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Paul Wall And Chamillionaire Welcome You To SXSW

Posted 3/18/10 9:03 pm EST by in Music


Once again, MTV News has packed up the stick mics and headed down to Austin, Texas, for South by Southwest, the gut-busting, eardrum-shattering celebration of bands, beer and BBQ (and gifting suites) that grabs the Longhorn State by the short hairs once a year and doesn't let go until it's good and ready.

Four days of near-continuous live music, peppered with brief, meat-filled interludes, the occasional open-bar, and parties that plow on into the early morning hours, SXSW is the music marathon to end all music marathons; it's part endurance test, part wild, unending bender ... the kind of thing you've got to experience at least once in your life, provided your ears (and liver) can handle it. Seriously, you have no idea how nuts things get down here.

Anyway, we arrived in town early Thursday morning, and when we got here, the folks at SXSW were nice enough to have two of Texas' favorite sons -- Paul Wall and Chamillionaire -- waiting on hand to welcome us. We'd like to think they do this for everybody, but we know better.

We spoke to the dynamic duo -- who had just reunited on stage the previous night at Austin's La Zona Rosa after spending much of the late '00s pursuing solo careers (with, it should be added, much success) -- about teaming up once again, memories of their earlier days spent hustling in Houston, and the status of their respective solo albums (after months of delay, we found out Cham's Venom will finally see the light of day on June 22, five days before another date that holds plenty of significance for any true fan of Houston's so-called "Screw Music" scene -- June 27 -- the title of an influential mixtape released by the late, great pioneer DJ Screw).

And while we'll get to all the news over the coming days, we figured we'd let these two Texas boys do what they do best: get on the mic, and welcome all of you to the party. After all, even the most gnarly of marathons must begin with a single step.


Check back throughout the week (and into the weekend) for more of MTV News' adventures at South by Southwest ... the biggest bands, the best interviews, the beefiest beef ribs ... it's all gonna be here.

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Chamillionaire Shares His Fort Hood Community Strong Experience

Posted 12/14/09 7:00 am EST by in Music


On Friday (December 11), the Fort Hood community came together for Fort Hood Community Strong, a day of healing and remembrance for the 13 members of the military killed at the base a month ago. The show featured a performance by Houston rapper Chamillionaire, who was kind enough to share his thoughts on the day with us.

By Chamillionaire

I feel so privileged to have received an invitation to perform in Killeen, Texas for the Fort Hood Community Strong event for all the soldiers and their families. It's not every day that we get a chance to give back to the people who put their lives on the line to defend our country daily. Me and my party of four received a warm greeting from a group of USO soldiers who were waiting to pick us up from the airport when we arrived in Killeen. They took pictures and told us numerous times how appreciative they were that I would be a part of the event. While we were in the van en route to the hotel to drop off our bags, they told us some of their daily duties and Iraq stories. One of the soldiers told us he had to carry 180 pounds of baggage and weapons in what seemed like 150 degree Iraq weather, and he also told us stories about spiders that they saw that chased people and attacked birds. From the moment we met the soldiers they were very open with us and it seemed like they like the loved to share their war stories with tourists.

When we got to the hotel and dropped off our bags we immediately had to leave and head to Fort Hood to do a soundcheck and a press conference for the event. The area surrounding the military base seemed to have most of the normal recreational places that you would find in the average city. We passed a couple of clubs and a bowling alley on the way to Hood Stadium, where I would be performing in front of an expected 50,000 people. Once we made it through the checkpoint, we saw a lot of military buildings and government vehicles and I could tell that we were approaching the stadium because of a super-large TV screen that said "USO" on it glowing in the distance. We pulled up to a long line of trailers and hopped out of the van and went to the trailer they had reserved for me to wait for the press conference.

Before the press conference I got to meet some of the other entertainers that would also be participating in the event, including Nick Jonas, comedian Dana Carvey, Aaron Lewis (the lead singer of Staind), the Lt. Dan Band, the Zac Brown Band and Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop. Read More...

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Nick Jonas, Chamillionaire To Appear At Fort Hood Event

Posted 12/8/09 4:10 pm EST by in Music


On December 11, a month after Army Major Nidal Hassan allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at a Texas military base, killing 13, the Fort Hood community will come together for a spirit-lifting event that will feature an appearance by Nick Jonas and a performance from Houston rapper Chamillionaire.
 
