S. Samuel
New York rapper Charles Hamilton shocked fans today after appearing on a live UStream broadcast confined to a wheel chair.
According to Hamilton, he has remained in a wheel chair since leaving a mental hospital earlier this month.
“The reason I’m in a wheel chair is because I have sharp pains since I was in the hospital and a lil bit before,” he said. “I have sharp pains when I’m walking and literally I want to collapse but I can’t I have to continue to walk. So my right leg has been acting kinda funny. I still have a lil’ mobility, I can still stand up in the booth…but I’d rather the mobility of my legs be jeopardized than my musicality be jeopardized at any given point of time.” (XXL Mag)
Last month, Hamilton made headlines after checking himself into a New York mental hospital.
“Basically my stay here [NY Presbyterian Mental Hospital] is like identical to my stay in the industry. As far as being the new guy in here having to deal with politics & people trying to control you. The critics would have to be the doctors and the rounds [medicine guys]. So you can say this is like an experiment to see if the industry is really like an asylum or if I was the one bugging. Some say the Industry is like High School but it’s just like a [mental hospital].” (Bossip)
Upon being released sometime last week, rapper B.o.B. vouched for the afflicted emcee, promising that he was still sane.
“You have to understand… Charles Hamilton is not crazy,” says B.o.B of his longtime ally. “He was in a place of extreme possibilities music-wise. He has not veered in on the reality that he wants to create. As with all artists, if we were astronauts we would be on Pluto [laughs]. We dance on the line of insanity. We really do. If you look at some of the greatest artists in history, they were really out there. It’s like that movie Inception. If you don’t keep something like a totem to keep you remembering who you are, you’ll get lost…Charles and I are cool. I talk to him a lot. He’s always discovering himself, putting his experiences into his music.” (VIBE)
Earlier this year, producer Omen hit up SOHH and said Hamilton was beginning work on a follow-up to 2008’s free Internet-only debut, Pink Lavalamp.
“I’ve been working with Charles for a couple months,” Omen told SOHH in June. “He’s working on this project and basically it’s an independent situation and he’s collaborating a lot more now with other producers and artists. Before, it was a lot more him producing, I guess the label had a lot of restraints on him of what to put out and what not to put out. He’s a work horse, like, with Charles, if you give him 14 hours, he’ll probably come out with 14 songs. Charles can take a bunch of songs and ideas balled up into one human mind. Once he gets in the studio, he’s pretty much all out.” (SOHH)
Check out some recent Charles Hamilton footage down below:
YRB TV: Charles Hamilton (Part 1) from YRB Magazine on Vimeo.
