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GET INVOLVED...INTRODUCING CHUCK PLATINUM'S VOICE BLOG!!!
What's good y'all first of all thank you for stopping by my page. My name is Charles Khalid Cuthbert also known as Chuck Platinum. I was born October 19th 1978 in the Lower East Side of NYC. When I was 3 I moved down to South Carolina to be with my grandmother, but she became ill with Multiple Sclerosis and passed away when I was 6. I moved back with my moms to The Bronx and remained there for 24 years. I loved living in New York City especially The Bronx because at a young age I was fortunate enough to be around hip hop in its beginning stages. You know like you see in the documentaries or movies like Wild Style etc. I was like hip hops young son. I remember being in my room friday nights and listening to Mister Magic and then Red Alert goin' bezerk thats when hip hop was fire. When people battled and it was all good because you did it solely for respect whether it was from your peers or your hood. Thats the difference for me with hip hop today. I am very proud that we have become successful in our genre, but what hip hop has lost is a lot of its substance. It's not completely lost thanks to A. Our pioneers B. The Underground Hip Hop Community C. True hip hop lovers that know what the ground came from.
I used to just play around freestyling with my friends outside on the block. My cousin June, my homie James (the blackest white dude I knew), and all of them outside. They were older than me so I used to just freestyle with them. That was around the time that I met up with my brother P.Holla and we decided to form a group. The group is called Uptown Nation. My man T. Ricky aka Ric Supreme is a genius on the boards and he helped us put our group together. The first song that we recorded was "Whats On Your Mind" and I was mad intimidated to record but we did it. Ric taught me how to put my rhymes in bars and after learning that it was a wrap from there. I was writing all kinds of songs. I used to have to take a two hour train ride to my grandmoms house and I used to write like 4 songs with NO BEAT counting in my head then we used to put it on the records. I started DJing when I was 9, but my dad didn't really take me seriously. When I was 12 I did a remix with Jade's "Don't Walk Away" acapella and Positive K's "I Gotta Man" Instrumental that woke my dad up out of his sleep so he had me practicing for several hours on blends. So that was my thing I got into scratching a little later, but I was blending everything house with hip hop all kinds of records. I used to be fascinated by how different records could go together.
When I was 14 I started getting interested in producing so I went and asked Ric to show me the ropes and he opened his heart and he showed me. I made some wwwwacccckk ass beats at first oh my goodness. If Ric ever find those first tapes I promise y'all I will post them, but good gosh they were wack. I started getting better in about a year and started making beats like crazy. The first beat I made was for my longtime friend and to me like the best female rapper in the game hands down my homegirl Mahagony B. She was the first one that asked me for a beat. We used to be in Art & Design freestyling thats how I got my freestyle game up. I got so nice that I would be cuttin classes going to the lunchroom to battle and they wouldnt let me battle anymore I became allies with them and I just would beatbox. In '94 Uptown Nation got a great chance to perform on Showtime At The Apollo. Yooo I was so scared because they didn't start that apollo kids yet so we was like the youngest performing with the older people. We held our own though and received standing ovations from performing our song "Lyrical Format". We got to meet the legendary Teddy Riley he was so so cool man he told us that we did a great job and we also met the great Steve Harvey which thanks to him I can perform on ANY stage. We met BlackStreet, Rolonda Watts (One of the black women besides Oprah to pioneer black women talk show hosts), Nice and Smooth and Brian McKnight.
Uptown Nation continued to perform together for the next 4 years after that, but we took a hiatus because we were growing up and going in separate directions which wasn't bad because we started at 13 and did it til we was 18 together and we was always together so we had to separate. We did our last songs in 1998 and it was a great run because of Uptown I learned how to become a great force. That same year I met my daughters mom Andrea and we decided that we were going to form a label called NovaKhain Records. I came up with the name NovaKhain because I am a chatter on AOL and back then we could come up with screen names so we used to come up with mad screen names and one was NovaKhain. I thought it was hot so I ran with it. Man I didn't know anything about running a label I just wanted to be a rapper doin my DJing and beats. I learned early that being in business for yourself in the music business would be the better way to go. Not even for the reason of what hip hop is today I couldn't have possibly thought that far, but I sorta did. I had 7 artists I wanted to sign but I didn't but I did sign my brother P. Holla. My daughters mom is an attorney so she helped me with my first contracts and I signed my brother in '99.
