If you see this man at a local nightclub, carrying a chainsaw, don't be nervous. (Photo: TBD Staff)

Mr. Chainsaw, a P.G. County producer, sound engineer, and rapper, took that name around 2007. Previously, he was known as Intrigue Harris, or just "'Trigue."

Around that time, Chainsaw's creative crew, the G.O.V, was going through a period of transition, and the beatmaker decided to start working on a solo project.

"It was the first solo track I did away from them, over this beat I made," he recalls. "When I do music, I like to let it be organic,  just let it flow, and I kept hearing, 'They call me Mr Chainsaw.' I was like, where is this coming from? But it felt natural. I did the track, sat back, listened to it, and I sounded more natural than I ever had in my whole career. It just felt right, so I said, 'You know what? I’m going with it.'"

The producer decided a complete name change was in order. "'Trigue is basically like my government name now, and my government name is almost nonexistent," he says. Chainsaw says the name change really began to sink in with the listening public around the beginning of last year. "Normally someone will ask me, 'Why Mr. Chainsaw?' Because I be rippin' it."

Although Mr. Chainsaw was happy with his new stage name, he still felt his new persona was somehow incomplete. "I was working on songs, working on my album, and I started doing a couple of shows, performing, but it just—I just didn't feel it all the way," he says. "So, I started thinking, what can I do to take it to the next level?

"So, I decided, when you think of Mr. Chainsaw, he's gotta have a chainsaw," he continues. "It  wasn’t a big plan or anything, just one day, I was sitting in the studio, and I didn’t have a session, and  me and my homie ran up to Lowe’s, and there you go."

Chainsaw decided on a bright green Poulan with an 18" blade (retail price: $134.98). "The funniest thing was coming back to the studio with the chainsaw," he says. "Or walking around the apartment complex and everybody's like, 'Nigga, you ain't got no shrubbery.'

Even stranger than the reactions he received from his neighbors were those from doormen at area nightclubs when he attempted to explain to them that his performance would require him bringing a chainsaw into their establishments.

"It's probably like 70/30," he says of his success rate for getting the chainsaw inside of nightclubs and various hip-hop events — meaning he succeeds about 30 percent of the time, and fails about 70 percent of the time.  "I won’t say its 50/50, but there's usually a possibility I can get it in."

Chainsaw has managed to get the chainsaw into a couple of Capitol City Cypher events, which have been held at nightclubs, a recording studio, and even a hair salon/barber shop. "

He was shot down recently at Island Cafe in Petworth, but he says that he has had good luck at Pure Lounge. Usually, he gets in after promising a security guard that he won't turn it on.

"That's my negotiation when I'm trying to get it into a club," Chainsaw says. "I'll say, 'C'mon dude, it's a chainsaw, it's not a gun. I can't hold it under my shirt, I can't whip it out on somebody.' I'll tell them, 'Look, if you hear a chainsaw, feel free to rush me.' The last guy said, 'If I hear that joint, I'm not rushing you, I'm shooting you.'

"I said, "Look, I'm not trying to go to jail—I've got an album to release."

Chainsaw is currently working on the project G.O.V. Life Vol. 1 (The G.O.V. consists of Chainsaw, Nu the Mayor, Ra Ra the First Lady, and Sockey), the crew's group project due this spring. He's also working on a solo album, The Dark Room, which he's hoping to drop Fall 2011.

He says it will be dark and morbid, like his name, and like his namesake prop. Chainsaw speculates that his horror-core leanings come from basically growing up inside of the D.C. morgue. "My father worked there for 23 years, so really from the age of six, through high school, I was really frequently going to the morgue." he says. "Looking back, I think the dark elements in my music really come from that."

Still, despite having a dark edge to his music, Chainsaw doesn't usually have a terribly hard time convincing bouncers that he's not a serial killer. Usually, even if they're not willing to risk their jobs by letting him and his chainsaw in, they'll listen to his spiel.

"Usually, off the top, I'll start a conversations like, 'Look, dude.you're probably been out here for about three hours, you've probably been bouncing for a couple of years,'" Chainsaw says. "Then I'll say, 'I'm gonna ask you a question you have not been asked in your entire career. I guarantee it. If you've been asked this question, I'll pay you.'

 "Then I'll pull out my mixtape [his most recent is Yin Yin Yin], and say, 'This is my mixtape, and that's my name, Mr. Chainsaw. And they’re like, 'Alright.' Then I bring [the chainsaw] up. And that's when I bring it out. Sometimes I just walk up to them with it, to see how that works. They’ll start waving me away, 'No no no!' and I’ll say, 'What? It’s a prop.' And they'll say, 'That prop looks pretty heavy. It  looks like it can do a lot more than just a prop."