Interview: Señor Kaos: Inside the Kaos Effect

1 Comment 11 November 2011

One cannot become immersed in the Atlanta underground hip-hop scene without consistently hearing the name Señor Kaos. Mind you this is no small feat considering the immense talent that has emerged from the rich musical culture of this community. No longer one of Atlanta’s best kept secrets, Señor Kaos has grown from entering emcee battles at the age of 15 to sharing the stage with legends such as Big Daddy Kane, SlumVillage, and Little Brother. There is a passionate energy of diligence coupled with raw talent that precedes Señor Kaos whose album The Kaos Effect drops today on High Water Music. In this interview Señor Kaos gives us a rare glimpse into The Kaos Effect as he shares his most musical childhood memories, what motivates him, and just what it is that makes him the most interesting emcee in the world.

iHD: What’s your most creative and/or musical memory that allows you to recall what your childhood sounded like, what it felt like. That part of growing up that helped to fuel your creativity.

Señor Kaos: Jumping back to Señor Kaos as a youth a lot of people don’t know that my father was a DJ, he was a bboy and he played around with emceeing a little. I remember going to the lab and seeing him work on mix tapes and play records so that was one of the things that initially got me looking deeper into hip-hop. And my most creative memory, the first one I think I could ever think of was taping songs off the radio. When I figured out I could take a blank cassette tape and tape songs off the radio and make mix tapes and listen to them in my walk man. You put the radio on pause and as soon as you hear the joint come on you wanted to tape you hit the pause button and in a sense that was kinda like my first way of Djing myself and creating my mixes.

iHD: When did hip-hop and emceeing become such a substantial part of your life that you knew you could pursue seriously?

Señor Kaos: Well first I went from doing it casually to more so taking it seriously when I kind of proved myself to my peers. In those days you couldn’t come out and just say, “Yo I rap I’m an emcee” that happens a lot now, but back then you had to really prove yourself. I really started to take it seriously at around 15 or 16 and I actually started a group with a kid I went to high school with who was a little older than me and he was getting into Djing and producing. He was working on mixtapes and would say, “Yo why don’t you come through and spit something”. I would do the verses on these mixtapes he would put out and I would sell them around school and that’s the first time people really got to hear me not just live, not just freestyling, but over a beat. By the time I turned 16 people were very supportive, and I got out into the city and started hitting as many open mics and emcee battles as I could just to hone my skills. Once I did that the feedback was pretty good and let me know okay I think I got something here.

iHD: When you’re working to stay motivated what keeps you inspired and fuels you to keep doing this. You’ve been described as the hardest working emcee in Atlanta where does that drive come from?

Señor Kaos: Knowing that people lived and died so they could do what I could do. Mainly my homie Jax who was very instrumental in my life as a teen passed away back in 2008. The last conversation the he and I had was him telling me to keep doing your music, your dope at what you do I want to support you and anything I can do I will, don’t ever stop doing it. He passed a few days after and that is what I remember, that I have to keep going and it comes a point where I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing this for him at this point.

iHD: Can you share a little bit about what being apart of this Atlanta music community is like? Your album is truly a testimony to how artist here work together and support each other.

Señor Kaos: The interesting thing about the Atlanta hip-hop community as I’ve seen it grow and develop is that it’s gone through different eras. A lot people come down here for college or might come down here for a job and then they get involved in the scene and then they end up leaving to NY or LA or Europe to do their thing. But there are a lot of people who come and stay and add something great to the scene and I try to be one of those people. I’ve been involved in the Atlanta, underground hip-hop scene for 10 yrs. A lot of us are like a close-knit family, there are so many talented people here from graphic artist to emcees to DJ’s to producers. So on this project I wanted to high light talent in Atlanta that may get slept on at times. I know emcees and producers around the world but I wanted to rep what people aren’t seeing in the ATL hip-hop scene and the only outside guest appearance is the homie Fresh Daily who is from Brooklyn and is my label mate. He always shows love when I’m in NY so I felt it was important to have him on the project, but we did do the record in Atlanta.

iHD: When you started out did you ever have a clear idea of what success meant to you, and how much has that changed from where you are now?

Señor Kaos: At this point in my career my definition of success is putting out music that connects with fans and supporters around the world who get it, grasp it and want to support long term. Being able to perform around the world as much as possible being able to make a living off of my music and creating a residual income from my art. It’s no longer that my face has to be on MTV all day or my billboard has to be in Times Square, those things aren’t even important to me anymore. It’s being able to put out music on a regular basis that people love.

iHD: In my last two questions I’d like to speak to the different sides of you, so first up … What is it that makes you the most interesting emcee in the world?

Señor Kaos: [Aaaaah] what makes me the most interesting emcee in the world … you know I once ran a marathon backwards just so I could see what second place looks like don’t get me started! That title is a play on the Dos Equis campaign and then anyone who knows me knows that I always have stories I’ve traveled to many places, met extraordinary people, and got drunk in some crazy places. As I start telling these stories someone cracked a joke like so you’re the most interesting emcee in the world aren’t you. So that is where it originated and it stuck, I even named one of my projects after it. It’s also a self-affirmation to come out and say you the best, if you don’t say you’re the best no one else will. Plus I’m the life of the party I’ve never been to.

iHD: Who is the man in the midst of the Kaos, and what is it that you want people to know about him?

Señor Kaos: Definitely in regard to the record and my life period is to just understand my story, some of the pain and where the music comes from. To understand the glory understand the passion I have to even do some of the things I do now, and to understand my struggle that I go through everyday as an independent artist that finances everything that I do. Understand my hussle, that no matter what I am someone who doesn’t give up who will ride a bicycle from one end of town to the other because I don’t have a car but I need to get to where I need to get to. When it’s all said and I want people to understand what makes Señor Kaos the man that I am today regardless of the music it’s the will to stand up for myself when no one else will, and to know exactly what I want and to not be afraid to pursue it.