Around that same time my boy Ric was making a transition in music and incorporating the digital age into music. The pioneer introduced me to the Fruity Loops program that was introduced to him by my homie the great Ron Elite. Back then Fruity Loops was only at version 1. I thought it was amazing because I could make beats in minutes. Messing with that program and growing with it I was in love with it. Back then people used to laugh at me because I chose to use FL instead of MPCs and back then SP12s and AKAI S950 samplers, but what people don't know is the reason that I switched up is because when I first started making beats there were no hard drives. We had a Roland S-10 sampler and an Alesis Sequencer NO MEMORY. So we had to overdub shit on cassette tapes and it would take away all the quality of our songs so our shit would sound hissy and all of that. So even with what Kanye was doing with the sped up samples I mean..I aint hatin cuz I think he was brilliant, but he did not invent the sped up sample...I'm sorry. He just made it famous so I can NOT knock him. We did the sped up sample back in the 90s because we only had like 4 banks on the S-10 with like 1 second per bank for sample time and we wanted to get all we could from the record to chop it up. So I learned FL and I'm still on it til this day its amazing how it has become what I knew it would as time evolved. I have it integrated into my system where with that and protools and a few other things gives me unlimited space to do whatever I want in music.
In 2002, I got up with a brilliant guitarist/engineer/computer wiz Carlos Cummings aka C-Money to me. He is an OG and taught me the ins and outs of Macs. I learned how to use Reason when it first came out. I learned how to use an assortment of programs like Maya and photoshop. We started recording my first album "Straight No Chaser". I never completed the album, but I still got the tracks and the most memorable one was "NY's Finest". I decided after that I didn't want to depend on anyone anymore so I started building a studio in my one bedroom apartment. In 2003 I started recording with my 2nd artist that I was to sign on NovaKhain by the name of Black Daddie we worked on his album and got his game up heavy and we made a lot of great material. Today Black Daddie is making hits with Take Money Records. 2004 started off a great year I was working really hard with artists like my lil bro Ruck and we recorded the underground classic "Rewind That". I produced 10 out of 12 songs on that album. Ruck introduced me to my brother J'von Bishop and we immediately hit it off and are good friends til this day. I produced several songs on his 2nd project "Sacrifice and Survival" and we killed them again on his 3rd project "Vengeance Iz Mine". J'von Bishop is currently continuing to run Strategic Mindz Entertainment. I recorded several songs with SME and worked with their artists. I worked on several tracks for Ronnie Sparkz debut "Failphobia" which was like phew one of the best albums ever. Actually I will say that Rewind That, Sacrifice and Survival and Failphobia was some of my best material. J'von introduced me to this talented cat named Renegade who is now known as Mickey Factz and we have yet to record together but that will happen soon.
In 2005, I recorded with several artists including, Take Money Records artists Young Bugz, Green Streetz, Chunk$. Collaborated with the legendary AG from diggin in the crates. Performed 28 week straight at the paradise club. Worked with the Queens female emcee Roz Cash. Produced for June Drama. Collaborated with RaeKwon the Chef. Produced songs for my cousin artist and producer Young Problemz, Lynet, did the Uptown Nation album in its entirety and working on several solo songs. My discography consists of over 500 songs which most you probably wont ever hear lol google me in like 2 years!
2007 I signed with Bazialini Music Group and that was a wonderful experience. That helped me get national exposure and also got to make some great music out there in the Bay Area. Shoutouts to Bazialini for helping me and making it happen. Also E dub for helping me and believing in my talent they get much love and respect. You can check their music out on www.bazialinimusicgroup.com where you can view Bazialini's Ballin Off The Wall Video which I have a cameo in.
So you ask with all of that history under my belt what am I doing today? Well I just recently moved back to New York City after a wonderful 2 years out in California. Now I am heavily on the grind out here managing my artist D-Duce. Preparing for my debut album which will be produced, arranged, manufactured and distributed by NovaKhain Records. The album is titled "The Charles Cuthbert Experience" which will feature production by Chuck Platinum & DJ Jeff Brown. The first single off of the album will be "Believe" which will be filmed by Joe Padilla and Lumeralis (Ballin' Off The Wall). There will also be a documentary that will coincide with the album and this will be available online 4th Qtr 2008. While I am doing that I am also preparing for my second and third albums as well which is a 5 part series. Movies are in the works, more videos, major collaborations, tours, shows, things are looking pretty good for us this year all praises due to God. So look out for me. If you want to inquire about any beats or if you wish to collaborate don't hesitate to contact me personally @ [email protected] or you can just send me a message and I will get back to you. Again I appreciate all the love and support from everyone. If it wasn't for myspace I would not be internationally known and if you don't believe that I am? numbers don't lie!