Chanel: "Turning Fantasy Into Reality"

Rob Dyrdek’s “Fantasy Factory” has proven to be a seamless transition from its highly popular predecessor, “Rob & Big.” Preparing for the premiere of its third season, one of the better aspects of the show has been its ability to help mold careers of Chris “Drama Beats” Pfaff and Chanel West Coast. After recently catching up with Chanel, the “rapping receptionist” spoke on her drive to become a respected MC in a genre and culture that may not be so accepting, how the murders of two close friends continue to inspire her to record music, a 20 minute freestyle with Travis Barker no one will ever see, her official mixtape and other things.

First off, how is shooting for the next season of “Fantasy Factory” going?

It’s actually really well. We should be done soon, I believe in like a month. It should air sometime in June or July. It’s going really well. This season is a lot of crazy, funny stuff. I’m going to be featured a little bit more in the third season, which is a very good thing for me, obviously.

I’m sure you get this question all the time, but how does it feel waking up every morning having such a cool job?

It feels amazing. It’s really cool because they’re [Rob and Drama] actually good friends of mine. Being friends with the people you work with only helps create great and fun experiences everyday. Really, it’s kind of surreal because even I get shocked when I realize this is my “job.” Basically, my job is to have fun and enjoy life because that is pretty much what I’m doing on a daily basis. It’s not really a job where I have all this work and even though I do greet people that come in the office, at the end of the day, I’m not really working, working. I have a fun job and part of it is the fun and cool experiences.

I actually had a chance to interview Drama earlier this year. He told me a pretty crazy off camera story of how he almost drowned in a swimming pool in a dog cage, but Rob eventually saved him. So that leads me to this. From you perspective, what is one of the more crazier or funnier off camera stories from “Fantasy Factory?”

Well, one of my craziest memories on the show – it’s not really crazy in a sense of being in a dog cage and pushed in the pool like Drama – but for me one of the craziest memories that nobody will ever get to see is when Travis Barker came to the factory. He ended up bringing his drumset and on the show you seem him playing them. What you didn’t see is for, I say about a good 20 minutes, I was out there freestyling while Travis was on the drums and Rob was on the turntables.

That, for me, was a crazy experience. It was definitely one of my better moments of rapping on camera on “Fantasy Factory.” They didn’t show it and I was so bummed. I was so hype like I didn’t even know how many bars it was. I just knew I was rapping for awhile.

Did you ever get to see it on camera or keep the footage for yourself?

No. No, I did not get the footage it bummed me out really bad. It was a great experience though.

Aside from Barker, have you ever had a chance to really showcase your talent for any other artists, whether it be a cipher or a studio session.

I actually just did a song with Ya Boy. We actually did another song too with the both of us rapping and Mya did the hook. I’m not exactly sure when it will be released or what we’re going to do with it. Hopefully I can do a song with Man because he works with my producers, Midi Mafia. I’m actually supposed to do a lot of songs with a lot of people. I’ve been so busy with filming lately. It’s just people’s schedules have been conflicting with my schedule. But I do try to get in the studio as much as possible.

Do you have any ideas for an official project whether it be a mixtape or an album coming soon?

I’m working on the mixtape right now because I’m going around and meeting with a lot of record labels right now to try and lock down and official record deal. So I also want to hurry up and kind of get this mixtape out. I am a little worried being that I am a little white girl (Laughs) that they’ll try and take over, you know what I mean? Once you get a record deal, sometimes that happens. I really want to get this tape out so they can see what type of personality and the style of music that I do, ya know?

On your MySpace profile you listed a ton of rappers as influences. From Paramore to Coldplay. From Tupac to Pimp C. Do you want your music to reflect that? Like in a sense “I can do hip-hop, but don’t label me one genre.” Do you feel as if that is a necessity with how you plan to attack your career?

That’s not even them all. I couldn’t remember everybody. But that is exactly the point because I really do feel that I am very diverse. I can rap, but I can also sing rock songs really well. I want to start off as rapping, but I also want to get into all different types of music – pop, maybe a little bit of rock. I don’t just want to be one thing. I want to be an artist, not just a rapper.

First and foremost, you are a fan of music. If you look at the calendar, you’ll see there are a lot of big albums coming out over the course of the next few weeks. With the summer around the corner, what are your top three projects you’re looking forward to?

Hmm, that’s a really good question. I guess you could say…I’m always looking forward to anything that Drake does, that’s for sure. I think he is the best in the game right now. I really can’t name all three. That’s the one main one. It’s like, I listen to everything so I’m excited for any new music, you know what I mean?

In your biography, you mentioned the passing of your friends Soul Exl (Saul Garcia) and Kevin Deville. Anytime you lose your good friends in a manner such as that, it has to take a toll on you in some form. Did that ever make you want to stop rapping or rap more?

The crazy thing is I had stopped rapping for awhile before their passings. I found myself in a relationship with this guy who was controlling and crazy. I really don’t know why I ever let him stop me from doing music because that is what I love. It really is my passion in life. But I just stopped doing it for awhile. That’s when I woke up though. I realized I couldn’t take my life for granted and I have to use every minute I have to do what I love. Their passings actually did inspire me to push harder and work harder at my music.

Definitely understandable. You’re a woman of many trades. You have your own clothing line, “Valleywood.” I know Drama has his as well. How often do you and him talk about the fashion industry and your respective moves?

Honestly, not that much. Right now, it’s kind of hard to explain, but we’re still talking to the licensing company. We’re kind of on hold right now. I’m not designing any new things because we could end up taking the name elsewhere to another licensing company to produce some clothes with them. So, right now, we really don’t speak about any fashion related stuff. I definitely like his clothing line and actually rock it all the time.

Looking more so to the future, after “Fantasy Factory”, five years from in the year 2015, how do you envision your brand?

Definitely in the next five years I for sure want to, well within the next year, have a record deal. I just want to have a successful recording career, with a clothing line and maybe even my own TV show, which would be great. Really, I just want to  have a very successful entertaining career, I guess you could say.

Be sure to follow Chanel on Twitter and check out her MySpace page to hear original recordings from the aspiring MC. Also, as Chanel alluded to, be on the lookout for the the third season of “Fantasy Factory” set to air later this summer.