We recently caught up with singer and entertainer Sean Paul, who’s in the middle of promoting a brand new single, to check in with him about how technology influences his life and career. From his addiction to his iPad and how he uses GarageBand for music production, to Twitter, to how he recently dumped his iPhone to switch back to a BlackBerry… we covered it all. Check out the full video interview after the break.

BGR Interview is a series of interviews and conversations with executives, influencers, tastemakers and innovators, covering the mobile and consumer electronics industries.

BGR recently had a chance to catch up with actor, comedian, musician, producer, host, tech-lover, and now father, Nick Cannon, to see how tech has impacted his life and career. Nick is one of the most prominent Sidekick users around, so we wanted to find out if T-Mobile’s first Android-powered Sidekick managed to keep him reeled in. We also wanted to see how the advent of social media has impacted his life and career — Nick has over 2.5 million Twitter followers, and we’re sure many of you will recall his huge social campaign attempting to battle Eminem in a boxing ring for charity — and even what apps and games Nick and Mariah are planning to use with their new twins. Hit the jump for our interview.

BGR Interview is a series of interviews and conversations with executives, influencers, tastemakers and innovators, covering the mobile and consumer electronics industries.

You used to be a really prominent Sidekick user, but what’s your device of choice now?

The new Sidekick just came out so I got that, but I mean, I got everything from the iPhone, to the BlackBerry Torch, to the G2. I just happen to like the Sidekick — it’s just the easiest thing for me to use because I’m so used to it.

What do you like most about the Sidekick 4G? Do you like the keyboard? Do you like how fast it is — the way you can jump into any app real quick? How do you use it to help what you do?

I like the keyboard and then just how everything, like access to the text messaging and email and the phone, is right there. It’s just mad easy.

Let’s switch gears to BlackBerry… RIM has a new tablet that just came out called the BlackBerry PlayBook. What would you pick between the iPad 2 and the new BlackBerry PlayBook?

Probably the iPad. That’s what I got now and I really hate having to learn how to do new stuff. If I have a device, I want to just use it for what it does best right then and there and not have to read a manual and all of that. Since I’ve had the iPad for a minute, I’d rather rock with that then have to learn a whole new device.

Speaking of the iPad then, do you use any specific apps or programs for making music, or anything on the go? If you’re not near a studio and you get an idea, do you have anything that helps you?

Not yet. I’ve noticed that there’s some stuff coming out. I even saw they have the DJ app on the iPad now — the turntables, the mixer, everything in one — but, I haven’t been able to jump into it yet. I’m just still an outboard gear type of guy.

You’re a really huge Twitter user with over 2.5 million followers. How do you think using Twitter, with the ability to connect and speak directly to your fans, has impacted your music and your other projects?

It just allows me to connect on a real level with everybody. It’s a dialogue amongst fans, and even people who aren’t fans, but it allows you to connect in a way that’s never been possible before.

Touching on the whole Eminem and Mariah controversy — and we obviously don’t have to get into any sort of specificity if you wouldn’t like — but feuds like this five or ten years ago would normally involve some back and forths in a song, maybe a couple interviews and everyone would keep it moving. Here, you launched a really big social campaign — a proposed boxing match with you and Eminem, for charity. You used a lot of social media and your radio show to spread the word. What kind of response did you get from that?

It was everywhere. Everybody talked about it… it was big! I wasn’t even going for that; it just was one of those things that happen organically and naturally when you do talk about it on Twitter and my blog and all that. I mean, at the end of the day, I guess it was what it was. It was entertaining.

Well, congrats on becoming a father man!

Thank you man, I appreciate it!

Have you started to think about any games or tech toys you can use or play with your kids? Has anyone given you any advice?

I am trying to figure out how to get them on the iPad as soon as possible! I’ve seen it on YouTube with all these babies using an iPad. I’m looking forward to all those kid apps that are out there. I even went and got the baby can read thing and all that so, I’m trying to have tech-saavy kids!

What’s your favorite app on the Sidekick 4G that you’re using now?

I haven’t really dove into any extra apps yet, but they got this Word document one that’s really easy to write in, and I’ve been rocking with that for a minute.

Tell us about the Showtime stand up Mr. Showbiz and the accompanying album.

Yeah man, I’m excited. May 16th the album is out. This weekend the special actually airs on Showtime, and a lot of people didn’t know I even did standup, so it’s like the first introduction for some. And then, it’s like a dream come true for me because it’s something I have been doing since I was a preteen, and to finally get to share it with the world is cool.

Wrapping up, can you give us a couple general areas where technology has impacted your career?

You know, you kind of hit it on the head. Everything with Twitter, with all the followers, and being able to connect directly with your audience in a way that’s never been done before, really on an intimate level where they feel like they can get to know you. That has definitely impacted my career. Then everything from Serato has really allowed me to be the best DJ I could possibly be without having to carry around, you know, 1200 crates, and be able to operate on a level, and do things in a nightclub, and on radio, that I never would have been able to do before. Those are probably the most two impactful things with technology in my career.

Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us today, Nick.

No doubt.

