512 future: Kydd & KaiZen

Nonchalant emcee-producer Kydd Jones has a posse that’s bubbling.  The internets have been paying attention too, as a handful of his videos have 25,000+ plays. And why not?  With a penchant for building mildly smooth head nods that sound dusty yet contemporary, and surrounding himself with other bleeding edge artists and like-minded producers, the young mouthpiece is set to release his second full length – The Sounds in My Head Pt. 2. The sophomore follow up to Pt.1 will include guest appearances by proven grinders Pac Div, Yelawolf and GLC.  Dude can flat out spit and holds down his hometown proper on tracks like the jazzy “Jungle’’ where he claims…city where the hippy be/ more bars than 66 Sixth Streets/ fuck that devil shit, by the Frost Tower fixin' to level it/ Austin rebel shit/ Austin bass and treble mix/ though some ni**as peddle it/ skaters and my peddlers develop it.  I’ve had my eye on Mr. Jones for a brief period and caught up with him earlier this month.

How long have you been reppin’ Texas and what is your favorite thing about the state/ Austin?   I was born in Austin so I’ve been here pretty much my whole life. I love the feeling of Austin.  We have this warm vibe here that makes people want to come here and stay for good.  It must be the food and the music.

Are you influenced by any ATX artists (music or other)?
Tee-Double and Gary Clark Jr. both understand music on a level that I can appreciate.

Did you rap or produce first? Which do you like more? What did you first hear or see that made you want to make your own shit?
Well I started rapping around 9 years old and I didn’t know what a producer was at the time.  I needed beats so I would loop the end of songs on tapes and that process alone was almost impossible! We made it work somehow, but that got old quick.  I was 15 when I produced my first record and since then I’ve gone through phases where I produce a shit load, but can’t write or don’t want to write.   Or I would be writing more without the motivation to produce.  At this point though, I’m doing both pretty well I think.

Tell me about LNS.
Well the LNS crew is a group of creative people, producers, writers, emcees and the list goes on.  We are the Leaders of the New Skool—it’s almost like a group with elite powers that evolve through time.  I’ve watched too many episodes of Heroes!  My album The Sounds in My Head Pt.2 will be out later this month.   It will be crazy good like ya momma’s cookin’ unless she sucks! #Lz But yeah, Pt.2 is some of my best work, but I’ll let the music speak for itself.

What does the future look like for you?   Everything G.O.O.D. (Getting Out Our Dreams)

 *********************************************************************************************************

The homie KaiZen, aka Zen Dutchmaster, is another 512-er standing tall for Texas hip hop. Draping his bars with genuine couth, Zen’s refined flow and scholarship are the reflection of an artist who’s ventured through life with an innate sense of absorption.  KaiZen is on a mission to pass his words to your well being.  He answered some questions from likedeaddogs headquarters--inhale the flavor of a cultured gentleman. 

I think an emcee’s life experiences and the way they digest other artist’s music has a considerable impact on their own body of work.  What has had the biggest impact on yourself as an emcee?   The Power of Music has had the biggest impact on me and continues to impact me every day.  You can go all around the world and find songs or written pages from before Christ that still influence the way people think and see the world today.  Music, like all literature, allows the writer to live forever and has the potential to influence the world forever.  When I realized how powerful music and words can be and how eternal they are, I was hooked.   I had to leave my mark—bomb the wall of life with my own personal graph design.  Feel me?  I’m just blessed to live in a time where “Hip-Hop” has provided an avenue that allows for the explicit expression of my story, no holds barred.   I don’t like to be censored—at any fucking time. lol

People love to place an artist’s sound in a box or domain...sounds like this or influenced by that.  If you would, box yourself up in your own words before anybody else does  :) *you can be as vague or explanatory as you’d like… Hmmm.  I hate boxes. Lol  You’re talking to somebody who grew up on Pearl Jam and Dr. Dre, but I also love listening to Stravinsky symphonies, too.  I love the calculated aggression the Bad Boy/Death Row era, but I also learned from it.  Just as I learned from Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Tupac and even Jimi Hendrix.  They all danced with the same demons. . . I almost feel like they were all afraid of their own greatness.  I’m not always so serious though.  I bump all kinds of music because I’m in all types of moods any given moment.  Honestly, I can’t even say a box man because I am influenced by everything I see.   The universe is so big, but it’s the right size box for me.

How long have you been spitting and what are your immediate and long-term plans?   I’ve been spitting since I was 20.  I came home one winter break when I was working/interning at the radio station.  I heard Nas’ “H- to the OMO”.  That Jay-Z diss.  And I just loved how he just came out so fluid, but so gangsta and so meticulously brilliant.  I was like, I wanna do that.  I immediately just wrote some words on a legal pad.  No bars or rhythm to it—that stuff was all in my head.  I just needed to put the words down.  My brother over heard me and said it was tight.  That gave me the confidence to go spit it to the people at the radio and they liked it.  I been writing and spitting ever since.  KaiZen (continually improving) every time! LONG TERM: Music is my life, so I want to keep it that way for the foreseeable future.  I want to have the relevancy and the freedom to drop an album when I’m inspired to.  Jay-Z and Nas inspire me to be at their age and still spitting with such tenacity and sharpness.  I want to change peoples’ perception of what a rapper can say or where he can come from.  As well as where he can go.  I’m not headed for no casket or no jail cell anytime soon, so people should expect to see me everywhere for a long time.  I want to get into sports ownership, free agency and such.  Plus, I want to be the first rapper with a successful cannabis dispensary chain (once it’s all legal of course).  The main thing is that I want to enjoy my life and my music to be a reflection of that.  All of it.

