Your favorite pink-loving, Sonic-obsessed rapper is back and possibly better than ever.
Meet Charles Hamilton, the man who a year ago shook up hip-hop last year. Who exactly is Charles Hamilton? He’s a rapper and singer (unfortunately) hailing from Harlem, New York. He is the younger cousin of MC Lyte, one of hip-hop’s greatest female stars. Over a year ago, Charles blew up in the internet scene with “Windows Media Player”, a track consisting of only Windows XP sounds and a hook containing his blog, myspace, and website. That was only the beginning. Shortly after that, Charles announced “The Hamiltonization Process”. For the span of 16 weeks, Charles released a brand new mixtape on a bi-weekly basis. That’s 8 mixtapes in 4 months people. The man did something that was almost unheard of. The concept has been replicated by numerous rappers including Freeway with his “Month of Madness” and XV with his “40 Days and 40 Nights” project which reminds me…
It was through Charles Hamilton that I discovered XV. Charles is a HUGE Sega fan. So when XV put out the song “Control”, the internet was quick to dub it as a Charles Hamilton diss. So of course I checked it out and the rest is history. So if it wasn’t for Charles Hamilton, I would’ve never heard of XV. If it wasn’t for Charles Hamilton, XV and Chiddy Bang would NEVER be coming to Exeter…so yes the man is a big deal.
Anyway, Charles stuck to his promise of 8 mixtapes; every one different from its predecessor. Following the success of the “Process” Charles’ future looked bright. He was featured as one of XXL’s 2009 Freshmen and even caught the eye of Jimmy Iovine who later signed Charles to Interscope Records. Unfortunately Charles was not able to prosper under Interscope. During his time on the label he started beef with Soulja Boy and got the business from Rhymefest and Wale. There’s a lot of confusion regarding what exactly happened during Charles’ time at Interscope. I STILL don’t know the whole story after all this time. Regardless, Charles was released from Interscope in September 2009. From there, Charles kind of disappeared from the hip-hop scene. Occasionally, he would release a few poorly-produced songs. It seemed as if Charles was done.
To start off the new year, Charles marked his comeback with “Normalcy”. Late March, Charles released what he promises will be his LAST mixtape, “The Binge: Vol. 3”. For the last few days, Charles has released more music including his new single, “Paperboy” featuring B.o.B.. The new work seems promising and I think it’s safe to say that Charles is making a solid comeback.
Many people simply do not appreciate Charles whatsoever. I have stuck with the man since Day 1. They all have valid reasons for disliking him so I can’t pretend that Charles is perfect. Charles is one of those rappers who thinks he can sing…Drake can pull it off but not so much Charles. Another concern is in regards of Charles’ music quality. A high percentage of Charles music is poorly produced/mastered. Charles appreciates the “lo-fi” sound but I must admit, as an avid music listener, it can be pretty painful on the ears. Because a lot of Charles’ music falls under this “lo-fi” category, its always a treat when he puts out high-quality material. For a good example, check out his digital album, “The Pink Lavalamp”. Charles has received a lot of complaints regarding his “lo-fi” music so I think its safe to say that in the future we can expect some higher-quality music which I am pretty excited about. Charles truly shines over well-polished beats. Lyrically, Charles can be both strong and weak at times. I mean when you put out so much music in such a short time frame you can’t expect it all to be great. *Cough* Lil Wayne *Cough* How’s Prison? *Cough*
Anyway, I’m excited to hear Charles’ new material and I hope you are as enthusiastic as I am.
LISTEN – Charles Hamilton – Paperboy (Feat. B.o.B) (Explicit)
The New ERA 
Sorry Charlie, beat me hardly.