IN DEPTH: KONCEPT
ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT : ‘CHAMPAGNE ROOM’
SINGLE DROP: ‘Watch the Sky Fall 2 ft Royce da 5’9’
Watch The Sky Fall 2 is featuring Royce da 5’9", fresh off the release of his new album, "The Allegory" and featuring and producing several songs on the new Eminem Album. Royce and Koncept weave through the production with lyrics that are not only impressive, but touching and impactful. KONCEPT, the Queens, New York raised rapper, made a name for himself in the home of hip-hop, and then made it known globally.Releasing his new album at the end of 2019, Champagne Konny, Koncept has been gaining high notoriety all over the world. Grammy nominations, Hip Hop Kemp Festival in Czech Republic, two European Tours, and selling out shows across the United States at venues like Exchange LA, Le Jardin, Hyde, Santos Party Haus, SOB's, Knitting Factory and more. Koncept has been featured and performed alongside the likes of Wiz Khalifa, ASAP Rocky, ASAP Ferg, Travis Scott, Rick Ross, Ty Dolla $ign, Masego, EarthGang (Dreamville/ Roc Nation), Ghostface (Wu Tang Clan), The Roots, Action Bronson, Techn9ne, Pharoahe Monch, and many more. - Andy Kettle .steamingkettlepr.com
BORN AND RAISED ‘He’d actually given me the name Hemp when I was 5’
I grew up born and raised in Queens NYC, my whole family for generations lived in Queens so it’s Queens in my blood forever. I actually got my name Koncept when I was 7 years old, my neighbour was a graffiti writer in NYC back then, Neptune. He got me into music, graffiti and hip hop and the whole culture and art in general. He’d actually given me the name Hemp when I was 5, It’s so funny because I had no idea what hemp was, my mum must have been like what the fuck is he writing hemp on everything for. My real name is Keith so he gave me the name Koncept at 7, he used to teach me how to write, draw, spray paint etc. At 11 me and my older cousin for Christmas got turntables, the shittiest Gemini turntables, I didn’t know anything about turntables at the time. My and my cousin were djing and I was always writing short stories, poetry and stuff like that.
MOVIE PREMIER ‘I started freestyling and I never did anything else again, it took over my life’
My friend James Salvato I’ve just done a track with ‘Movie Premier’ it’s his first single, it’s released through my own label Champagne Konny Inc. Me and James have been friends forever, we started making music together, we were even in a group at some point when were kids.
We took different paths and lost touch for a little bit, not for any reason only due to life things, then we got back into each others lives and he wanted to get back into the love and creation of music so I brought him onto my team. When we started, he actually rapped and I was the dj. I’d figured out how to set up a studio and record in my bedroom. I started freestyling and I never did anything else again, it took over my life. I continued then to make music and here we are, Champagne Konny is out right now. When I released Champagne Konny we did a Europe tour and played Hip Hop Kemp in Czech Republic. I brought James on tour with me as my hype man and working different assets. Since then I have taken him under my wing and sort of guided him and helped him to get back into it, now we’ve released this first track so we’re excited about it. I create every day in some capacity, graphic design, I do my own logo, covers etc. I taught myself and I went to school to study Graphic Design in Marymount Manhattan college in NYC. I majored in graphic design and minored in music actually. Even when I was going to school I knew that I was reversing those roles. Now lock down is happening, I have been teaching myself how to edit videos. I did a performance video for my song Squeeze that I shot and edited which will be out soon.
THE FUEL & SOUTH KOREA
I was in NYC and released my album Awaken which was released through Soul Spasm and Fatbeats did the distro for that. One of my videos was on MTV and that’s when Red Bull found me and they brought me over to their studio in Santa Monica and at that point I was going back and forth between LA & NYC.
I was recording ‘The Fuel’ and another album called ‘Flight’ which was actually never released. We released ‘The Fuel’ and by the time we made it, the process had changed. Redbull was basically my sponsor and I was in their studio every single day, the business that I was working with just kinda changed and shifted after releasing ‘The Fuel’ which is why flight wasn’t released.
