CollegeHumor Interview

It's hard to be a normal human being and become famous on the internet. In most cases, you have to be an overweight preteen tweaking out over videogames, a ninja, a baby singing rap songs, or a groin injury. Mr. Chi City is none of these. His videos involve nothing out of the ordinary: freeze pops, parking tickets, and chrome garbage cans. He has acquired millions of hits on YouTube and CollegeHumor, yet he remains just a "regular dude who happens to own a digital camera."

I spoke to the self-proclaimed "realest dude on YouTube" last week about how to get women, keeping anonymity in his videos, and why he thinks his videos are so popular.

How did you begin making the videos?
You know what, man, I had a friend who was in a -they don't call them halfway houses anymore, now they're called transitional houses- and he had internet access. I guess you could call it good behavior, where as long as they wasn't in there clownin', they would let them watch TV and have internet and stuff like that. So he wanted me to e-mail him and keep him updated on what was going on, and I was like, "If you got the internet, look, I'll post a video about my Chevy on YouTube and then you can just check it out." And he hit me up the next day like, "Man, we really liked seeing your car... could you post something else, just going around where you live at?"
So I was like... "A'ight." [laughs]

You always seem to keep your face out of the shot. How come you decide to stay anonymous?
Well honestly man, two reasons. Real talk. One: because I say a lot of crazy things. [laughs] That was the main reason, I was like, "I don't want these people seein' me!"

But also, in my opinion anyway, it forces you to really listen to what I'm saying. You understand? Like when you're looking at a person who sits in front of the camera and talks, sometimes you're distracted at what's in the room, what's on their face, you know. But now everything that goes on, you're forced to really understand what I'm saying and maybe even get to know me a little bit better. And on the low, to be real with you, I think it kind of like makes your mind have to get a little creative. Because now, I can look like whatever you want me to look like. If you want Chi City to be a big, fat, ugly-looking dude, I can. Whatever you want me to look like, I can look like. So I think it makes it more interesting.

Yeah, that makes sense. What kind of job do you have?
Just a little temp thing, a little warehouse job. [laughs] It ain't even nothin'. Literally.

What do you do when you're not making videos or working?
Real talk, man. Basically I just live life: play videogames, holler at women, check up on my brother -he's in school. It's funny because everything you see in my videos, I would have done it even if there was no camera there.

Right. So the bug video and Dollar Menu Millionaire, all of that?
Oh, hell yeah! Dude, let me tell you something. When I walked into my house, originally the bug was on the vent. I thought it was a mud stain or some dust buildup and was like, "I'll clean it later." So I was on the phone with my homegirl, I come out of the kitchen and the goddamn mud spot moved six inches up the wall and all hell broke out! I damn near ran out of my house, it was so big. I don't even know what made me pick [the camera] up. If you wanna know the truth, I couldn't even kill it the first time.

Yeah, I think it took you a few times there.
Hell yeah, dude, because I didn't know what that motherfucker was gonna do. [laughs]

Since your fridge video, what's the most requested drink by women that come over?
That's a good question. You know what? I don't know what's been goin' on but a lot of chicks be gettin' water lately. [laughs] Yeah it kinda pisses me off because I'm spendin' all this money on drinks and you're drinking a water??

It's not even hot out!
Yeah, I don't even know why. The last couple of chicks that have been over here have been drinking the regular bottled water. That kinda sucks. [laughs]

What's your biggest piece of advice for picking up women besides the whole fridge stocking stuff?
You gotta make ?em laugh, dawg. Plain and simple. People underestimate just making women laugh. She can be the finest chick and if you can make her laugh, she gonna be in your pants like... goddamn. Now here's the bad side. If one really likes you because you make her laugh, you'll never get rid of her no matter how hard you try. Now you're her new thing; her entertainment.

Now that you have so many YouTube hits, when is your TV deal coming?
People ask me that all the time, I'm gonna just keep it real as hell. I really have no true intentions of being on television. I like the freedom to do and say what I want here. I'll be real, a couple of people hit me up and it's funny because they write and call me, and say, "We love what you do, it's amazing... but now we want you to not do any of that though." [laughs]

It's like, they're telling me I can't curse, I can't say this, no derogatory statements. "Please don't refer to women's derrières as slap jackies." It's like, what the fuck? So by the time it's all said and done, they want me to just be a whole different person. So I'm not motivated much by fame. It's funny, because they're used to dealing with brothers who are thirsty to be on TV, be famous, and make money. And then they bump into a dude like me who doesn't give a fuck and they don't know how to handle it. [laughs] So I'm gonna keep it on YouTube.

Cool. What video are you working on next?
You know what, I don't really operate like that. I just wake up in the morning and see if I feel like posting today. That's basically how it goes-the only way I'll think about it more is if something dramatic happens to me, then I'll be like, "I need to post this."

Like the day that I got that [parking] ticket, I was like, "hell no, the world is gonna know about this shit." But it's just random. Hey, I busted my ankle so I posted it. I went to McDonald's, posted it. The bug, it just happened that day, so I posted it. I went to visit my homeboy-and honestly I was gonna delete that video.

Yeah, how come you ended up uploading the cemetery one?
You know what man, I'm just gonna be real as hell. Where I'm at now with these videos... I dunno, I don't want to make it bigger than it is. But I feel like every once in a while I may do something that somebody needs to see. Maybe someone's going through something similar. I went that day, and had no intention of filming that. I decided to pull it out, and worst come to worst, I just wouldn't post it. And then when I started getting emotional, I was already driving home like, "hell no I ain't posting this." [laughs]

But I dunno, something just came over me, man. You would be surprised at how many people write you and say, "I kinda went through something like that and I appreciate you posting that because it made me realize I can make it" and all that good stuff.

Yeah, a lot of your stuff is pretty relatable.
Yeah, you know why, dude? People like you and other people out there are real people, and I think they just wanna see a real person who's just like them. That's really what it is. We're tired of seeing n*ggas on Real World and stuff. It's just a bunch of premade actors. VH1 and their wack ass, corny ass... how many 'I Love' shows...? They made like 27 shows and they're running with it. After a while, people can watch it and be like, "Yo, this shit is fake. That girl's a lesbian. I saw her kissing other women on another show."

So now, every time something real pops up or something that I feel that I can be honest about, I just say "okay, I'll post today." Like right now, I have no intention of posting shit. [laughs]

Well, as we wrap up, do you have any words of advice for the people who are gonna read this?
Live. Your. Life. That's it, live it. People can't handle me all the time, still to this day, don't like what I do and think "I'm bringing the black race back ten steps' and other people just think I'm ignorant or whatever but if you'll notice, it's never stopped me from posting. [laughs]
Honestly, I hope other people get motivated and post about their life too. You'd be surprised how many people wanna watch it.