All Photo by: Christian Ortiz
Corey Fowler (Smoove), MontaeTalbert (M Bone) Cahron Childs (Jayare), Chanti Glee (Yung) are Cali Swag District (CSD), the hottest and latest group to come out of the west coast . The group has been together a little over a year now but already they have been making major moves. From performing at the BET Awards 2010 pre-show to having a number 1 video. These four young men have great energy and passion for their music.
In fact in the short time the group has been together making an industry buzz hasn’t been much of a problem. Cali Swag District has a number of viral You Tube videos under their belt. “Teach Me How To Dougie†has already received 4 million plus views on You Tube alone. The groups lead single has also peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hip-Hop/R&B charts
Mr. Sykes:Â How did the group get started?
Cali Swag: The group was actually formed by our visionary Big Wy we were all actually doing our own things in music. But once we came into the eye of Big Wy he realized that we could be this group he was already trying to put together. And we made it work.
Yung
Mr. Sykes: How long have you guys been together as a group?
Cali Swag: Almost a year, since last August (August 2009)
Mr. Sykes: What’s the name of your first album?
Cali Swag: The Kickback!
Mr. Sykes: When is it coming out?
Cali Swag: It’s supposed to be out in October
Mr. Sykes: What types of things can fans expect to hear on the record?
Cali Swag: They’re really gonna hear the real CSD, we really do this music thing and we take it seriously. We just don’t make songs about dancing we make a lot of different types of songs. We’re a really diverse group the fan will be surprised once they hear this album.
Mr. Sykes: What producers and artists did you guys work with on the album?
Cali Swag: We worked with a lot of local producers on the album, Disco, Smooth actually produced a track on the album… On the remix (Teach How to Dougie Remix) we worked with JD, Bow wow, B.o.B., Red Café, that’s about it.
Mr. Sykes: What was the hardest part of making an album?
Cali Swag: None of it really, because our album was mostly done before we even signed a label deal.
Mr. Sykes: What do all feel are your individual strengths within the group?
Cali Swag: Smooth brings leadership and confidence, Yung is the wild and crazy one, Bone brings the energy and the hype the life of the party, Smooth knows how to do business when it’s time to get stuff done. Jayare is the laid back one he’s Mr. Too cool.
Mr. Sykes: What’s one thing that people are going to get from you guys that they wouldn’t expect?
Jayare
Cali Swag: Bars! I’m just playing, but seriously we tell stories in our verses. Most of  the things we write about really did happen or came true after we wrote about it. But after they listen to the album they’ll really know who CSD is, all our personalities and experiences. Because, Teach Me How To Dougie is just one song that we based of a dance. It’s just one topic but our album is gonna show that we can do anything. That we really do this, that music is our lives and we take seriously, we go hard, and music
Smooth
makes our heart beat (laughs)
Mr. Sykes:: What’s the next single?
Cali Swag: Where You Are Feat. Michael Jackson. It uses a sample of the song “Where You Are†By the Jackson 5. It’s a song for the ladies and it’s gonna be really big.
Mr. Sykes: Who did you guys have the most fun with while making the album?
Cali Swag: Each other! And everyone that happened to be in the studio at the time we were recording. Our album is called “The Kickback†because well we were recording we were constantly having kickbacks in the studio. For those that don’t know a kickback†is kind of like a house party, but by invitation only…. Not as many people come but eventually it turns into what a house party is. And our album is something you can “Kickback†to or get turned up to and at kickbacks you can “kickback†or get turned up so that’s why we gave it that name.
Mr. Sykes: What are some of your favorite tracks on the album?
Cali Swag: We have a song called “Kickback†we got a song called “Rocker Republic†that song is really gonna blow people away because it shows that we’re super diverse. We have a song called “Run That†and that’s one the most turned up song on the album.
Mr. Sykes: What kinds of girls do you guys like?
M-Bone
Mr. Sykes: How would you guys describe your style?
Cali Swag:  We would describe our style as off the top! And what I mean by that is, it comes up as we go, we do us we don’t do them. We don’t let anybody influence us on how we should dress or rap. We just take everything that we learned and put it into one. It’s something different and it’s something we created on the spot.  Our styles are different we all dress different, we all rap different you can hear it in our music our flows are different.
Mr. Sykes: How Tattoos do you all have?
Cali Swag: Between the four of us it’s really more than 20, we’re not too sure. Ask us again in 3 days and there be like 5 more tats between us.
Mr. Sykes: What your favorite phone app
Cali Swag: Twitter! follow us @Caliswagdstrct
Mr. Sykes: Give us some reasons why people should by the album?
Cali Swag: If you like to dance you should be the album, if you like good music you should buy the album. If you like CSD YOU SHOULD BUY THE ALBUM! If you doubt where we stand in this music game, if you don’t think we’re real artist you should buy the album!
Mr. Sykes: What’s next for CSD?
Cali Swag: We really want to do movies we’re really trying to make that happen. Our visionary Big Wy always said we should do a movie about our lives, so maybe will do that.
You can get more from the guys of Cali Swag District at:
This article was done for and with permission from Parlè Magazine
Jesuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuz! LAWD these boys are sexy! YES! Ya’ll could teach ME how to dougie,!
OH-WEE! We can dougie it the frig on OUT, hunnay!
I LOVE CALI SWAG DISTRICT!! especially Yung,he is HHHAAWWWTTT