I’ve been smoking weed for over 20 years. So to see it more socially acceptable is so dope. At the same time, it’s kinda scary because these laws that are gonna pass are gonna prohibit certain things, especially in California because its such a big money state that the legalization of marijuana is gonna mess up a lot of people’s programs that they’ve already had going on. But it’s gonna be easier to smoke freely. For the people I know who are growers don’t like Prop 64. But it’s all over TV now, you turn on Spike TV and there’s just week all over it, it’s commonly talked about now, I just think that’s awesome.

So you work with a lot of growers?

Yeah man, I live on a farm right now. My homeboy Bluntman, is from Fullerton, he’s been growing in his backyard for a while and he was doing really good at that and then he took his skills up to people’s property in Humboldt County and started blowing up over there and came up on some property and now he’s got his own spot up here. He’s like a mad scientist, just going a lot and it’s good stuff. It’s just crazy what you can do nowadays. Check out LostBoys Farm on Instagram.

What is like to be a involved with a collective like Expanding OC Hip-Hop and to see more young artists gravitating to it?

It’s super dope because it gives you a chance to work with artists that your fans might never have heard of and vice versa so at thesame time you’re making a friendship with the artist and showing what you got to their fans. Expanding OC Hip-Hop is more than just local artists from OC it’s bring in other artists from outside the area like me, from the Redondo Beach area. So it’s about getting your music out there and having a name and doing shows and having a live local scene. I like that every one’s really humble and hungry and that’s a breath of fresh air.

Expanding Hip-Hop 1 Year Anniversary featuring Chucky Chuck at the Doll Hut starts tonight (Nov. 16) at 7 p.m. $4.20 cover. For full details click here.