New York City native Shawn Mims (Mr. Mims), known now as MIMS, is back in Canada after a short hiatus to prepare his next single and upcoming album. You probably know Mims best for his spot on the hit single with Choclair titled “Love ‘Em All” that was on Baby Blue Soundcrew’s Private Party 2. Find out the story behind the record, Mims’ latest projects and what he’s got planned for the future.
Q&A: Mims
HipHopCanada: Most Canadians know you from “Love ‘Em All.” What have you been up to since then?
MIMS: Well ever since my Canadian experience I’ve been working on building my own company called Push Play Music. I’ve just been focused on getting my track list together and just hitting them with hits. I got a song out right now called “I Did You Wrong” and I’m working on the album. We’re getting radio spins across the country… We’re still independent and do everything by the grace of God basically, and it’s working.
HipHopCanada: No doubt, how come we haven’t seen you up here since the “Love ‘Em All” project?
MIMS: I’ve been basically trying to reinvent myself, you know. Keeping the name fresh so when people see me the next time it’s right. Like when we did the “Love ‘Em All” thing… I wrote that song in the Bronx. You know Dirty Swift produced that song and what not but I felt that at that point in my career I wasn’t ready for… You gotta have a bunch of hit songs with you and at that point in time I was writing good but I didn’t feel comfortable with myself and having no hits.
HipHopCanada: Can you tell us how things went down with that project? What you liked it about it? What you didn’t like about it?
MIMS: Yeah the video was a great experience man. I enjoyed working with Choclair alongside Baby Blue Soundcrew. I enjoyed being in Canada. Toronto is a beautiful city with beautiful women. The video was definitely done professionally so I can’t complain about that. So you know, Ummm… I mean I definitely enjoyed it. It was just a great experience. It happened for me while I was still independent so it gave me a great picture, a clear picture of the music industry.
HipHopCanada: How did that situation go down seeing as you’re based in New York and the record came out of Canada?
MIMS: Basically my man Mo Jointz from Canada and Dirty Swift, also from Canada of course…. Mo was out there in Toronto at Universal shopping some beats from Swift. One of those beats he shopped I had demoed out called “Fuck ‘Em All” and that was the original concept for the song. So he got it into Baby Blue Soundcrew’s hands and they loved the song… they wanted to roll with it. Two weeks later they flew me up to Canada and closed the deal on it. Got Choclair on the verse…. I wrote a new verse for it and the rest is history. Put it out and I believe 2 weeks later it had reached Gold status in Canada which is a good look. We shot the video for it too so you know.
HipHopCanada: Have you had a chance to work with any other Canadian acts since?
MIMS: I’ve been scheduled to work with this new act they got up there called Juice (AKA Rochester), I know he’s doing his thing. Right now I’ve just been focused on myself and getting the album together. I think that is important for me right now as far as what I’ve been through, as far as my career is concerned. Trying to rebuild the name and rebuild my character in the United States. After I’m doing what I gotta do here I plan on returning to Canada and showing them a lot of love.
HipHopCanada: What else are you working on?
MIMS: Working on the album… Like I said, I got that new single out called “I Did You Wrong”. We’re independent but getting tons of radio spins. With the grace of God man, just doing it like that. I gotta take it one step at a time. I hope to be in the movie industry one day, I hope to own a couple of restaurants in the real estate business and things like that but overall right now I’m just focused on taking it one step at a time. I’m on the Method Man tour. Right now, as we speak, I’m getting ready to rock the House of Blues in Orlando which is a really good look. We’re going all the way to LA with this tour.
HipHopCanada: Let’s get some album details…
MIMS: I got so many songs man we’re still figuring out what’s going to go and what’s going to stay. You can expect production from my man ToneVIP, Lopez, DJ Blackeye who did my single, “I Did You Wrong”. I mean we got beats from everyone but I’m feeling a lot more comfortable working with the up and coming producers because they not just coming to give me something that they did for someone else. They’re coming to give me their heart and that’s what I enjoy. As far as artists are concerned, you probably won’t see a lot of rap collaborations on my album… I’m really trying to get myself across in the beginning but you’ll probably see a couple R&B collabs. For the most part I’m still indecisive. I haven’t reached out to anybody yet for the album but I can tell you that were definitely going to collaborate something real heavy with an R&B artist.
HipHopCanada: No doubt, is there anything else you want to add?
MIMS: Shouts to the whole Digiwaxx family. Y’all can check out the website at Digiwaxx.com and listen to the new single from there. Also, we got Push Play Music and you can check out the website at PushPlayMusic.com. And the new single, “I Did You Wrong” make sure you look out for that. We’re coming real hard in the summertime. Shout outs to Dirty Swift and shout-outs to my man Mo Jointz for holding me down. And shouts to HipHopCanada for holding me down also.
Interview conducted by Jesse Plunkett for HipHopCanada
