On the Winter Olympics:

I’m out on the West Coast for a couple of weeks during the Olympics this year, a lot of friends are here and playing. It’s kind of confidential, but I am playing, and it’s gonna be a good vibe for sure.

On touring vs. recording:

This record was such an in-depth spiritual process. By the time I finished with my engineers — I mean you’re never really finished — you get very reflective. Touring is like some army shit, you’re out there with a bunch of guys, on your own in the world instead of being in the studio where you’ve created this illusion. Touring is the real deal: out in the world, meeting fans. I can’t really compare the two because they’re totally different processes. But if you make a record you’re proud of, touring is awesome because you’re playing what you’ve recorded, and sometimes people know the words and they call out a song from the audience. Those are all amazing things. You can start a song from your bedroom, then all of a sudden you’re in Portugal and people know what you’re doing.

On how songs evolve in live performances:

It happens on two fronts. I kick around this joke with my band, when we’re watching this other band that we’re friends with. When they play one particular song that’s well known, sometimes it’s just really fast and not like how it sounded originally. And sometimes the audience doesn’t realize because everyone thinks they know that song already. The band automatically plays it.

Other songs, maybe you don’t play them live as much, but one night on tour you find a piece of it and realize that maybe it doesn’t go over as well with the audience so you change it, just one or two lines. Things are constantly evolving and changing. It’s the difference between perfecting the sound with knobs in a studio and then going out in a room with 500 or 1,000 people. That’s the great thing about the band I’ve been playing with for a long time, we’re good about flipping things up. That’s when it really becomes fun, like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure kind of thing.

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If you don’t know the name k-os, rest assured you will be well aware of the spitter/singer and his addictive fusion style within the next few months. Following the U.S. release on February 23rd of the Toronto native’s hypnotic Electro-and-Rock flavored fourth full-length, Yes! (led by its latest single, the catchy and comically-titled “I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman”), k-os will be further exposed to the stateside masses via several recent recordings with fellow Canadian export Drake.  

k-os revealed during his discussion with HipHopDX this past Tuesday (January 26th) just what he and Aubrey Graham have been working on together of late. The 15-plus-year veteran of T-Dot’s music scene also provided to DX some interesting insight into the disdain some of his countrymen have for Drake, but why all of his fellow Canadians should “take notes” from the most successful Canuck in the states to date.    

HipHopDX: The first most obvious question is…why is Natalie Portman so dope? [Laughs].
k-os: [Laughs]. I’m a huge Star Wars fan. And…the character she played was very interesting. It was like a woman who wanted to basically be domestic and…just have a regular life. But…Anakin Skywalker a/k/a. Darth Vader was so caught up and possessive…that he couldn’t see that. He was very blind to some simple things that he could’ve just indulged in and maybe had a different life. So, for me I really related to that character, kind of the Darth Vader aspect, like the whole idea of wanting to be great but at the same time just knowing that the most simple things come from family. So I kinda fell in love with her character. From there then I followed her and I went back and checked some of her catalog. And then I saw a lot of the great things she was doing in the world and I thought, “Wow.”

Read the complete interview HERE

K-os commits truth to wax.

That's his goal as an artist, and his unbridled honesty is what makes Yes! the best thinking man's hip hop album in a long time. From examining pop culture to dissecting political situations, the MC poetically probes everything around him in his music. Nothing is taken at face value, and K-os isn't afraid to pose questions over eclectic beats. However, he does it with an unbreakable flow and a soulful aesthetic that's far more "indie rock" than "gangsta." That's what makes him such an enigma. If rap had a philosopher-king, it'd be K-os.

K-os sat down with ARTISTdirect.com editor and Dolor author Rick Florino for an exclusive interview about Yes!, playing tunes for Natalie Portman and why Lady GaGa needs to take some risks by bringing Cannibal Corpse out as her opening act…

Do you feel like super creative after DJ-ing an event like the Haiti fundraiser you recently performed at?

Ever since I started DJ-ing about two and a half years ago, I realized how much great music is out there. It's affected my music because I'm constantly comparing my music to what I love to listen to. It proves that if you continue to be a fan of music, you'll challenge yourself. When you listen to these recordings that are from '65, '71 or '84—A Tribe Called Quest or De La Soul and that whole era—it's primo stuff. They're unbelievable. A lot of these hip hop songs are standards that you really need to take in and analyze so they're in your blood. That's the thing about DJ-ing. You're right; it puts you in a totally creative space.

On Yes!, you pull from so many different influences, but you still manage to make a personal sound.

It's taken awhile for that. I go with the term "musically schizophrenic." Making this music, whether it's "genre-bending" or whatever people call it, really comes from simply being in the studio and making certain decisions. I'll say, "I'm going to make a hip hop record." Then I write one song like "Mr. Telephone Man" that sounds really hip hop. After that, I'll start experimenting with various sounds. Four minutes later, it doesn't sound like a "hip hop" song, but we can't go back because it's so fun to see what you can get away with during those three-and-a-half minutes. It's like a musical heist. That's what I've been working on since the beginning of my career. On Yes!, I feel that I was able to reel myself back in. It's like when a director realizes that a scene is too long. Even though he's made successful movies and people like them, his movies get better over time because he sees how to streamline things. It's amazing what experience can do. The cellulite of the whole situation starts to fall away. Yes! tries to file it down and still take risks. However, when you listen to it, the album doesn't sound like it's all over the place.

It is a very cinematic album. Are there any films that you would liken it to?

That's a thick question, bro! It's kind of difficult. I'm going to say a Quentin Tarantino movie. I say, "movie" because I don't want to choose a specific film. I'll use Quentin as an example though. He is such a student of film that you know every single movie is in his movie. He can tell his cinematographer, "Remember that shot in Goodfellas at about 90 minutes where this happened?" [Laughs] That's how I see this record, not in the sense of the content, but in the dedication to the craft and re-using elements in a schizophrenic way so it becomes a whole new thing.

Would you say your music is culled from emotion more than anything else?

Yeah, I have this idea that before human beings had such a dedication to language, speaking and saying what they felt, they were forced to make decisions based on their personalities or in an instant based on a feeling. I feel like that's being lost in the art. The calculated mind has so much power over the inspired and artistic part of our personae that people think their music through too much. Doing what you feel is great, but sometimes it has its consequences. People might not always get what you do, or they might not be able to classify it. Feelings are communicated on a deeper level than if something's just "thought through." Hopefully, that makes the music last a long time as well. Over the years, as things come and go, I hope that some of the songs I've created last through time because they're more connected to certain feelings than they are aesthetics.

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