First off, can you let me know what new projects you are working on now?
I’m dropping a new album – I’m calling in Kingpen. It’s based off the Marvel comic villain – it’s a tongue-in-cheek play on it. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on this project – a comic book comes with it. It’s loosely a concept album from the perspective of the villain idea. It’s a mix of me and the Marvel villain.
Me and my buddy took actual pieces of old Spider Man comic images from the 60’s and 70’s and scrambled them. It’s a lot like music sampling. We chopped up pieces of the artwork to tell our own story and digitally altered them to look like me. It turned out crazy – we have an original cover and meta-universe. The comic book even has ads like ones you’d see in a regular comic book.
The comic book is free with the purchase of the vinyl.
What brought on this project for you?
It’s been a great outlet for my creativity. Not just to do just music. I loved to do creative music videos. I’m putting that energy towards anything – hot sauce, trading cards – anything that fits the theme of the music. Music comes first but I like to find out how to brach out from the music.
Me, rapping from the perspective of a crime boss – it was an obvious choice to do the comic book after that. And the music was fully produced by Brain Orchestra – he’s out of New Jersey and is an incredible artist. I think he’ll go down as a legendary all-time great producer. I also collaborated with Planet Asia, Vic Spencer ad Ferris Blusa on the album.
What drove you to hip-hop? I know your parents had an entertainment/music background right?
My grandmother was a famous opera singer – my parents were small-time actors that retired from acting at an early age. I guess you can say that entertainment has always been there, but I found hip-hop on my own.
Back then it felt rebellious and new. I didn’t grow up from the background like some underprivileged in hip-hop did, but I connected with the emotion of the music.
Much like punk music affected prior generations?
Exactly. I’m a fan of punk and other music. It was similar to the punk rock attitude . You can tell me this thing that I’m doing is wrong, but I’m going to do it anyway. That anti-authoritarian attitude.
How has Pittsburgh influenced you as an artist- has it?
Absolutely. Pittsburgh made me the man I am. I moved here when I was 13. My mom grew up here. We moved around so much when I was a kid – we lived in Utah, Maryland, Oklahoma, New York…. The one constant was Pittsburgh. We always came back here for Christmas, Thanksgiving and Summers. My cousins were here and I idolized the freedom we had to walk around with no concerns. It was special. I got hand-me-down vintage Pirates and Steel Phantom shirts from my cousins.
So I think it influenced me – I hope so. But I never tried to do it a certain way. I just followed my heart. And I hope I helped define the Pittsburgh sound. I put a lot of work into it here in Pittsburgh and traveled the world doing it.
I know you and Mac Miller were close and worked together. How did that come about?
Mac was one of the most talented guys I’ve ever known. Our parents grew up together. When I first moved to Pittsburgh we were basically put together. He was more my younger brother’s age – he was four years younger than me to the day. But he was the coolest young kid you knew.
When he was around 15 – I was 19 – I had an apartment and was learning how to make music and to be an artist. He was kicking freestyles on his own – unrelated to anything I was doing. But we both caught wind of each other’s work. He was just that confident kid. He’d dap up Seniors in high school while he was in middle school.
We bonded over our shared birthday and chemistry on the mic. When you’re 19 you usually don’t hang out with 15 year-olds, but he was just that cool kid. It was all fun making music together. We had dreams of making it big and it was amazing seeing him share his voice with the world.
Was there a point where you felt like you “made it”?
I never felt like that. I just felt like music is this thing that I do because I love it. I’m a business owner and entrepreneur too. Music is part of my journey because I love it and have a lifelong desire to be creative. I don’t care about the other stuff – but it has taken me to great places for sure.
There are people I look up to and situations I remember most. I’ve performed for four people standing on a chair and for over 20,000 people.
As a Pittsburgh guy, any sports-related memories stand out to you?
Rashard Mendenhall used to come to the Shadow Lounge back in the day, but I didn’t know it was him then.
Baron Batch painted me once too – the former Steelers running back who’s doing some great artwork now. I’m so mad I don’t have that anymore! He painted me on a giant piece of plywood.
My dad was a sports producer growing up – that’s why we lived in Maryland. A few times he took me to Orioles Stadium and I was able to go behind the scenes there. I wish I could have done that in Pittsburgh!
What do you make of the Pittsburgh music scene today? What can it do to continue to grow?
I think there are a whole lot of artists thriving here – ones that are super-talented. The connectivity and community is lacking I think now though. 10 years ago or so with the timing of Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller there was a lot of excitement. People were finally paying attention to the music scene here. Now I think there’s less light shining on it. I think that and the internet has made things feel more isolated – more of an echo-chamber. But I do think there’s a lot of people making their best music now in Pittsburgh.
What can other artists and fans do to stay on top of the music scene – what should they be looking out for?
They should be checking out the new Kingpen album in October! We are missing the community element – there used to be so many places to go years ago to listen to music and get that community. Most of it now is through events – they are great but they are more of a party vibe. And they aren’t always artist-based, though you can meet artists there. But we need more places where it’s about the music.