Why K21 Wants To Bring A Different Style To Hip Hop

I was pretty excited to plug the headphones in kick my feet up to Golden Era’s latest release. A rapper by the name of K21 has been on my radar for some years now and when given the opportunity to speak to him this week, I was puzzled as to why I felt familiarity without being able to pinpoint a track.

Upon doing some research I realised this is the man responsible for flipping some tracks with the likes of The Hilltop Hoods, Thundamentals, Briggs and The Funkoars, to name a few. K21 talks me through new album Any Given D-Day.

“Man, I’ve just submitted a new EP that I’m releasing through Golden Era on April 6, so I’m actually enjoying my first day off in a while!”

Crazy… He’s just dropped an album, operated one of the biggest hip hop competitions in years (Any Given Rap Challenge) and somehow, is about to drop an EP! I wanted to get the full story on how this grinding MC has the work ethic of tomorrow actually being D-day. Where did the concept for the new album originate?

“Any Given D-Day is my sophomore album, while it’s my first release with Golden Era, I made an independent release previously called Single Minded Civilian which was kind of a reflection of how I felt about music and the whole industry around me. I was literally doing everything! From producing to mixing, mastering, rapping, managing my career, all of it! So Any Given D-Day was kind of… Well any day could be D-day you know? That’s how I try to treat my life so the project is me now being a part of an ‘army’ so to speak, if it could be any day then I’m ready!”

What struck me about the album on its first listen is that you can really follow a narrative. Somewhat refreshing in this "Let's smash out a single, make dollar bills and then forget about it" climate we currently live in. It’s obvious our attention spans are diminishing at such a rapid rate a concept album may be near extinction (sad when you look at albums like The Streets' A Grand Don’t Come For Free for example). 

“Look, I’d like I’d like people to listen to it start to finish because it offers a lot of diversity. I don’t really see myself as a one dimensional artist and sure there will be things you do and don’t like but I wanted the tracks to flow into each other, you know? As an artist, I’m telling a story and while it doesn’t have to be, it would be cool if it was consumed as such."

It makes sense, doesn’t it? If you're watching a film, you don’t skip scenes when you’re not enjoying it, or jump to the end 'cos you’re not feeling some character. I really hope you, the reader, think about how you listen to music? I think it’s important to question how the content can resonate with you because to lose such artistry based on lack of concentration or attention is a real creative loss.

“Well, I do it because it’s of my own personal interest. I like intertwining storylines and double and triple entendres and you know, having someone go, “Oh shit, I only noticed that on my third or fourth listen!” I want people to come back to it. Of course I put stuff down with the intention of people picking it up but at the end of the day if you just like the beats and want to vibe along with it then sonically it bangs too.”

So how does an independent get the attention of Australian hip hop luminaries the Hoods? One can only imagine the opportunities that have opened since signing to the GE crew?

“Well, the Hoods liked Single Minded Civilian, they asked me to do a remix for them which actually turned into a few remixes. So I really quickly went from making beats in my bedroom, which I still do by the way, into doing production for the Hilltop Hoods and going on tour with them! Joining the family at Golden Era is like an Australian dream in hip hop, especially if you’re from Adelaide and now I’m here, I’m not letting that go. I’m working harder than ever.”

A genius marketing concept of the new album was the accompaniment of Any Given Rap Challenge. The call to action reached a national audience requesting fans submit their lyrical take on a beat from K21’s album. The prize? Ownership of an original K21 instrumental, as well as an opening slot in their home town. By creating this competition, he’s offering a platform of exposure, and even greater, it’s a platform of a specific interest-aligned audience. So as much as winning is the idea, just by participating and utilising the created platform, in a sense you’ve already won. What did he get out of it? The following of each and every entry, the hashtags, their followings, promotion of his album, and an opening artist that you know is going to be dope AF – genius!

“Well, I generally present ideas and concepts to the label with them being relatively finished. The GE fam will then refine it, challenge the boundaries on what I’ve presented and come up with some unique edits, for example doing that competition… So I’m constantly giving new material, but they have to find what they can do with it... I can keep throwing stuff at the wall, but it’s making it stick that we work together on.

"What was really cool about that is that I’m passionate about engaging an independent audience as I’ve been there. I do a bit of youth work workshops, eg. songwriting, which I love but I don’t just want to host a hip hop show for artists. I want to actually engage, I want it to be more in depth! Offer opinion and time into what I’m doing. That sort of interaction is invaluable especially when we’re all online so much, I want to do my research and then offer my personal insight or advice.”

The album also accommodates an incredibly impressive selection of feature artists including Remi, Adrian Eagle, The Hilltop Hoods, Rhymefest and Mac Lethal (and that’s just a few). I’m a huge fan of collaboration and cross genre work within hip hop and when you have this many guest spots, you know there’s going to be a little something for everyone on the record.

“Look you don’t have to have guests. You’ve got your J Cole or Louis Logic’s Misery Loves Comedy, which are solid solo releases. But K21 has always been something I’ve shared, it's music I wanted to make with people. There’s a space for making music without guests, but for me I just find that collaboration and the interaction between myself and guests is something that’s interesting and appealing. An added bonus from a business sense is that when I got Mac Lethal on a track for example, any of his followers or fans might stumble across the track and vice versa for him in Aus, so really we both win. Adversely the art of collaboration can be a really competitive thing, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I want to be better than who I’m battling or who I’m collaborating with and so do they… So we’re both consciously trying to grow and develop and be the best at what we do.”

I can’t say I’m really across the “battle scene” and forgive me if I’m wrong folks but, it’s almost as if Aus hip hop doesn’t really have much of a battle scene anymore. Now that’s obviously something that’s happened for a plethora of reasons but as a rapper with a name in it (battling), I asked his opinion on the shift.

“It has dropped off a bit... and there’s a few factors there. I suppose people are starting to alter what sub-genres they’re into and that happens over an almost unnoticed, extended period of time. Australia is a lot more reserved than the US and battle rap isn’t really embraced as much over here as it is there. I mean they have sponsored events and stuff 'cos people love it!

"I got a lot of love from the battle scene but I never thought I was good at it. I cringe at the stuff I did more than 10 years ago and putting your life in a public forum at 16 years old is something probably ill advised.”

Personally I think that in our current climate, the oxygen that the battle rap scene used to have is now being suffocated — and in a sense, rightfully so. That is, you can’t say the things you used to be able to get away with because it’s not just uncouth, it’s outright offensive even if you’re not actually in the battle!

“Definitely! I mean it was a completely different time. There’s a lot of emulation in the Aus culture and way back then I guess half of using that slang or profanity was based on a shock factor. You didn’t even necessarily mean what you were saying but utilising the shock of, “Oh shit, did he just say that!?” was part of the craft. It's 2018 now, rappers and society itself has grown up. It’s not completely eradicated, there’s still a lot of shit said that shouldn’t be… But we’re all a lot more aware of what we’re doing and the last thing I want to be doing is pissing people off by saying some dumb shit!”

If you haven’t already clicked on the clips, go get on that Any Given D-Day tip. It’s a project that offers something unique that open and honestly says, Adelaide is very much on the map, and that’s not just the Hoods. I closed by asking what his take home point of the album is.

“There’s a lot of content in the lyrics that you can pick a part. You can take it skin deep or you can really breath it in and think about what I’m trying to portray. What I really want to do is demonstrate technicality, I want to bring a style that’s different to what you’ve heard before. Pushing that technical agenda in music and using sounds in different ways is what’s important in being unique. I just want to be original and I really hope people enjoy that from the album.”

K21 is about to play a string of shows across the country and needless to say there’s a very obvious reason this rapper is part of the Golden Era family.