Avril Lavigne. Luke Wilson. Whoopi Goldberg. Those three names don’t exactly jump out and immediately connect with us when we see them. And isn’t that the point of advertising? The point of branding? To connect to something, identify with it, and relate to it. Sure jazzy music and clean visuals (or dark, ominous tones with scary eyes) will help liven up your advertisement, but if you’re bringing a celebrity in to help, why don’t you make sure the celebrity is someone that people actually care about? I don’t mean to knock on Luke or Whoopi as I’m a fan of both (Canada can have Sk8ter chick), but while they might be intended to reach a certain demographic, in actuality they don’t help, they hurt. People pass it off as something they don’t care about. There’s no instant reaction or memorable moment that people will immediately remember or associate with any of those commercials.

Luke Wilson is brilliant. But he’s not relevant right now. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, he just isn’t as visible as he was a couple years back. Once he has a bang up movie come out, I’m sure we’ll all care again, but right now, we don’t. And to pick Luke Wilson to carry your entire ad campaign is mind-shattering and stupid. Of all the people in the world, that’s the best your agency came up with? How about Ben Affleck? He would have killed it. Hell, Matt Damon would have, too, and all he wants to do is help kids (NSFW). What, too expensive? Even if AT&T spent $10M in talent alone for awesome brand ambassadors, that’s still not too much to spend when you need to defend your network against the largest, and most solid network in the country with some of the smartest attack ads ever played. People want to root for their hometeam, their city, their favorite company, and AT&T doesn’t give them a chance to do so. No one is going to stick up for Luke Wilson’s commercials.

Either of those two aforementioned people would have been funnier, more personable, and could actually strengthen brand opinion in a time when you needed slam dunk ad rebuttals.

I love AT&T. I really do. I love the flexibility I get with switching phones, I love that the technology that I care about is 99.99% always going to be GSM-based. I honestly don’t have that many issues with AT&T and think people really blow certain issues they encounter out of proportion. But it isn’t about what I think, it’s about mind share and people’s opinions. People that aren’t glued to the internet. Verizon was incredibly smart to start their Map For That campaign. It made people question their cell phone service provider much like we’d question if the last Avril Lavigne song we could remember was really from the year 2002.

Never before has anyone really attacked networks like Verizon did. It was always about the phone itself. My phone can MMS, my phone can browse the web, my phone can work anywhere in the world. But Verizon hit hard and said it doesn’t matter if you have an amazing cell phone, your network is shit and it won’t work where or when you want it to. T-Mobile also isn’t earning cool points while their subscribers continue to leave because their phones have gotten so bad and their brand is getting diluted as there’s no clear strategy. Get More? Come on. Motorola CLIQ? They’d be lucky if they moved 175,000 of those things since release. Behold II? The BlackBerry 9700 is the only thing T-Mobile has right now and that isn’t even a conquest device as AT&T offers it, so it’s a wash. Bring on the awesome ads that will make people stay on your network, ads that really connect with us and make us say, “You know what, I like T-Mobile, I’m going to ride this out.” It was a mistake getting rid of Catherine Zeta Jones, an amazing, beautiful, personable, and strong celebrity. It was also a mistake bringing her back. Why? Because no one cares. It’s an afterthought now.

T-Mobile is becoming the new Sprint.

What do we get for T-Mobile’s ads? Avril Lavigne, Whoopi Goldberg, Jesse James, and other people I’m not even going to bother tearing apart. T-Mobile’s myTouch celebrity picks are mind-numbing. The first ones were bad, but they at least sort of made sense from a marketing perspective. Whoopi Goldberg, Phil Jackson, and Jesse James appealed to three very different demographics but the problem was no one who needed to care, cares about any of them. No one went out and bought a myTouch because of Whoopi, Phil, or Jesse. It didn’t happen. Did stay at home moms see Whoopi and say, “I’m going to buy a myTouch”? Nope. Did people buy a myTouch because they saw Phil Jackson and thought, “OMG. The back of my phone can look like a basketball”? Nope. Did people buy the myTouch because Jesse James just looks like a bad ass? Maybe.

In all seriousness, the phone is what’s going to sell if you don’t have anyone that’s memorable, and that’s really the point of what I’m saying. If you’re going to do it, knock it out the park, don’t Luke Wilson it. AT&T could have done countless other things to rebut Verizon’s attacks and they didn’t have to involve a celebrity that we don’t connect with. T-Mobile is grasping at straws with their ads of the amazingly stupid-named myTouch with celebrities that we don’t care about. They’re both wasted campaigns that miss the mark by suits in marketing that obviously have no idea who they’re trying to sell to anymore. Me, you, your parents, your friends — we’re the potential customers, and we’re not stupid. Plus we’re cool.

Throughout the ages, mothers have always lectured their kids about the virtues of modesty, but it looks like some employees working at RIM never got that little nugget of advice. In a PowerPoint presentation courtesy of a RIM ninja, RIM shamefully proudly displays images of Lindsay Lohan, Michael Phelps, Cameron Diaz, John Mayer, Brad & Angelina, and Jessica Alba. But it gets even more lame. In a presentation note the following is written:

“In Australia, we have celebrities such as Jennifer Hawkins and Jamie Jury using BB
Micheal Phelps got a message on his BB from the president after winning 8 gold medals at recent olympics!!!!” [sic]

Look, all companies are proud when celebrities use and endorse their products because it means that they 1) have a degree of “cool” to them (whatevz, but it’s true), and 2) there are legions of obsessive fans out there who buy whatever their favorite starlets have. But the fact that there are people at RIM who get such a hard-on from celebrities that they start using paparazzi photos, misspelling names like Michael, and have to include not one but three exclamation marks is just absurd.

Larger photo after the break.