QTheQuestion.com

Author: Nik Terrell Thompson

How would it feel if you strived your entire career to make into to be in the limelight but you made a slip up and all the extra attention is taken away from you? C.L.A.P. Cognac could tell you all about it but he doesn’t let missteps hinder his journey to the top. The Bronx-bred MC spent most of his life perfecting his craft to becoming one of the most promising newcomers in Hip Hop. I spoke with C.L.A.P. about the origins of his name, being a former 106 & Park Freestyle Friday Champ, and how being a college graduate helped him out in his career.

NTT-First off, How exactly you came up with your name C.L.A.P. Cognac?

C.L.A.P. Cognac – Well, “CLAP” is actually a acronym that came about when I was in college when I met up with my man Clip. That stands for Camouflage Ladj Attacking Problems and I added the “Cognac” just to smooth everything out. Shout out to my homie Clip and everybody from the 914, we was in college and he walked past the room and saw me writing. He was like “You write my nig?” and I said yeah. From that day on we was like the coolest. We were both doin’ the same thing so we just went ahead and came with the group Clip ‘n Clap. That’s how C.L.A.P. Cognac came about.

NTT – Your parents are Jamaican and African right?

C.L.A.P. – Yeah, my father is from the Ivory Coast and my mother was born in Jamaica but I mostly grew on the Jamaican side. My Grandmother actually raised me on my mother side. Definitely, both of those cultures have a heavy influence on my music career right now too. One of my singles out now is “Bad Mon Ting” that’s picking up crazy and a lot of people have been lovin’ that. So I try to incorporate my culture and where I’m from into my music.

NTT – So how that being part Jamaican and African played a role in your life?

C.L.A.P. – You know it’s different but it’s the same as two cultures. I was mainly with my mother and my grandmother who raised me and I grew up in a Jamaican household with my cousins. My father, I spent time with him sometime but I mainly grew up with the Jamaican side but it’s ill because you get to see two sides of the world and two different cultures that’s almost the same but with stuff like the language barrier just a little different but basically it was close to the same thing.

NTT – What music and musicians you grew up listening to?

C.L.A.P. – Off top, what really got me into listening to Hip Hop was Krs-One and my cousins used to always listen to Krs-One back in the day. I used to not really music and they used to always play his stuff I was like “Y’all can be outside doin’ so much other stuff”, I always saw it as a waste of time but my cousin sat me down and had me listen to Krs. He had like a message in his raps and he was witty with it and clever. That intrigued me and I was like “Damn, that’s something I would probably want to do”. Then after him I was startin’ to see the Rakim’s and the Kool G. Rap’s. I listened to other genres but nobody off the top head I can think of. As far as Rap, Krs-One, Big L definitely. I used to try to mimic myself as Big L. He was a slim, dark-skinned cat, he was real witty with it, he said stuff people wanted to hear and that’s was somethin’ I wanted to do too.

NTT – You would say Krs-One and Big L are some of the dudes that interested you in wanting to be a rapper?

C.L.A.P. – Most definitely, there’s a lot more but those are two of the main guys that before I even started that I would just sit down and listen to. There are the Biggie’s, the Pac’s and all that but those were the two artists that made want to try it out. While I was doin’ it, there was Biggie, Pac, Big Pun, The Lox that really got me more into my work.

NTT – How did going off to Buffalo for college and graduating help you out in your career?

C.L.A.P. – That helped me out a lot because I was tryin’ to do my thing but I still got my degree. During all that time that basically helped with my vocab, the structure of my rhymes was like a thesis. I had a introduction, a body, and a conclusion. While I was sittin’ in classes learning that stuff I was puttin’ in my raps. I was in my classes writing rhymes, sitting in French class just writing because that something I just loved to do but more I felt like to get a degree to make my family proud. So I just found a way to do both simultaneously. You can asked anybody I went to school with and they would say I was in the back of class, writing the time away, no beat or nothin’. I would just tap my feet and I just go and make up tracks. College definitely played a big role in my career, I met a lot of good people while I was college. Shout out to my dude, Superstar Jay, he held me down 1000 percent, he always puts me on his mixtapes and whenever he does a show he put me on so that’s one dude I met from the beginning of the grind that really helped me out while I was in college. Shout out to everybody Buff State Alumni.

