![]() ![]() ![]() You’re gonna be a pioneer.” So yeah, that was already approaching what was in my brain. He was saying, you know, “You need to put on for your culture. Yeah, I had already knew because my brother who’s my manager now, Juan, he was telling me that when I was first rapping. I just really started studying and putting in a lot of time.ĭid you have a sense at the time that you were leading the way for other Latino rappers? ![]() I was waking up at 6:00 am, I was reading books, I was studying a lot of the great lyrical rappers like Nas, Jay-Z, Outkast. When I got out of high school I moved in with my brother Juan, who’s my manager. Yeah, like when I was rapping I always knew I wanted to do it, but I was confused, thinking “how am I going to do it?” So basically when I got out of high school in 2012, I figured that I just had to go hard and work, study, and just try to be a good artist and try to be different. What inspired you to start talking more about your personal experience coming from an immigrant family in the US? And what everybody was writing about was just like clothes, shoes, you know, girls…I was talking about how fresh I am, really just stuff like that. I was just kind of following the trend because that’s what I was accustomed to. What were you rapping about when you first started out? We started with a mic that was very cheap, with just a computer, and we would just download beats off the Internet. I’d seen a lot of people rapping that were my age and I was like, “I could do it too.” From there I started with my friends in an apartment. It happened in ninth grade, I started to take it kind of seriously, knowing it’s a big local thing around here. I never really took it seriously when I started. I’ve been able to rap since I was little, I always rhymed. What were your early days like learning to rap in College Park? Read on for Kap’s take on the importance of waking up at 6 AM to learn the ins and outs and the rap greats, staying humble, his studio time with Pharrell, and his advice for other young rappers finding a way to tell their own stories. I caught up with Kap over the phone while he was working at DJ Drama’s Means Street Studios in Atlanta and between listening sessions with his comrade David Banner for collaborative track they have in the works. Now with a rapidly growing following, he’s not shy of embracing his position and power to speak to a social realness that outwardly tackles a hip hop discourse of la migra, racial profiling, and the straight-up hard work of those trying to build something better for their family. As Kap puts it, his mom felt that his brother “was either going to be in jail as a kid or be killed,” so she moved the family to Georgia, where his father had already relocated to find more prosperous work.Īs an artist, Kap’s eager to attach his own first generation experience to his music, his lyricism navigating the microcosm of cultures within his own neighborhood. Kap was born and raised in Atlanta’s College Park neighborhood to parents originally from Mexico, who more recently had relocated the family from California to remove his older brother from gang involvement. Since he dropped his “Like A Mexican” mixtape earlier this year already having secured contributions by Young Jeezy, Chingo Bling, and Wiz Khalifa, Kap’s managed to build on that momentum by maintaining a steady output of freestyle videos proudly playing with shoot locations like the front of a Home Depot or inside a taco shop. Young rapper Kap G is quickly forging his way in the major label hip hop circuit, now preparing to release his first album with Atlantic Records and riding high after being publicly cosigned by Pharrell. We’ll be exploring scenes that haven’t really gotten any coverage anywhere else – from block parties and street art to underground sports and raw, young artists making movements pa’ la calle. Cultura Dura is a Remezcla and Mike’s HARDER content and event series highlighting emerging Latin urban culture. ![]()
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