I went on our in South Korea and the venue it was held in was owned by a big South Korean rapper named Vasco – Bill Stax now. He’s a ledgened in the south Korean rap scene. At that show the rep from Sony came to see me play and asked to have a meeting. Then Vasco asked me if I would stay and play his other club the following weekend, it was his birthday party and he wanted me to be the special guest. A Thai artist had played the day before then came to see my show and asked me to play over in Thailand, they were part of the biggest rap collective over there. It turned into a 1 year and 7 months tour just playing shows non stop, festivals, I even opened for Wiz Khalifa in Seoul.
WIZ KHALIFA SEOUL ‘if they pull a hair out of your head and it has weed in it, they’re like, 5 years in jail’
Wiz Khalifa was wild, pulling into a stadium through the back access it was crazy. South Korea and in Asia as a whole but specifically places like South Korea are very strict on their drugs and their weed. It was so funny, ill never forget this, weed is forbidden, like if they pull a hair out of your head and it has weed in it, they’re like, 5 years in jail. So baring in mind it’s like that, I’m opening up for Wiz Khalifa which is already kind of ironic, then I get on stage and I see that everybody has the big blow up joints from Raw, Raw sponsored the event. I’m laughing to myself like, yo I bet half these people don’t even know what these things are. They probably thought they were like baseball bats or some shit.
It was so funny and was definitely an experience. I think that Wiz Khalifa actually got arrested on that trip. In Thailand you have Yung Gu and another artist I’m a good friend with called Twopee. There is actually two remixes of ‘When the Sky Falls’ Twopee actually does the Thai remix and there is a Korean remix with Paloalto.
WATCH THE SKY FALL ‘ Rather than having to accept that and fall down, you have to figure out the roots to change it, actually use those things that have happened as things that make you stronger’
I released the first version on my debut album, after coming back to LA I felt like a whole new re-boost, recharge in myself creatively and me as a person, so the reason why I did ‘watch the sky fall 2’ was to bring it back to that same energy and feeling when I was creating that album and that song. Then bring the same feeling into this album with a whole new life.
I think that in both versions come from different places. The first version from my end, was more of the relationship that I was in and the pain that I had gone through, now currently the new version it’s really more about what’s happened in my career.
Like I said briefly earlier when releasing ‘The Fuel’ I had a plan and vision, then things get redirected. You get different obstacles and different things that become in your way and change those plans. Rather than having to accept that and fall down, you have to figure out the roots to change it, actually use those things that have happened as things that make you stronger, so that’s really where this song is coming from, where perhaps all my directions and or misdirection’s have come from. Bringing that to now, being stronger than ever and feeling stronger than ever but that all comes with the pain too.
CREATIVE PROCESS
First of all I love that you notice my change in style and mood, I appreciate that. There’s a couple of reasons why my music is like that, firstly my music is made on mood, energy and feeling. When I make music typically speaking my creative process is that I like to create everything on the spot.
I don’t have beats where I sit and write to them, that’s not me, my process is being in the studio and creating there. So when I create music it’s primarily created on that mood and what’s happening in everyday life. As a creator and a fan of music, I don’t really want to hear the same song or same record again. Listening to my favourite artists, I don’t want them to make the same album over again. I want to hear something else that is going to inspire me to the next level, as a fan though knowing that myself, I don’t ever want to make my fans feel that they’re getting the same thing. Also, as a creator and the creative process I would get fucking bored as hell myself if I just made the same song over and over again.
CHAMPAGNE ROOM
So with that said, every single project that I do is going to sound different. The next album which I haven’t sent to anyone yet, so you’re the first person to hear it. It’s the follow up to Champagne Konny and its called Champagne Room. It’s the follow up vibe wise, it’s the same realm but by all means its not the same album.