NTT – Your first big break was being a Freestyle Friday Champ on 106 & Park. What was that experience like?

C.L.A.P. – That was big for me. I just came from school and Superstar Jay was helpin’ me out. I just came back to the city and everybody was seein’ me on TV, I was back in the Bronx, it was crazy. Just like that it was gone with the limelight and everything but when I was on there, Free was feelin’ me, anybody could tell. The last show I was on they set it up around me and they didn’t really have anything else. I kind of slipped up when the beat threw me off and I didn’t perform as well as I wanted to. 106 played a big part in my career because it gave the taste of limelight and I wanted it more because it was so easily taken away from me. After I lost, I just kept grindin’ hard to get that taste of the limelight back.

NTT – You went on to some more big things. What have you done so far that impressed you the most.

C.L.A.P. – I would say it’s my body of work. I try to get everybody to know me but if you really know me. I been talkin’ with me manager and we talkin’ about turning myself into a pop artist and people would probably be like I’m gonna sell out but that’s not the case at all. I like to perform, I love doin’ shows. Me and my manger was talking that I should do all kind of music, all kind of genres. What I really impressed myself with was that all the songs that I have done and I go on my external hard drive and have stuff documented from the beginning until where I’m at now. It just makes me want to keep grinding through the hard times and just maintain my work ethic. All the people that know music like that I been doin’ so long and I’m good at it. So what really surprised and impressed me was my work ethic.

NTT – You was talking about looking back at your old stuff. Do you ever use your old ideas and try to refresh them for now?

C.L.A.P. – Yeah sometimes I would do that, certain tracks that I feel might need some polishin’ up or it would probably be a original beat or song and I would probably just do it over. I get inspiration from listenin’ to my old stuff. A lot of people that know me from back in the day might would probably stay my stuff was crazier back then. I feel like when I was rhymin’ back in the days, I never really had a format yet and I would just right bars on top of bars and go to the cipher and just spit for like 4 hours. Right now, I feel there’s more substance in my raps and it’s broken down, more song structured. I feel that I’m more polished than what I was from back in the day but I definitely get inspiration when I hear my old stuff.

NTT – What kind of process you got when you’re putting together your music?

C.L.A.P. – Basically, I just go off of the beat. Sometimes, I’ll wake up in the morning and I might have a idea, a song in my head, a hook, and how the melody should go and everything. Mostly I just go off the beat and how it make me feel and I’ll structure it around that and keep tryin’ to make these hits.

NTT – As far as now who are some people you personally like their music?

C.L.A.P. – I want to give a big shout out to Kiss because Kiss just did some real big numbers in the midst of a recession and it’s a real good look for New York City. That Kiss is definitely in my deck right now. My man, Crooked I he reminds me of the mid 90’s when it was all about Rap, when it was all about skills. I listen to Clipse, Pusha T. I feel like his bars are crazy. I listen to my peoples, JK, Quick Draw, my crew Paper Soldiers, PSRC that three crews in one; Paper Soldiers, Rex Connected, and Silent Rounds. We got a lot of strength and a lot of spitters that I grew up. They give me a lot of inspiration when I listen to them too. I listen to all genres of music. I listen to R&B, Rock, Alternative, all kinds. I’m a big Linkin Park fan, Coldplay. I try to broaden my music horizons so when I rhyme and make music, I won’t be put in a box.

NTT – So you say got three groups put together?

C.L.A.P. – Yeah, three groups. Paper Soldiers is my crew from the Bronx, Silent Rounds is a crew we formed in school with my man JD from Staten Island and my man Analog the producer from Rochester and Frank boy from Southside Queens. The last group, Rex Connected and that’s my man C.L.I.P.’s group in the 914. We all just came together and kept making music like we did before. We about to come out to come out with a PSRC compilation soon, so be on the look out for that.

NTT – Y’all trying to make a new Wu-Tang or something?

C.L.A.P. – Yeah man. We got a crew of spitters from all over New York. We tight, we all click together and we know each other. We just trying to bring back that good feeling New York music back like that.

NTT – I noticed in your music that you shout out your city a lot. Do you feel like that’s important for you to do?