The free event, called Fort Hood Community Strong, will take place at Hood Stadium. It is described as a day of "healing, fun and entertainment" aimed at bringing some joy to the more than 349,000 military personnel, family members, retirees and civilian employees who live on the massive base and were impacted by the November 5 shooting.
 
In addition to a meet-and-greet with military troops and families by Jonas, the day will feature a set from Chamillionaire, an acoustic set from Staind singer Aaron Lewis, a performance from the Zac Brown Band, and appearances by comedian Dana Carvey, actor Gary Sinise, the Houston Texans cheerleaders, Bonzo Crunch the clown, NHRA Army car driver Tony Schumacher and legendary sock puppet Lamb Chop.
 
Army psychiatrist Hassan, 39, allegedly opened fire on his fellow soldiers last month, killing 13 and wounding at least 30 before being shot four times by a pair of civilian police officers. Hassan, who was paralyzed from the chest down in the shooting, has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Attorneys for Hassan have said they Army plans to evaluate the psychiatrist to test his competency to stand trial and his mental state at the time of the shootings.  

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MTV News Tips Our Collective Hat to 'Malaria No More'

Posted 4/24/08 5:30 pm EST by in health


Today, on Malaria Awareness Day, MTV News producer Garth Bardsley thinks back on his recent visit to Houston, and the boatload of important info he picked up along the way:

Apparently I’m an idiot. Wasn’t malaria essentially eradicated from the planet way back in the 50’s? Or even if it didn’t completely disappear, wasn’t it highly contained, and the few people who caught it were just given a few pills and sent on their way?

Uh, well, nope. While malaria has been contained in the US since the 1950’s and Panama even earlier, in sub-Saharan Africa a child dies from the disease every 30 seconds -- that’s over 1 million deaths a year -- from a disease that’s both treatable and preventable! Ridiculous. And there’s even evidence that links global warming to an increase in the endemic zones.

In anticipation of Malaria Awareness Day, I went to Houston last week -- along with Chamillionaire -- to visit with a bunch of kids at YES Prep, a fantastically amazing charter school dedicated to educating economically disadvantaged youth. While there’s no doubt some of these kids could choose to spend their time bellyaching about what life has handed them, the students at this school -- which has a 100% acceptance rate to four-year colleges -- instead dedicate themselves to serving others.

Through raffle-ticket sales at two different dances in the last few months, the YES Prep students have raised $1,250 to buy mosquito-protecting bed nets to send to Africa. That dough will fun 125 nets, preventing 250 people from ever getting malaria. The organization behind the dances, Malaria No More (recently featured on "Idol Gives Back"), has set a completely attainable(!) goal of getting a bed net to everyone who needs one by the year 2010. They estimate needing 250 million nets. So far, they have enough money to fund 131 million -- over half of the way there.

Obviously, the goal of events like Malaria Awareness Day is to raise awareness, so morons like me know what’s going on. Consider me schooled.


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Chamillionaire Gives Props to Activist Students

Posted 4/18/08 11:59 am EST by in Behind The Scenes, MTV News


ChamillAtSchool

This in from MTV News producer Garth Bardsley, on a shoot in the Lone Star State:

We're in southwestern Houston at a public high school called YES Prep, which is a free high school catering to low-income students, and -- get this -- it has a 100 percent acceptance rate to college.

Tomorrow the students are holding a dance on behalf of an organization called Malaria No More, raising money to purchase nets to protect against mosquitoes in Africa. So Houston's own Chamillionaire swung by to fire up the students and give them props for their hard work.

One of the great parts of this gig is bringing excitement to people who deserve it. When you spend your time doing the so-called "serious" stories for News -- politics, sexual health -- it's kinda cool to bring a couple hundred kids into a school cafeteria and watch them freak out when one of their idols runs in the door and hops up on the table. Personally, I couldn't handle that kind of screaming every day -- good thing I'm not a hip-hop star. Chamillionaire was fantastic, hanging for quite a while, visiting a class, taking pics.

ChamillSchoolGroup

Check out our continuing coverage of the fight against malaria -- a treatable disease that kills an African child every 30 seconds -- in the coming weeks at MTVNews.com. And more photos of Chamillionaire hanging with the class after the jump. Read More...

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