Taking a cue from fellow St. Louis star Nelly and his Sweatsuit, Chingy has divided his new project into two parts.
Hoodstar isn't a double album (like the first incarnation of Sweat and Suit was), but he's labeled the first six tracks the "Hood" side and the next seven the "Star" side (see "Chingy Out To Prove Himself As A Hoodstar With Jermaine Dupri, Tyrese").
"Songs like 'Cadillac Door' and 'Hands Up' and the Three 6 Mafia song, they're on the 'Hood' side 'cause they're more street records," the rapper explained. "Something like 'Dem Jeans,' that's 'Star' side right there because they're more uptempo."
Here, Chingy (with a little help from Jermaine Dupri and Spiffy) gives a track-by-track explanation of his third album, due Tuesday (September 19):
1. "Intro (Rid'in Wit Me)"
"On that song I'm basically saying that I rep the Midwest and St. Louis and I'mma hold it down for my town and my region," Chingy said. "I address myself as the King of the Midwest."
2. "Hands Up"
"That song is more street, more edgy, more hard-core, but it's still got that bounce to it," Chingy explained. "I'm just letting you know, 'Look, I'm fly, this is how I'm doin' it. Either you like it, you roll with it, or you get rolled over.' "
3. "Club Gettin' Crowded" (featuring Three 6 Mafia)
"A lot of people think I'm from the South because I can also give you that feel," Chingy said. "So I teamed up with Three 6 Mafia on the 'Club Gettin' Crowed' record, and that's that crunk music. It's a club banger."
4. "Nike Aurr's and Crispy Tee's"
"I did that record for block representation," Chingy said. "Because where I come from the fellas wear crispy T-shirts, long tall tees, and Air Force Ones. My homeboy Pauly Paul sent me the track with the chorus on there. It was originally Jay-Z saying 'Nike Airs and crispy tees' sampled from one of his songs, but I went over and said it myself. I always incorporate the women in what I do, so I put them in there too, 'cause they can wear the tank tops with the Nikes."
5. "Bounce That"
"This is a dark club song because it's a club song and it's a stripper-club song," Chingy said. "It was based around [the lyric], 'Throw it to me baby/ I'mma run it back.' That's just saying if a girl gives me the opportunity and I want it, I'mma run with it. No telling what may come out of that."
6. "Cadillac Door" (featuring Midwest City)
" 'Cadillac Door' is a real serious song to me because it's reflecting on my past struggles, what I went through to make it to this point," Chingy said. "Getting jobs, getting fired from jobs, on the streets hustling, tragedies in my life. I compare my life to an old-school Cadillac. If you had a Cadillac from the 1960s or '50s and you got it now? It's been through some stuff. At the end of that song, I dedicate it to Katrina victims and 9/11 victims because I wanted them to know I go through pain too, and I relate to their pain. That's actually my favorite song on the album."
7. "Dem Jeans" (featuring Jermaine Dupri)
"The beat was playing when I walked in the studio, and we came up with the chorus first," Chingy said. Added producer Dupri, "We was just trying to make something reminiscent of an old Chingy record but [with] that new energy" (see "Chingy, Jermaine Dupri Ponder The Physics Of Denim In 'Dem Jeans' ").
8. "Pullin' Me Back" (featuring Tyrese)
"I don't know who I was writing the song for, but I was at home singing the melody and I put it on record," Dupri recalled. "And Chingy and I had just worked together, so I called back, like, 'I got another song for you,' and they ain't even want another song!" Added Chingy, "It's really about being in this industry and dealing with your maid or whatever, and vice versa. You're trying to give her quality time, but your job consists of you working and being gone. So it can be good, it can be bad, but every time you find yourself trying to leave, you always go back."
9. "UA Freak (Nasty Girl)" (featuring Mr. Collipark)
"It's just a club record, period," Chingy said. "When you hear it, you gonna wanna dance and nothing else. It's got a little sample keyboard in there from [Janet Jackson's] 'Nasty,' but she's not featured on the album."
10. "Brand New Kicks" featuring Mannie Fresh
"It's another one of them songs that says, 'I'm fly, don't get in my way, I'm not going to accept it,' " Chingy said. "I'mma roll over you while I'm doing what I'm doing, but I'mma be looking good while I do it."
11. "Ass N Da Aurr" (featuring Spiffy)
"That's what they do in the club in St. Louis a lot, they put their hands on the ground, they put their ass in the aurr," said Spiffy, Chingy's cousin and the first act on his Slot-A-Lot Records. "We were really creative that day. If you listen to how we go back and forth on the verses, you hear the melody going with it, like I come in with the same melody." Added Chingy, "It's a club record, but it's a grown-up and sexy song. I think people 35 to 45 to 55 are going to like that song, because when you go to lounges, that's the type of music they listen to."
12. "Let Me Luv U"
" 'Let Me Luv U' is a track produced by Timbaland," Chingy said. "We was in Miami, and he had the beat. We listened to it, and as soon as the track come off I thought, 'It's a ghetto love story.' The beat gives you that feel. So I came up with a story about me going to the lounge with the fellas. I'm chillin' and having a nice time, and I happen to peep a young lady who I knew that I wanted her conversation and she knew that she wanted my conversation. So me and her leave together, we riding, we drinking, we doing our thing, we just getting to know each other. Then we end up back at my place, we go in the house — Persian rugs, Jacuzzi, candles lit, champagne glasses — and we get romantic."
13. "Let's Ride" (featuring Fatman Scoop)
"It really explains itself," Chingy said. "You get with your homeboys, you get with your homegirls, you get with your family, you get with your friends and y'all ride out. Drop the top, get some liquor, have some fun. The park may be jumping, so you ride through the park, out the sunroof acting crazy and just having a beautiful time. It's a feel-good song."