C.L.A.P. – In my eyes, yeah I feel like it’s important. The way I rap or the way I am, this is where I came from. This is what made me who I am, the place that raised me. So in my music I have to let people know that.

NTT – How did you like performing at Rucker Park?

C.L.A.P. – Rucker Park was dope. Shout out to my dude, Huck over there and that was with my manager G Money. I’m a big And 1 fan and all the ill streetball legends that play there and to be on the same card as them was amazing. I also like the feeling of performing and rockin’ the crowd, that was a big step for me. I still look at the footage today, that’s was like 2 or 3 years ago, so I hope can come back and do it again.

NTT – So how did you like performing on the same card as Juelz and Lil Mama?

C.L.A.P. – We did that show in Niagara Falls. I didn’t really get to chop it up with any of those people but just performing in front of their fans and crowds was a real good look for me by trying to gain some new fans off the celebs with the deals.

NTT – Going back to your name, Did it help you get your sponsorship with Seraphin Cognac?

C.L.A.P. – That’s a funny situation. Shout out to my home girl, ConiYac. We both on Myspace and they had hit her up because her name is ConiYac and my name is C.L.A.P. Cognac. They had listened to our music and we had a lot of references to Hennessey and different kinds of other Cognac and they were promoting their brand. They were like “This is the cognac that’s going on right now and we want to send y’all some bottles”. I’m like “Aiight”. We drunk and I was giving out some of my bottles and asking people how they feel about it and they was feelin’ it. So me and ConiYac go back in the lab and we just went ahead a did some songs. We got a freestyle song called “Seraphin” and that was big and I used to go out and perform it. When I go perform, they would give me free promotional bottles and I would pour cognac for the crowd. People would know me for that.

NTT – How did you find out about Ashlee Ray?

C.L.A.P. – Once again, I had met her through my manager and they was real cool She was doing her thing in entertainment, hosting on ESPN, She was doing a whole lot of stuff. She had asked me to do a song for her to promote what she is doin’ and I knocked it out for her, she like my sister now. Anything she need, I got it.

NTT – Since you been in the game, Have you ran into any other “Ashlee Ray’s” or that was she was more like a one shot deal?

C.L.A.P. – Yeah, I have but Ashlee she does a lot, she’s on her grind. I know there’s a lot of model girls and video chicks and I’m knockin’ their hustle but I don’t really know what they doin’ to get to the top. As far as Ashlee I know for a fact that she grind hard and that’s how we kind of clicked because I do the same thing with my music, I grind hard.

NTT – When it’s all said and done, What kind of legacy you want to leave behind?

C.L.A.P. – Aw man, I wanna be on top of the game and everybody would be like “That dude from The Bronx he did everything”. I want to lock down all genres of music. “Yo, C.L.A.P. he did his thing, he was that dude”. The only way to go is the top.

NTT – What do you have coming out in the near future?

C.L.A.P. – Right now, we attackin’ the Internet crazy. We got this whole Internet promotion going on. Shout out to my dude, Apex the Ringtone Guru and got some things poppin’ with him. I’m on Reverbnation, ITunes, Thumbplay, all the blog sites. Search “C.L.A.P. Cognac” and I would be on there. So that’s like the main thing I got going right now. I’m promotin’ all my music on the Internet, again a big shout to Apex he really helpin’ me out with that and G Money. Plus, I do like 2 or 3 shows a week, I just love to perform. One of my main goals is to like rock a arena, everybody know who I am, everybody know all the words. I know a lot of people are like “I want to sell a million records” but I really just love to perform. I’m doing everything I can to reach that goal, so I need to make the music and get on that stage to rock like 20,000 people and have everybody singin’ my songs.

NTT – So eventually, you trying to get to Madison Square Garden and Caesar’s Palace?

C.L.A.P. – Yeah, Madison Square Garden, all the arenas, football stadiums, I’m tryin’ to do it all, homie.

NTT – I would like to thank you on my behalf of QTheQuestion.com and thank you for your time out of busy schedule. I also wish you much luck in your career.

C.L.A.P. – No doubt man. Once again, shouts out to Q that’s my dude. Let everybody know go to Clapcognac.com, mogulsinthemaking.blogspot.com, youtube.com/claption. I’m tryin’ to make everybody know who I am. I thank y’all for havin’ me and for the interview, I truly appreciate it.

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