CAZWELL: The racy gay rapper dishes with Out Front on his new single ‘Helen Keller’ with Manila Luzon

How do you interview Cazwell? While prepping on that lazy winter Wednesday, I wasn’t honestly sure what to ask a rising star whose sexually energetic lyrics raise more than just roofs, but after picking up the phone to a warm greeting, I could tell Cazwell would be up for anything.

His dirty-boy persona is complemented nicely by his feet-on-the-ground modesty and easily won laugh that’s every bit as adorable as the boyish gap in his teeth. Though he’s regarded by many as topshelf eye candy, the playfully self-deprecating artisan of modern hip-hop with crystalline eyes, a tatted hardbody and a tough-guy sneer is more than just eye candy — he’s also a clever, beats-driven poet with an ear for new-school cool. Oh, and he’s also into guys.

While tending to his dying plants from an NYC apartment, Cazwell rapped with Out Front on life, love and the pursuit of Judge Judy.

Berlin Sylvestre: What’s going on in the life of Cazwell right now?

Cazwell: I just turned in the last song for my new album, Hard 2 B Fresh, and I’m gonna be dropping a video for every song on the album, so I’ve got a lot to do. I’m also working on a new Amanda LePore album.

Uh oh! So what’s your writing process like?

Sometimes I hear a beat and (get inspired to) work a song around it, and sometimes it’s just something I want to talk about. The first thing that comes to mind is a track on my new album called Dance Like You Got Good Credit. I heard a drag queen say it and thought, ‘Oh, we gotta work on that!’”

I really dig your sense of rhythm. You play any musical instruments?

I don’t, actually, but I’m really savvy with what people want to hear. I deejay four or five nights a week in New York City, so I stay connected to what the people like. Just about every song on my new album is a floor banger.

Was there ever a “this is my one chance to make it or break it” moment starting out?

I have them at least twice a year! Every time I make a video, I’m taking such a financial gamble. I pay for all my videos hoping that I’ll get a string of shows in return and sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t. When I dropped my video for “Tonight,” I loved it. A lot of people didn’t get it, because the person I was with (in the video) was transgender. “Ice Cream Truck” really helped my career. But it’s important that you keep going, through the constant ups and the downs. The first song that really got me gigs was “All Over Your Face” and I was riding that wave for awhile, but you have to realize that eight months later, people get over it and you need to constantly drop (new songs).

What I like now, though, is that people like me for my personality and my skills as a rapper. It’s no longer like, “Oh, a gay rapper.” It’s, “Oh, Cazwell. Yeah, I like Cazwell.” But you can’t take yourself that seriously, because no one is taking you that seriously. I really want people to find me relatable in some way.

About the name of the new song, Helen Keller. Did you brace for possible controversy?

No, there hasn’t been much at all. I have a special affection for Helen Keller. We have the same birthday and she’s supposed to be the personification of determination. I used to think about her when I was first getting started. I thought, “If she could make it happen without being able to see or hear, then I can make it as a gay white rapper.”

Any inspiration behind the track?

Yeah, I was going through a breakup with someone who I’d been with for five years, so we were still running in the same social circles. If I saw him out, I’d say, “I don’t see him, I don’t hear him.” Helen Keller.

What’s an album in a guy’s musical arsenal that takes a guy from “kinda hot” to “hot as hell?”

My album, definitely. And The Teaches of Peaches. We’ve worked together. Our careers started at the same time, but she’s been famous longer than I’ve been gaymous. She’s super-cool, she’s one of us. She’s a really unapologetic artist and I love that.

Name three celebs you’d love to knock
boots with.

Bruno Mars is really cute, but he can’t wear the fedora or have the fro-look. I like the pompadour. I love those pocket gays. I’d like a 90-minute makeout session with him. I like the Asian in “The Walking Dead.” I like the guy with the big nose on “Girls.” He plays What’s-Her-Name’s boyfriend.

What’s the last book you read?

Take It Like A Man, the Boy George autobiography. He’s really cool. We did a track together in 2005.

What personality trait is an absolute turn off?

Cheap people. Like bad tippers and people who say like, “I only had a small slice of the pizza, so I don’t have to chip in as much.” I guess I mean greedy.

To Helen Keller someone means you don’t see or hear them. Using other names, fill in the blank.

To Madonna someone is to… 

…sleep with someone thirty years younger than me.

To Lady Gaga that ass is to…

…take that idea and make it look like I thought of it first. Or to overaccessorize.

To Betty White is to…

…get straight stupid on that ass.

To Judge Judy a sucka is to… 

…put that bitch on blast and check her in front of ten million people!

To Manila Luzon someone out the frame is to …

…give someone the chop. ′