For a former standover man with musical ambitions, it was probably just a matter of time before Mark "Chopper" Read recorded a gangsta rap CD.
The confessed killer had tried once before to make music, recording a CD down the phone line from Hobart's Risdon Prison. "It was just rubbish," Read said today of the failed album, The Smell of Love.
Since then, Read has carved a career as a successful author, painter, performer and fashion muse. Now he's taking on the music world again with the release of his rap CD, Interview With a Madman. The origins of gangsta rap lie in sex, drugs and violence and Read's album, made in collaboration with some of the country's top hip hop artists, reflects some of his own experiences in the underworld.
"I wrote a fair bit of it," he said, but handed credit for the CD to producer Jesse Wade, who was a work experience student on the 2003 movie Trojan Warrior when he approached Chopper and convinced him he had the makings of a true rapper.
The CD is just the latest entry in Read's artistic CV. With four sell-out art exhibitions, including a self portrait sold to the Victorian State Library for $1400, he has become Australia's best selling "true crime" author, having sold more than 300,000 books under 10 titles. His latest literary endeavours include two adult fairy tales with a third on the way. The plot involves a polio victim having sex on a cattle fence.
Then there's Read's comedy routine with former AFL player Mark "Jacko" Jackson and disgraced NSW detective Roger Rogerson, and the Chopper brand which has lent its name to beer, wine, nuts and a fashion label.
Along the way he has offered his services free for a drink driving campaign: "If you drink and drive ... you're a murdering maggot just the same as I am," and is looking at a second advertisement against the abuse of women.
"People come to me with ideas," Read said. "If I like them I take them up."
Is there anything he wouldn't do?
"Well, I was offered $50,000 to take part in a porno movie, I knocked that on the head," he said.
For now his life is pretty crazy as he finishes his latest novel, continues his painting, helps with production on a new Chopper movie, Chopper Read – the Untold Story, and waits to see how the rapper world takes to his new album.
But don't expect a tour any time soon.
"I can't sing in front of people," he said. "I'll say this (album) is a one off , but we'll see."
The confessed killer had tried once before to make music, recording a CD down the phone line from Hobart's Risdon Prison. "It was just rubbish," Read said today of the failed album, The Smell of Love.
Since then, Read has carved a career as a successful author, painter, performer and fashion muse. Now he's taking on the music world again with the release of his rap CD, Interview With a Madman. The origins of gangsta rap lie in sex, drugs and violence and Read's album, made in collaboration with some of the country's top hip hop artists, reflects some of his own experiences in the underworld.
"I wrote a fair bit of it," he said, but handed credit for the CD to producer Jesse Wade, who was a work experience student on the 2003 movie Trojan Warrior when he approached Chopper and convinced him he had the makings of a true rapper.
The CD is just the latest entry in Read's artistic CV. With four sell-out art exhibitions, including a self portrait sold to the Victorian State Library for $1400, he has become Australia's best selling "true crime" author, having sold more than 300,000 books under 10 titles. His latest literary endeavours include two adult fairy tales with a third on the way. The plot involves a polio victim having sex on a cattle fence.
Then there's Read's comedy routine with former AFL player Mark "Jacko" Jackson and disgraced NSW detective Roger Rogerson, and the Chopper brand which has lent its name to beer, wine, nuts and a fashion label.
Along the way he has offered his services free for a drink driving campaign: "If you drink and drive ... you're a murdering maggot just the same as I am," and is looking at a second advertisement against the abuse of women.
"People come to me with ideas," Read said. "If I like them I take them up."
Is there anything he wouldn't do?
"Well, I was offered $50,000 to take part in a porno movie, I knocked that on the head," he said.
For now his life is pretty crazy as he finishes his latest novel, continues his painting, helps with production on a new Chopper movie, Chopper Read – the Untold Story, and waits to see how the rapper world takes to his new album.
But don't expect a tour any time soon.
"I can't sing in front of people," he said. "I'll say this (album) is a one off , but we'll see."
