Chanel West Coast On Her Career, Her Own Show And Iggy Azalea

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Young Money recording artist Chanel West Coast has been blowing up. From "I Love Money" to "Karl" and "Alcoholic," she is one of the hottest rising female rappers.

Chanel talked to Empty Lighthouse to express some strong views on the music industry, Rah Digga's comments on Iggy Azalea and the come up from the MTV shows.

Chelsea "Chanel" Dudley would be recognized as the blonde with the infectious laugh from MTV hit shows such as "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory" and "Ridiculousness" by most fans -- but separating herself from that persona, Chanel is a passionate musician and created a name for herself with her raw talent.
"Music is all I've ever done my whole life so its pretty much all I've ever known," said Chanel in a phone interview with Empty Lighthouse.

"Ever since I was a little girl I was always in performing arts, music and liked writing poetry since I was little so I mean that all came together and that inspires me."

"What inspires my lyrics, is what I go through in my life and obviously the beat if I'm listening to the beat and the beat is like a party beat I'm going to write a party song and if I go into the studio and I'm feeling sad about a relationship, I'm probably going to tell my producer oh put on this type of beat and then I'm going to write a sad love song," Chanel told Empty Lighthouse.

"So that's pretty much things that inspire but really its just always kind of a natural thing that I've always done since I was a little girl."

Her time was split living in North Hollywood with her mom and New York City with her father, a local DJ. Her Dad would bring, his then, eight- year-old daughter along with him when he spun at packed nightclubs throughout the city.

Some of her earliest & fondest memories involve sitting under the DJ booth, so that no one could see her, according to information shared with Empty Lighthouse.

Her success and passion ignited with Hip Hop dance team competitions that she competed in and won. She formally got behind the mic in none other than the legendary Marvin Gaye's Hollywood Hills studio.

She has love for the genre and wasn't scared to give her opinion on Rah Digga's comments regarding Iggy Azaleas music, as Digga claimed it wasn't real to her.
"Well I don't know how I feel about her saying its not real cuz I mean we're all clearing hearing it on the radio so it's definitely real," said Chanel.

"I do feel as the music industry has got to this point where its crazy because social media has helped in so many ways and I think also hurt the music industry in so many ways."

Chanel said she thinks social media made it very easy for people to become famous and become know artist without truly being artists.

"I think now people can become an artist from having a cool Instagram or a cool looking music video and it's less about people listening to the music so I will say that music has gotten to that stage so I understand where maybe Rah Digga was a little pissed off in that sense but I wouldn't say that Iggy's music is not real and I definitely think she put in a lot of work."
She also says that she is currently working on creating her own television show through Rob Drydek's production company but the entire show is still in the works.

"Rob finally came to me and said let's do a show and I think right now we're trying to figure out the show because obviously Rob's shows are very comedic and kind of a different type of show than I would be doing," said Chanel.

"My show would be more like documentary style, more following me around in my life, my music and going to my show and the studio, more like the behind the scenes."

"But we still want to have that comedy aspect to it because I am a funny person and mad funny shit happens in my life so we're trying to figure that out right now, yeah we are definitely talking about that."

Getting signed with Young Money was one of her biggest feats but the entire ordeal seemed quite effortless as Chanel recounted the story of meeting with Lil Wayne and playing him her music for the first time.

She said that she was initially already in a deal with producer Polow Da Don but ran into Wayne at a Zumiez event in Colorado which changed everything.

"I think he was there promoting Trukfit and I was there promoting Young and Reckless and I remember I told him I rap.

At the time I was in a production deal with Polow Da Don," she recounted.

"I was like yeah I rap I'm signed to Polow and I remember Wayne gave me this look like he was really intrigued and he said, 'word dope I didn't know that.' So far along later I'd say eight months after that a lot of things had changed in my music career."

She was able to meet with personal acquaintances of Wayne who pointed her in his direction.

"They heard my music and they were like, 'yo Wayne would love this we want to bring you to Miami to meet him and play him your music,' so I was cool, I already knew I met him and I told myself this is gonna be easy and I hope he likes the music."

She flew out to Miami and we played him all the music she had done so far.

"I remember he was really quiet and I say this in so many interviews, I played my song 'I love money' and right when he's done listening to it he was like, 'man that shit was stupid' I thought to myself, oh ok he likes my music this is going good now.

She says that after that meeting it was kind of a done deal and ever since then she's been a part of the "family."

Chanel says that the relationship is good with the other members of the Young Money roster and she has even been able to kick it with some of them.

"I mean everybody that I know and have been able to kick it with the relationship is great, I haven't really like gotten a chance to kick it with Nicki yet and get to know her, haven't really got the chance to kick it with Drake yet and get to know him but everybody else I've had a chance to get to know and we are very much a family."
She says that out of all of the artists on the roster she is closest with Mack Maine and Lil Twist and Lil Wayne because of his involvement in bringing her into the YMCMB family.

It isn't always serious with Chanel; after all she is featured on some of MTV's most comedic shows paired with Dyrdek who is always looking for a good laugh.

She told Empty Lighthouse that one of her most memorable moments from "Fantasy Factory," was the shooting of the "Chunky As Charged" music video.

"I thought it was dope because obviously we got to do a song and I got to rap on it and it was still something that was comedic for the show," Chanel said, "I mean it was kind of interesting being in the fat suit for a whole day and getting to experience that so I would definitely say that that was one of the most memorable days of filming for me."

Chanel plays to some very high-energy crowds, as much of her music is party oriented.

That kind of play comes with some interesting characters at her shows; she ever recounted one of the strangest things to happen to her while performing.

"I have a couple weird people haha, which I don't mind I think its actually kind of funny...um...I've had this one creepy bald guy I don't know if he was bald or shaved head but as I was performing he wanted me to hit his head," said Chanel.

"I thought that that was really weird."

"I was like I don't know...why do you want me to hit your head? Finally, because he kept saying 'hit me! hit my head!' I said alright and I hit his head and he was so hyped on it so I was like ok that guys crazy."

Being such a huge fan of music and all genres, Chanel hit up her playlist titled, "Best September Ever," to give us her top three tracks that she is feeling right now.

"Oh definitely iLoveMakonnen featuring Drake, 'Tuesday' that song is my shit I'm obsessed with that song."

"I will admit that I'm obsessed with the Taylor Swift song 'Shake It Off' I have no shame in my game, I pretty much jam out to that song every time its on and 'Believe Me,' Lil Wayne featuring Drake that's like my favorite song right now."

As for her own music Chanel had this to say to her fans, "I've got a single coming out in November and I'm working on my album, everybody should follow me on my Twitter and on all my websites and just stay tuned for that new music coming."

Following the success of her mixtape, "Now You Know" Chanel continues to release music and other various content weekly via her popular "West Coast Wednesdays" initiative.

In December of 2013, Chanel headlined her first tour - the appropriately titled "Now You Know Tour." Currently, Chanel is finishing her debut album, which is scheduled to drop sometime later this year.