To raise a family it takes more than just time and energy. It’s a commitment to your children and to your other half to make them priority number one in your life. In the rap industry wearing your family values on your chest is never the ‘in’ thing to do. Cleveland rapper Chip Tha Ripper is juggling fatherhood, a promising career and his newest project Tell Ya Friends. He sat with theGrio to talk about his new family, the lady in his life, and how his son Cash made it onto his latest album’s cover.
Tell us how you came up with the name Chip Tha Ripper…
My given name is Charles Worth. I have my father’s name but I’m not a junior because we have different middle names. I’m a ‘Chip’ off the old block. The Ripper part came from me battle rapping and I tore down the competition.
Who are some of your hip-hop influences?
I grew up on everything. 50 Cent, Kanye, Jay-Z, Bun-B. I’m pretty modern. In the Midwest you were exposed to every coast, and my style reflects that. As long as it was good, I was bumpin’ it.
Ohio has a rich history of homegrown music filled with soul. With the likes James Ingram, The Ohio Players and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, do you feel you’re representing your state well?
I think that I do. Ohio is so open minded being that we aren’t region biased; we’re able to pull from some of the best of everything to create our own sound. We’re unique because we can’t sound like anyone else.
What was the moment in your career that you knew you had arrived?
When my brother Kid Cudi came by my crib and wanted to put my song Hyyer on his debut. We were expecting it to do well but never to the level of Man on the Moon reached. I mean I was on the same LP with Kanye and Common. It gets no better.
How did your newborn son make the cover of Tell Ya Friends? Is fatherhood treating you well?
I was taking a photo of him and it was the first time I used a flash on him. His reaction was priceless and he looked like a grown little man. I felt that had to be on my album cover. But fatherhood is treating me well. Being a dad has changed my approach to each music project, because now I have people who are depending on me. The 9 months he was in his mother’s stomach was the time I went from boy to man.
Are you and the mother still together?
Yes we are and her name is Fortune. She’s real cool and she’s very supportive of my music.
Are there topics that are off limits when you perform now that you’re a family man?
No not really. She knows at the end of the day that its art. If anything, it gives me more to talk about in my lyrics. Before my son, I thought life was just about the industry and the single life. Raising and starting a family is the big picture for me. To not only give life but to nurture it as well is the greatest gift I could’ve received.
How important was it for your child to know that his parents are together?
Very. I was a product of a two parent household until my folks got divorced when I was 9. The month leading up to their divorce they were miserable and when it was over they began the rest of their lives. I just felt that Cash, needs to have that type of nurturing environment that only a mother and father who are together can give to their son. It’s important for him to know that he came up in a house full of love.
_Give Chip Tha Ripper’s new mixtape Tell Ya Friends a listen let us know what you think._
Follow Kyle Harvey on Twitter at @HarveyWins