Q&A With Underground Hip Hop Heavyweight Kuro Silence
What up Kuro Silence, we really enjoyed your new album, and by far your single “Two Sided” was my favorite! How long have you been rapping? How did you get started? Do you remember where you were at when you wrote your first Bar?!!
Kuro Silence: I started rapping a few years ago back in 10th grade. I was always interested in music, even as a kid. Music was a big part of my life and my family. I have cousins that create music, my grandmother, uncles, and my dad too. It was my dad’s equipment that helped me get started, but I didn’t get into until some friends of mine started a group called Blvckgang, we eventually changed the name to Alphasquad. But when I started I was a producer. I didn’t start rapping until Alphasquad needed more rappers. Back then I was only rapping for the group. As I started to progress I started to enjoy it more so I dedicated more time and energy into it.
Please breakdown the creative process of your latest album “Kid”
Kuro Silence: Kid was a cross between my projects Lately and Rainy Daze. I wanted a project that was sonically versatile and different from what I was used to. I went through the projects in sections.
The first section is composed of tracks 1-4 and these all touch upon the mindset of dog eat dog, get yours by any means back in the city. These songs involve violence, fear, desire, pain, lack of opportunity, and how these factors affect me and how I think now.
The next section is composed of tracks 5-9 and these songs talk about and are geared towards a more youthful perspective. Specifically my generation’s perspective of fading away from reality. They involve drugs, sex, no responsibility, ignorance (ignoring the stress of our situations) stress, and how we’re trying to find ourselves.
10-13 come in on a smoother tone with songs that address a few of my romantic experiences and how they played out. These songs provide a background on the character and perspective that my songs posses. I included them because I felt like they’re essentially missing. You don’t often get to see many rappers in a vulnerable state. These songs are essential because they help my audience understand me as a person and an artist easier and allow me to round myself out and expand as a person overall. They’re also helpful in getting myself away from those experiences. I learned from them and now I put those emotions into a medium separate from my heart and mind.
14-16 are my closing tracks are very personal and introspective. Despite the fact that this grouping is the shortest it still holds a lot of weight. In these songs I reflect on my past experiences with trying to find myself and avoid falling into a state of mind numbness. These songs find me when I’m stuck between my highs and my lows. These are songs where I’m working towards my goals, but my awareness to my surroundings kicks in and shows how close I am to the metaphorical edge. How far I can go before I get slowed down by distractions.
I chose to format my project in this manner for several reasons, but mostly because they all conveyed a story. The elements of the story can be found all over this project and help with establishing a beginning, middle, and end. The songs are ordered in chronological order so the earlier songs find themselves in my earlier life with experiences from that time and vice versa.
Please explain to us how the hell you linked up with the Samurai Shin project. Maybe one of my most memorable Hip Hop comic projects for myself. I really enjoyed everything about the project!
Kuro Silence: It was funny actually. I was listening to some cuts from a tape I ended up canceling and was browsing Facebook. As I’m scrolling through my feed I see a post for a few new comics and thought that it would be awesome if I could help out with the soundtracks. I’m a fan of anime and actually got really deep into hip hop due to a well-known show known as “Samurai Champloo.” That and other OSTs to various series’ that I used to watch had a big influence on my production style. I actually used to, and still do sample anime OSTs so being able to do that for a new generation was a dream of mine. So I attempted to get in contact with a few of them. Some replied telling me that they weren’t able to add artists to the soundtrack due to rights constraints, and some didn’t even get back to me. Luckily Samurai Shin did. I sent some work over and there was instant chemistry. I’ve been working for them ever since.
Rappers nowadays think rapping is an easy way to blow up. These kids want the fame overnight instead of paying dues. What is your perspective about grinding and running the marathon rather than the sprint.
Kuro Silence: Honestly I’d love to blow up overnight. Who doesn’t want fame like that? But for me its different. Some of these kids think that they can ride based on singles and mixtapes, but that was never my approach. I respect their hustle, but I play different. I was a producer first and I went hard. I established myself in the underground Hip Hop production community and connected with artists that are starting to take a hold of the game. I’ve actually spent time conceptualizing my projects and planning them out. Nothing for me was random. I have upwards of 15 projects out. They’re split between albums, EPs, and mixtapes. And that’s just what I’ve released even now less than a month I still have releases planned, in fact I have so many that I dropped another album 2 weeks after Kid, “Faceless” making out to 31 songs in 14 days (Kid 16, Faceless 15) so yeah. For me, I like to plan my releases. That’s just what I picked up through experience, if anyone else does something different, cool. That’s theirs, and I hope they do well. I’m supportive as long as it is respectable art. If you put yourself into it, I can respect it.
How many music videos do you have?
Kuro Silence: That depends. But officially none outside of what I did for teambackpack and a couple of AMVs. However I am actually working on that. Like I said before my projects are conceptual, so naturally my visuals are as well. I just haven’t had the right resources, but I’m getting there.
How often do you perform LIVE. Any shows lined up in the near future? Maybe any Los Angeles shows lined up?
Kuro Silence: My live performance consistency is spotty, mostly because of where I’m located and traveling costs. In my city only popular artists in my genre get on, and I don’t make “popular” music. I’m honestly thinking about heading out to LA though, so don’t be surprised if you hear about it and/or find out I moved out there. I’m definitely trying to expand out west.
Where do you see yourself in 5yrs time?
Kuro Silence: That depends on a few variables, but if music works out I’ll probably be releasing a video game in 5 years. I’m very versatile and love to create content. I even design all of my project covers myself. I’ll probably be creating something, that’s just who I am. But yeah, rich and creative is where I see my life going.
Here it is! Our most popular question! What is your definition of “underground hip hop”?
Kuro Silence: There’s a few to this and even my definition has changed, but honestly if I had to say what underground Hip Hop is, it’s unorthodox. Anything that strays away from common practice and the mainstream is underground. However this doesn’t mean that you can’t sound mainstream and be separated from the underground. But when I hear underground I think MF Doom, Captain Murphy, Earl Sweatshirt, Isaiah Rashad, Schoolboy Q, Vince Staples, Odd Future, and Kendrick Lamar. All have seen some, or a lot of mainstream success and yet can still be sonically challenging, especially now. Underground means you’re dirty, dingy, and just don’t give a fuck. Underground is basically Hip Hop’s hard rock branch and does what we want. We’re the raw side of Hip Hop, but we’re also innovators, we control the sound that gets sent up to the mainstream.
Where can people find you on the web? Drop all the vital links.
Literally just google me “Kuro Silence” it’s not hard to find me, I’ve got artist pages everywhere but I mostly stay on soundcloud because that’s home even though they’re kinda screwing me over Twitter and YouTube. And like I said just search my name up, I’m very easy to find and get a hold of.
Lastly, and shout out?
Kuro Silence: Whew
*deep breath*
Shoutout to:
Off Center
TDE
the HOUSE
Park(One of Zaywop’s producers)
Sounwave
Metro Booming (for the culture)
Coast Crew
The homie Lvrd Blasian
Aug Wntr
Datfoot mother fucking dive (datfootdive)
Mittens (the homie)
Monte G
Zae Abyss
199xxx
Mom and Dad
Life
Music
Chill vibes
Knxwldge
J Dilla
Nujabes
The Samurai Shin team
Anime
Hip Hop culture
Biggie and pac (cause why not?)
Vince Staples
Video Games
And Art
Peace
