HipHopFiend Interview: Hollywood Floss – Breaks down ‘One Fan At A Time’ track-by-track (Part 2)1

Following on from the first half of my interview with Hollywood Floss yesterday. He breaks down the second half of the tracks from his new album One Fan At A Time, which finally drops tomorrow…

Hit the jump to read the full article…

Home (prod. by Sweet Valley High)

So H-Town is my home. ‘H-Town Chicks,’ I’m riding around H-Town, so I sedge way into a story of when you crash from your high, reality kicks in. So I talk about home, which is H-Town, but also home is a metaphor for the person in the story wanting to come home, he’s always wanting to find home, he can never find his home, he always feels out of place. But he feels out of place because he’s doing the wrong things, he’s making the wrong decisions. For the hook I put monologues, at the intro I put a monologue and at the end I put a monologue just to tie it together.

Dream Killer 2.0 (feat. Laws) (prod. by Chris Rockaway)

Once again at A3C last year we met out at A3C and we were on at the same festival together at the Perfect Attendance stage, and he was real humble. He had just signed to J.U.S.T.I.C.E League, and he was hungry, he wanted to work, so lets work. And at the end of ‘Home’ the character gets shot, so he killed his dreams of what he could have been, his potential. So killing your dreams, killing your potential, so that’s how that ties in. I think Laws did an excellent job on the verse, I really liked the original version, but on 2.0 we remixed it, just doing some different sounds, and of course we have the Laws verse.

Stalker (prod. By brandUN deShay)

brandUN deShay I think he’s a very talented cat, I met him in Houston as well, during a Blu and J*DaVeY concert, he was in Houston, we were on our way to SXSW and I was like, “Hey man, let me get some tracks from you.” And he sent a lot of tracks, but I think I ended up taking 3 and one of those will be a bonus track on Itunes, and the other one I haven’t written to yet I’ve just been kind of going back and forth on different ideas. But ‘Stalker’ what came out, I was watching the movie, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, which is what it samples in the beginning, the audio monologue that you hear in the beginning is from the actual movie, and I ripped it from Youtube. I wanted to do some storytelling, so it was a fun song. It was fun but it was still conveying some kind of message.

Champion Shit (feat. Naledge of Kidz In The Hall) (prod. by T.I.M.E)

I had the beat from T.I.M.E from Ohio, and Sean Falyon was supposed to be on there, we met at A3C as well. He was doing his project so the time conflictions ran out, and we were talking about being the underdogs in the game. Like we are the underdogs but we are still going to grind it out and we’re going to get there. Just time conflictions didn’t let Sean get on there. So I just threw a prayer out there and reached out to Naledge from Kidz in the Hall, and he’s also been in the game a long time as an underdog, and he doesn’t get his just due as an ill emcee, so I reached out to him and he said, “Hey, love the track.” The beat sounded groovy to him so he wrote his verse, sent it back. I finished up the hook to tie everything together, but my verse was already written, and everything just went great from their. Two underdogs going at it.

Fanmail Interlude (prod. by Sweet Valley High)

I just wanted to make fun of the rap game, still truthful, but it’s still making fun of myself and what other emcees mess up, and how people attack your email. But the actual girl is the stalker from the previous track, I don’t know if people are going to catch that. But I get emails all of the time from fans and regular rappers who say, “Hey man, I heard your stuff.” And then I say, “Oh, ok that’s cool.” Then they say, “Ok, well can I get something from you.” They don’t try to build a relationship, they just want something from you, everybody’s snatching something from you. And it’s crazy because it happens all the time, then when you say, “Ok well you should pay me, or you should talk to my manager.” You never hear from them again! I’m pretty sure any rapper’s that have a buzz are going to relate to that track more so than the fans. I also threw a fan in there who’s like, “hey man I really dig your stuff…” but it’s always “when’s the next new album dropping” or “when’s the new song dropping,” it’s never appreciating the past. It’s always, you can drop a song one week then next week it’s, “hey, I want something new.” It’s never “hey, let this digest,” or “let me listen to the old catalogue.” It’s just a little jab at the industry!

So Much To Say (feat. Brian Angel) (prod. by Chris Rockaway)

That’s tying in that I have so much to say, but I only have a little bit of time because know that people don’t have the attention spans. So while I have I have your attention spans let me talk about things that I want to say that might not be “politically correct.” So I talk about my grandmother, when I talk about friends that are close to me, that want me to succeed but they don’t support me like they could. I’ve had friends that are close to me that say, “Why aren’t you on yet, you’re better than this person.” Then I turn around and they’re jamming Soulja Boy, they’re paying $10 for Soulja Boy or they’re paying $10 for Kendrick Lamar- who deserves it, but I’m just saying, they’re supporting everyone but me, and then they ask why I haven’t been on yet. It’s a personal track, it’s a meaningful track, but at the same time I want to say more, I feel like three verses isn’t enough, but people really won’t listen. And that’s Brian Angel on the hook there too.

Pushing boundaries with release…How helpful to career?

That’s what I want to be known for, always pushing the boundaries, I think Outkast was great at that. I think that’s the number one thing why my career has taken off, because I’m not afraid to take risks. I mean we all make bad songs, we all make bad decisions. But if you don’t take a risk then you’re not going to stand out. I mean, technically I know I’m not the best rapper, musically I might not be the best producer. So you have to stand out, you have to do something! Where someone might get a co-sign, I have no co-sign, so I have to do something to jump above the rest. I have to do something inventive, I have to do something creative. So that’s how the Xperiment’s came about, from the Xperiment’s I thought, let me make House Of Dreams, and I did that thing where the beat switches up. From One Fan at a Time I’m like, so how am I going to release this one? So let me get a PR company maybe? Or viral promotion? Its always going to be something with me. I just can’t wait until the day when I’m in front of the masses. I have a great idea for an album, I just don’t want to do it for free, I think it needs to be where I’m on a situation or distribution or label, to release this album idea that I have. But I have the ideas in my head, I just want to get them out!

One Fan At A Time drops tomorrow over at DJBooth…