whudat
the interview

THE VITAL STATS
Christopher Grandison
The Founder of Whudat.com
Representing: NYC
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
Current Project: You’re looking at it

The first steps are always the hardest. You try to hang with the big boys, attempting to stand on your little legs not really knowing how to go about it, all you know is that you are gonna do it. Then wobble, wobble, splat! Your back on your ass, shitty diapers and all.

When I started this website I didn’t know what I was doing and I’m still figuring it out. From it’s birth: September 5, 2000 to the present, I am constantly learning things. So far I have gone through two major redesigns, which have improved the site tremendously. Traffic increases every month, things are going beautifully. And I have to give big thanks to shortycake, who has been on the team since.. damn.. almost the beginning. She has been holding down her part of the site lovely, giving the site life when I was too busy to shake it up myself.

*edited 3-22-02*
Recently I’ve added another voice to the team, Keshawnta. Her contributions help to keep the tagline honest by scooping news I may have skipped over.. giving it to you in one big handful. After all it’s all about “keeping an eye on the heat”.. That’s what we do. *end edit*

*edited 2-14-07*
God bless Shortycake (Trisha) and Keshawnta. 2002 in Trisha’s case, and months in Keshawnta’s, they have both moved on to other things. You may see the occasional post by Keshawnta, but don’t hold me to that. *end edit*

This interview was done during the first month, when the site was a solo act. Me interviewing umm me.. had to get things started with something, why not ask questions of myself? Without further strain on your eyes… go ahead and read up.

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If I gave you a half a million dollars, what would you do with it?
I’d buy that new Lexus truck, a house and some jewels.

Are you serious?
Yeah. What do you want me to say, that I would invest in the stock market or something?

Uh… yeah! Something like that. I’m talking about a half a mil.
Come on now, you know that’s the first thing I would do, spend some to make some. I would invest $200,000.00, spend $75,000.00 to clear the “wanted list” and use the rest to fuel that next Microsoft. Not money wise, but as far as creating something that people love to hate.

What.. you want people to hate on you?
Yeah, that’s when you know that you’re successful. No one complains, talks about or pays any attention to a loser. It’s only when you’ve done things that have impacted people that you get a reaction. If your struggling and have weak legs, you’re not gonna affect anyone but yourself, so no one cares. But when you have a million people screaming for your head, you have three times as many that feel you and have been touched in some way by what your doing - that’s success.. especially on the mainstream level. What’s important is to achieve that level of success by feeding people good energy; something that gives them an experience, a small piece of information, stirs up some brain juice.. or maybe just makes them laugh.

Is that what whudat is, your version of Microsoft?
Nah. whudat, if you want to get technical, is about utilizing the internet’s easy accessibility and vast reach to highlight people who I think are, have, or are going to make a difference in the entertainment field. There are so many people who never get the four page, full color spreads, the million dollar promo budget, you know.. the star treatment. While we’re not able to blow them up MTV style. We can give them an official digital stamp of recognition by the way of a feature on the site or a profile. In addition we can provide information on a wide variety of subjects that revolve around the culture, current events, but all revolving around the core of entertainment.

Who have you featured on the site recently?
This (September 2000) is our first month of operation, so what you’re looking at is the first feature. Next month we will begin regular..hopefully weekly updates. We have a couple of interviews in the pipeline and the list is getting longer. I’m talking to DJ Kaori and Bonz Malone they’re first on the list.

Alright, tell me how you got started. I want background information man, details.. give me one of those rags to riches stories?
Let’s see.. I went to the High School of Art & Design. Even though I’ve never considered myself to be an artist, I have always been creative. Living in Brooklyn for most of my younger years, that school opened my eyes to the diversity of New York, race and otherwise.. especially the breakdancing and graffitti aspects of hip-hop. White, Black, Hispanic, Chineseā€¦ they all were engaged in this creative culture studying Van Gogh, underground magazines, abstract art and created masterpieces. A lot of them did it while high on the glue they used to put together their school projects. In Art & Design I learned the fundamentals of art, tasted pure hip-hop culture and was exposed to more drugs than I ever saw in my life.