Tell me about Word, Power, Life.   Words Power your Life bruh.  If you think/speak BIG, you are BIG.  It’s no bullshit.  It’s not enough to have though in your head.  Manifest it vocally and you’ll see it manifest in the physical.  Trill talk.  You seen it with ‘Pac and Biggie and even others.   No disrespect to their music or their message, but I’m trying to give people something that will inspire them to make themselves great and this world a better place.

“Everybody wants to be a deejay, everybody wants to be an emcee…” so said Posdnus twenty-two years ago.  How do you stay fresh in an oversaturated sea?    Maaaan, believe it or not… I don’t know how I stay fresh bruh, cuz I’ve been this way my whole life.  Thank God.  I don’t know how to do anything else.  God’s surrounded with an ill group of individuals that don’t let wack shit ride in the circle . . . period.  It’s nothing cocky or personal.  That’s just how confident we are in our fresh and our swag.  Like, I said, I’ve always been this way.  I don’t think I’m gonna change.  I got too many people that would call me out on it.  Lol (including you!)    My best answer for the question is I just stay true to myself and God.  The best move you can make in an oversaturated market is an original one.  I don’t know how to be anybody but myself.  I’m TRILL-HUNDRED PERCENT authentic bruh.  The artists I respect the most and admire have always been true to themselves their entire career (i.e. Jay-Z, Nas, Dr. Dre, Snoop, etc.)  The artists that fell off or are washed up have never really been one person to the public (i.e. Ja Rule, Milli Vanilli, Ma$e, Loon, etc.).  They’ve always been jumping from one costume to the next.  I spit about my real life man.  Music isn’t just my hobby, it’s my craft.

*********************************************************************************************************

Momma and Dahm maxin' outside of Mr. CoCo

Being super new to our neighborhood, the lady and I constantly keep our eyes and ears peeled for eateries, bars, bodegas, etc. that we should make a part of our new life in Brooklyn.  Mr. CoCo’s seems very unassuming from the outside (other than having an above average quality of produce), but inside the nearly new bodega lies a fantastic grocery store that somehow fits into the tiny, no more than 500 square foot space.  With a healthy selection of foods and hard to find brands comparable to those offered by Texas’s finest Whole Foods (without the dreaded ‘whole paycheck’ cost), Mr. CoCo’s is our new spot for everything from hummus to the latest flavors of Ben & Jerry’s. The essentials, 

duh.  There’s also a sushi chef on site – dicing up 

sashimi and rolling out California, Dragon and Crazy rolls 

of tasty fish.  I’ll quote Belinda J, as she said it best, 

“Mr. CoCo’s is down with the PEOPLE.’’  I love that woman.  

Thanks to our good friend Regina, we have also become weekend fixtures at Project Parlor, our new favorite watering hole located down the street in Bed-Stuy.  Sporting a graveled courtyard out back complete with large picnic-style tables, (perfect for conversations and carcinogens) the cash-only bar and artist safe haven is dog friendly, host to barbeque cookoffs and the occasional band.  The outdoor area reminds me a lot of Sidebar in Austin, while the interior décor is dim-lit and is decorated with a rotation of local art pieces, complete with comfy couches and tables for lounging.  Patrons may also enjoy viewing anything from classic black and white movies, to cartoons, to gay musicals which are projected each night on the main wall.  The makeshift deejay booth is at the front of the bar and if you’re lucky, Mickey Perez will be blessing the evening with an array of hip hop, funk and ‘80s classics.  Cheers to Project Parlor for having $3 PBR tallboys and exceptional service as well.  I’ll see you soon.

Christopher Wallace and Easy

We walked by the Emerson last Saturday night and were astonished to hear a live deejay blaring from the inside, which was also surprisingly packed.  The bar is one of the closest to our pad and we’d been inside before to find a relatively empty space without tunes and a friendly bartender informing us that they’d been open for less than eight months.  As we crept in (free) to peep what all the commotion was about; we were shocked to find legendary deejay and producer Easy Mo Bee diggin’ through six crates of wax, while a crowd of hands-in-air swayed back and forth to Golden Era greatness.  For the first time I felt like I was on the corner of 7^th and Red River and I was grinning from ear to ear.  The Emerson isn’t very big and there was no AC, but no one cared (except for Easy, who when I asked if he played there regularly, unbeknownst at the time of his identity, he replied ‘hell no, shit it’s hot in here!’).  We stuck around for about an hour before heading out to get some fresh air (we had guests with us, but if it was up to me we would have stayed).  I hope that the people in charge of the Emerson will regularly host a deejay that drops that kind of hip hop.  It was refreshing.

YUMMMMM.

I’ll leave you with a bit of news that I didn’t initially broadcast because, well, haters will hate AND my girl and I are very private about our personal lives.  We are officially engaged. 

We will wait to become more settled before picking a date; but you can bet your ass it WILL be in Texas and it WON'T be during football season.  Be happy for us and feast your eyes on the sweet potato falafel that my boo whipped up for us last week.  We kill it in the kitchen on Grand Ave. I’m going to spend the rest of my days with this woman and it feels spectacular to know that.  I love you baby.

I’ll be waxin’ ‘em again Friday, September 2^nd on Roosevelt Island before the free screening of one of my favorite animated flicks over the last ten years: UP.  Thanks for reading, kiddos.

Photo by Quito...Miss ya'll in ATX

 1

smiznO