Singer CJ Hilton Links With Nas, Fat Joe, Salaam Remi For Cold Summer Debut

Singer CJ Hilton could have very well chosen to be a poster boy for gospel music, but he opted to go a different route. The son of a pastor, Hilton got his start singing in the church, but his heart was in secular music—R&B to be exact. A meeting with DC-based production company Backwoods (known for their work with Ginuwine) led the Baltimore native to land his first deal with Sony head honcho Tommy Mattola’s Casablanca Records before landing at Capitol. Yet today, he calls RCA Records home.

With a spot solidified on the RCA roster, Hilton is readying his debut Cold Summer. The 21-year-old musician teamed with a host of big name music tastemakers, led by Salaam Remi, who executive produced his forthcoming project. Hilton is also working with the likes of Bangladesh, and locked in collaborations with Nas, J. Cole, Tyga and Fat Joe. Just shy of releasing a debut, R&B’s newest edition has already added a Grammy nomination—which he received for working on Raphael Saadiq’s “Never Give You Up” off his 2008 album The Way I See It—to his growing list of accolades. Hilton may be primarily and an R&B dude, but Hilton has got more than a few ties to the Hip-Hop world. He spoke with Hip-Hop Wired about snagging so many coveted features and how he made the break from gospel to R&B.

HipHopWired: You started off singing in the church how did you make the transition to R&B?

 CJ Hilton: Well basically my mom and dad split up. My dad was the pastor at the church at the time so of course my dad only wanted me to sing gospel music, but when my mom and dad split up, my mom, she knew that I wanted to sing secular music so she put a little money together and we did a demo. We got to these guys [Backwoods] in D.C., and they took it to Tommy Mattola, that’s how I got into the industry.

HipHopWired: What did you learn from your first label deal falling apart?

CJ Hilton: I pretty much learned that nothing is promised. I had all of these hopes and dreams that I wished would’ve happened with that deal but it didn’t. [continued] nextpage

HipHopWired: What’s the difference now that you’re with RCA?

CJ Hilton: They understand me, they believe in me. Most important is that they understand me as a person, and understand my music. I’m very laid back, I’m a chill kinda guy, my music is the same. It’s very soulful at the same time, and that’s the kind of guy I am, I don’t get into too much trouble.

HipHopWired: Tell me about Cold Summer?

CJ Hilton: I worked with Raphael Saadiq, I worked really close with Salaam Remi, whose the executive producer on the album. I worked with Bangladesh, and actually there are some dope features on the album. Saadiq he’s singing with me, I got Tyga and I got Nas. He’s [Saadiq’s] phenomenal [on the track] “Tonight.” It’s actually one of my favorite songs on the album. It’s a great song to perform, I love to perform. For me just getting up on stage, and seeing the reaction after I perform it just made me really like that song. [continued] 

HipHopWired: What can you tell me about the Tyga record?

CJ Hilton: It’s a sample of a Big Pun record. The “So Hard” record [from] back in the day. We took that and we re-did that, and we put Fat Joe and Tyga on it. It’s a really good song for the clubs. Actually, [songwriter] Rico Love [brought] the song to me. I loved the song so we decided to get Tyga on it, and we took it to Fat Joe and of course he said he had to be on it.

HipHopWired:  How has working with Salaam Remi and Nas rubbed off on you?

CJ Hilton: I didn’t actually get to work with Nas. The way that happened, we did the record [“So Fresh”] and of course because Salaam and Nas work so close, he sent the record over to Nas, [and he] loved it. He was actually overseas at the time, he did it and sent it back. One of the most important things that I’ve learned from Salaam is to just keep it simple. I’m a real musician, I play several instruments, I play drums, guitar, bass, [and] piano, so being a musician you can sometimes over play when you’re producing. Salaam just keeps it simple, he doesn’t do too much.

HipHopWired: Is it true that you’re working with J. Cole?

CJ Hilton: I’m about to work with J. Cole, I’m putting out a mixtape and J. Cole is going to be on that mixtape. The mixtape is called The Package: Part One. Basically about six months ago we put out The Package and Idris Elba—his name is actually DJ Driis on the mixtape—he hosted it for me. We put that out about six months ago, I felt like it should have been out there a little more, so I wanted to put out a part two of that mixtape so that’s what The Package: Part One is basically about.

The song that J. Cole is on is called “I Wish.” It’s just letting you into CJ’s world, telling you some of the things that I wish. I have a daughter so I wish that I could have stayed with my baby’s mother. [The song] It’s just showing you more about CJ.

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Photo: RCA