FUSE TV - My Hustle: King Chip on Making It in Cleveland, Hating Former Rap Name

Chip tha Ripper broke into the Cleveland rap scene when he was still a teenager thanks to some locally beloved mixtapes and his unbeatable battle rap skills. Although the Ohio rapper has since changed his name to King Chip, become a father, moved to Los Angeles and landed some heavy-hitting collaborations—Kid Cudi, Game and Curren$y—his hometown roots are always on his mind.

Fuse spoke with the "WTF I Want To" rapper about what he did to get started in the game: Burning mixtapes off his dad's computer, decimating MCs in local rap battles and playing by his own rules. We also found out he dropped his former rap name because all these years he thought Chip tha Ripper was "wack."  

Check out what King Chip had to say about his new name, his upcoming projects and why he'll never let his son be a rapper. And if you love hip hop, watch The Hustle—Fuse's scripted series about a Brooklyn rap duo and their crew trying to break into the game—when it premieres Wednesday, June 19 at 11/10c.

How did you start out in the rap game?

I originally started battle rapping and that's how I got the name Chip tha Ripper. I didn't name myself. In high school I was known for battle rapping, I was the undefeated champion. And then I went out to the West Side of Cleveland where they had something called spit boxing, which were rap battles every Tuesday night. Suave Goddi was host of the night and since I was already called Chip, he was like, "Yo, you ripping everybody! I'm gonna call you Chip tha Ripper." My real name is Charles Worth, my father has the same name and his nickname was Chip. I was always Little Chip, so it's not a rap name. It's what people really called me before I knew what rap was.

What got you into rapping?

I was sitting at home on 120th and St. Clair and watching TV when I was a little kid. I had to be four and Fresh Prince came on. And I heard the beat and stopped what I was doing and then he came in… and he wasn't singing. I was so used to hearing singing but he was doing something else. And you could tell he was cool because he had his hat to the side. It blew my mind. "What is he doing? The words sound the same every so often, what is this?" My uncle explained it to me: "That's rap, man, he rhymin', that's Will Smith." So Will Smith introduced me to rap and from the first time I saw him do it I was like, "Yo that's what I'm doing." I got some friends that can tell you I started rapping young as hell.

Did you always think of it as a career?

You got guys who are great at basketball. They may never get into the league or even try, but they're all-stars. You get them out on a pickup game and they'll do moves you wish you had a camera for. That's kind of how I saw rap. It was something you could do—I didn't know you was supposed to do it for something. And eventually you see people get successful off it and you're like, "Wow, that's even better! Hell yeah." You didn't see too many super rich, flashy rappers with yachts back then when I was four, which was like 92-93. It was just street sh-t with the gold and a couple foreign whips. I just saw it as something to do.

When did you start releasing music?

The first time I made a mixtape I was 17 in 11th grade. I would stay up all night burning them on my father's Dell computer and bring 'em to school. I would come to school with no money and leave with 300 dollars. And it was like, what? But it was how I came about. It started with my high school but I had a friend Fat Al at a different school. We kinda cliqued up and all the high schools were into [my mixtape through that]. From there it bled into the streets and then the clubs. The DJs picked up on it by seeing how popular it was with the youth in the ghettoes. When they started playing it they were getting the craziest reactions to the songs we made, more than the radio songs they played during their set. It was crazy—you would think Obama walked in. And after that radio picked up on it. But it was Cleveland and it was all organic. I never shopped my music in any way, even with record labels. Everything up until this point has been mutual or somebody reaching out to us. I don't have a crazy manager, everything I've done so far has been me and my friends. Cudi's my friend and I don't really have any heavy-hitters other than Cudi on my side so it's just really organic.