TRUE: You are a rapper, producer, singer, and songwriter. How do you balance all 3? Which one of them is more fulfilling to you and why?
KJ: It’s really not a balancing act, it’s more of just how I feel at the moment. I’m not trying to force anything and so if I produce, it’s because I had that urge. If I’m singing, it’s because that’s how I want to express myself. I really can’t say which one is more fulfilling, I just want to make good music. However I do that and get that emotion out of my brain, I’m happy.
TRUE: Being from Austin, Texas do you find that there are benefits to being from a town where no rapper has ever blew up coming from? Why do you think people tend to overlook talent from parts of the country that they are not familiar with?
KJ: I feel like there’s not really a true benefit. Since no one has gotten big in the Austin hiphop scene, it’s harder to have someone give you that platform than it is in other cities. The only benefit I feel is that I’m hopefully helping to set up a scene that when people do start paying attention, I might be one of the first ones who they think of. I think part of the reason we get overlooked is because there’s not really much hype or big name cosigns or big marketing budgets. It’s all raw and based on the music because that’s where we come from.
TRUE: Do you create most of your music through the full process a lot of the times? Where you rap, write, sing, and produce it? Do you find it hard to work with other people because you do all of those aspects of music?
KJ: I like to create the full product myself but I’m not opposed to working with other producers or writers. I’ve always liked working with different individuals that may be more talented than me in certain aspects of music and who can inspire me with a certain sound at that moment.
TRUE: How was it being selected by Chuck D to open for the Hip Hop Gods tour in LA? How did he end up hearing your music and contacting you?
KJ: It was an honor to be selected by Chuck D. It was awesome to be able to open up for him. I was selected by him from a handful of artists picked by Red Bull and he chose me so … I guess real recognize real.
TRUE: How is the album Gr33d coming along? What is the concept behind it and do you have a certain formula that you will be following?
KJ: The album is coming along great, hopefully I can release it early summer. The concept is the greed and politics that we deal with in our everyday lives… the lower levels of greed that are below the surface, that we don’t really think about but it exists everywhere in our society and that now we can’t do anything without it either. I’m really just trying to lock in the music and production that I want now and just adding more paint to the canvas.
TRUE: What got you started in rapping and music? How did you find out that you could do all that you can do?
KJ: Well, I’ve always been raised around music in the south so I’ve always been around singing and rapping and stuff like that. I started rapping at age nine. Me and my brother Tank started a group soon afterwards and we started taking it seriously around the age 14. We needed beats to rap on and we didn’t even know what a producer was so I had to make beats at the age of fifteen just because we didn’t have anything else to go on.
TRUE: Who has been behind your career since day 1 that is still behind you today?
KJ: My mom and my older brother Tank.
TRUE: What do you prefer the most, preforming on stage in front of the crowd, or creating the music in the studio? why one over the other?
KJ: I like both and can’t really say neither more than the other. I love creating great music in the studio, and love seeing the reactions people have when I perform live. Part of the reason we do what we do is so we can connect with fans before and after the show and express ourselves instead of keeping it bottled up all the time. Being able to connect the dots in that way really makes the creative process that much more enjoyable.
TRUE: Give us one of your most memorable experiences in the studio, who was there and what happened?
KJ: When I was hanging out with Bun B in the studio for the Red Bull Texas Skooled Tour and we all did an old school Houston/DJ Screw freestyle cypher session. I think the video for that is on Youtube still.
TRUE: Tell TRUE magazine fans something about you personally that you have never revealed to anyone else?
KJ: If I’m not making music on my laptop, I’m probably spending my nights watching weird Netflix documentaries. I became a movie junkie when I was young just being in the studio all the time, looking for inspiration. So now I just watch crazy movies that run my friends out of whatever room I’m in.
TRUE: What artists inspired you the most during your beginning stages of getting into music? What are your top 3 albums of all time?
KJ: Nas – Illmatic. Lauryn Hill – Miseducation. Kanye – College Dropout. When I first started out, I was jamming a lot of DMX, Nas, UGK, and whatever R&B my mom had on.
TRUE: What are your plans for the rest of 2013? What else do you have coming up?
KJ: After my South By SouthWest performance, I plan to get back to working on GR33D for a summer release. I also have a few new music videos off my “The Righteous LP” that I’ll be releasing soon for tracks like “The Masons” with A.Dd+ and “Give You My All” with Max Frost. I’ll also be doing a nationwide tour towards the end of the year so be on the lookout for that.