I hope your joking again.
Okay, I might be overstating the drug thing, but there were a few guys who took the psychedelic art thing to mean that they had to be wacked out of their minds. But then again, most creative geniuses over the centuries were a little spiked on something. Today I think some of those people who were getting high have designer jobs and are drinking lots of coffee instead… that’s the new creative drug for the design/intellectual crowd.. caffeine.

Just say no.
What, you talking about the drugs?.... I didn’t mess with…

Look at me. Just .. say ..
Just listen to the story. So I was in this great creative atmosphere and around that time hip-hop was emerging. I was exposed to it on a small level in Brooklyn through block parties and neighborhood DJs and MCs, but Art & Design, like The High School of Performing Arts, had a number of hip-hop pioneers who either attended or visited the school. Famous breakdance street legends like Fable, Mr. Wiggles, graffiti writers from the TC5 and TNT crews. Some guys didn’t become famous nationally, but I was inspired by them. Like these breakdance kids named Snap and Lex. They used to kill it. Snap got 2 seconds of face time in Beat Street; a big thing back then. The lunchroom was the command center for anything hip-hop related. Writers showed off their black books, breakdancers gave you a taste of their latest moves, and you had all kinds of music playing in the background - including rock music. I guess it was a little like the movie “Fame” minus all of the cheeziness.

So where does this lead to a website?
It’s what a lot of people don’t understand about hip-hop. In it’s original form, hip-hop was about studying all kinds of things regardless of where they came from and spitting them back out in your own way. So that meant you had no problem listening to Led Zeppelin, Yellowman, reading books on philosophy, history, or flipping through obscure comic books. Everything was fuel for the fire. Computers fell into my lap partly because of my diversity of interests and partly because my pops always stayed on top of the latest gadgets. I guess that just filtered down to me in some way. So I’ve been following the computer industry from way back, when the Apple II with 64k memory and the green monochrome screen was considered cutting edge.

That’s going back. Were you a part of the bulletin boards, what what would now be called the internet?
I didn’t have a a modem, but a lucky friend did. He would show me all of the things happening on the Compuserve boards. He had an Apple. I was a Commodore fan though. My first computer was a Commodore Vic-20 which I used to create games copied out of magazines that I programmed in Basic. It would take pages and pages of code to do the simplest things, and if you had one little error you were f’d. But that programming knowledge helped me to pick up HTML and JavaScript pretty easily when I decided to jump on the web.

Why did you decide to get on the web?
For a long time I was into music, trying to break through as a producer. Dabbling really. I was involved in a few groups and we had success in demo tape land. One of my memories was being at Chung King Studio with Run DMC one night when they were recording “Back From Hell”. It was during the time that DMC was drinking heavily and I remember him coming down the stairs with a rag on his hand because he had just punched through a window or something. That was crazy, you know just being there. We were supposed to be working with Jam Master Jay, but some bullshit happened with this chick.. one of the guys in the group and Jay were talking to the same girl.. next thing you know we lost contact with Jay, cause they had beef over the situation.

Years passed by and I finally saw that the music thing wasn’t gonna happen - a combination of missed opportunities and undeveloped, impatient talent.

I started the site because my love for music and entertainment never left and I wanted to do something in which I wouldn’t have to rely on others to accomplish my goals. Plus, I felt I could add something to the mix. I know what I like and most sites weren’t providing it, so I decided to create something that I could enjoy and share with others who would hopefully appreciate a different approach. With the music, so many times, things that could have been big didn’t happen because “this guy” didn’t do this or that. With the site it’s something that I control, it lives and dies on my back. I’m the CEO of this shit.

Well you know what, you’re cursing.. so this interview is over.
Cursing? What the Fuck!?

No. Mr. Grandison, I’m sorry but I will not allow that type of language in my studio..
I said one gotdamn curse in this whole shit and you’re bitching abou..

Your mic is off. Goodnight.

whudat.com - September 2000

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