Chris, Mimi Faust's Ex, Had a Rap Career Under the Name Buddy Piedmont

VH1 chatted back in April 2016 with Mimi Faust's then boo Chris Gould about their growing relationship but there's more to Chris than just Mimi or a evolving gender identity, and that includes a past life as a rapper. From deciding to pass on law school to picking up the pen and paper to write lyrics, get into Chris' music career now.

You mentioned having ambitions to be a lawyer, how did music come to you? Was that what was intriguing to you about Mimi, her connection to music? And being on a show about music?

I've been doing music since 2001, like, I have [records] I've recorded with people. You can go online and see me do it. My intrigue with Mimi had nothing to do with music because although she's on [Love & Hip Hop], dealing her with for a year and a half, I've had no musical experience with Mimi. [The] appeal was purely physical: she looked good, she smelled good, and she said I was intriguing.

Will we ever see any of your musical ambitions play out on the show?

Not on the show but I'm currently finishing up an EP. So, I'm hoping to have it released mid-June, at the latest.

Do you sing or rap, or do both?

I rap, I write. The older I get the more my aspirations go toward artist development. I'm really a fan of Kanye West, especially what he's done with Donda's House, so not to completely bite, but in a day and age when no body actually buys music the way that they did, I think that the label is a dying concept. I think that places like, a creative house, like Donda's House, like, I'm a rapper or I paint, and I'm bringing a project to you and I want you to bring it to fruition: visual aspects, sound aspects, all of those. So, eventually I want to grow and be a new-generation Berry Gordy because obviously I can't have Motown anymore but I'm going to bring you in, nourish you, find you a deal, and get a piece of the cut.

What is your rap name? Or do you rap by Chris?

No, it's my previous rap name, please do not judge it, Buddy Piedmont. My friends used to call me Buddy when I was younger because I had a cat named Buddy. When you're coming into the gay world it's like "shirts vs. skins," it's like, "Are you a femme or a stud?" So, I'm coming into the gay world and obviously my government does not match the persona that I'm trying to create. So, it was like, "We're gonna call you 'Buddy.' " And the Piedmont aspect was an ode to Georgia because most of the roads are Piedmont Road, or Piedmont Lane, or Piedmont Trace.

In Chris AKA Buddy's biography on Reverb Nation, he says, "I do it because I love making words flow." Chris describes his songwriting, "I think I do it intellectually, poetically and more emotionally than others. I’m conscious of all the nuances of the English language. I’m enamored with metaphors."

You can listen to more of Chris' music at Buddy Piedmont's Reverb Nation page.