CHAMPAGNE NANNY ‘they’re voice messages that she left on my phone’
There is reference to my Grandma passing in one of the new tracks on the new album ‘Okay’ she passed in October. Champagne Nanny you see on my Instagram and stuff, she was just number one fan and all about it. I named her Champagne Nanny a couple of years ago and she just got stuck to it forever after that, every time I would call, she would say ‘Champagne Konny and Champagne Nanny’. She’s actually on the Champagne Konny album after the first song Champagne and at the end of the album before ‘Feeling Good’ they’re voice messages that she left me on my phone. I have something from my Champagne Nanny that will be on the new album Champagne Room.
OKAY ‘as long as everyone is staying focused and caring about people, we will, we’ll be okay, well get through this.’
Whats funny with this track is that I actually recorded this one before lock down. There was originally a different verse on it but the same chorus. The emotions and feelings that I had, I reloaded that into the song and the inspiration for it now is with everything happening in the world. And then loosing my grandmother, seeing my mum crying and hurting, just seeing so many people in the world hurting and seeing so much pain, knowing that everyone right now is going through it and as long as everyone is staying focused and supportive of each other I every capacity and caring about people, we will, we’ll be okay, well get through this.
SHOOT ‘it feels like a basketball in New York city at night with like the lights on’
The project with Champagne Room, I produced with my homie Max Lanry. We did the whole project in LA. Max is my homie actually from Brooklyn so me and him were talking about working together, we ended up recording some tracks in Brooklyn years ago and then kind of didn’t do anything with them. Now him being out here we just got back in the studio. The vibe of the whole project feels like it has this New York heart in it. Both growing up there and starting music there has this whole feel to it, it feels like a basketball in New York city at night with like the lights on.
This project I feel like comes from the motivation of being on the road back and forth. Champagne Room is the momentum of the non-stop movement to being in lock down. It’s this whole weird refocus. I had the project in mind to be worked on and I had sum what started it, knowing I had to leave again but then obviously I can’t leave. So then I did Champagne Room which turned into another album but we’ll talk about that one later.
I don’t actually have any features on this album just me and my buddy max and my buddy who mix and masters all my stuff. My homie wrist who did a lot of stuff on Champagne Konny co-produced a lot of this too.
WRIST
Wrist is family to me. Keitel Jr who mix n masters all my music, I’ve known him for 6 years through a friend called David Faustino. I’ve Faustino was one of the first people I met in LA actually, when Red Bull brought me out David Faustino was doing a show which was on radio, Keitel was the engineer for the show.
David invited me onto the show to be interviewed by him, a lot of people don’t know how tied into music and hip hop he is. He did rap but even more than that, he owned a hip hop club in LA and he’s heavily responsible for people like the Alchemist. I believe he used to go hand out flyers for Faustino for the venue.
We went on the show, got along really well and became really good friends. Basically from there we were homies, me David and Keitel, I came back from touring in Asia so I hit him up to mix some stuff from Korea for me, I went down the studio and that’s how I linked Wrist. We were all vibing out together in the studio and they played the beat for ‘Lit’, I was like this is crazy, Keitel and wrist produced it together so I wanted to get on it.
I said that I like to work on the spot in the studio, Lit is the only track that wasn’t. At this point we had no idea that we were gonna make music together, let alone an album together. We just chilled for a bit, recorded vocals to Lit, the next day we got back in the studio and made ‘are we there yet’ then the next day back in again and made another. We were like damn, we made three songs in a row, then Sheesh came and we did return of the Champagne Konny.
CREATIVE ‘There is so much negative to what is happening right now, but there is going to be a lot of positive that comes from it too’
With Champagne room, I want people to get the feeling of being completely happy and content with themselves, having forward thinking and not having any judgment on you, this is an experience and an album and a piece of music that allows you to just enjoy yourselves! I can’t wait to share it with you. There is so much negative to what is happening right now, but there is going to be a lot of positive that comes from it too. Creatively it’s going to be positive for people who have managed to be creative and focused its gonna bring a lot of great and powerful art to the world.
I think my advice for people who may not have been able to create is don’t put too much stress on whats coming out of you sort of let it come out. Even if its not good at first, even if its writing or producing whatever it is, let it come out freely, don’t so much pressure on what it is that’s actually coming out. You’ll eventually fall into a pocket where you’re feeling good about it.
Koncept “Champagne Konny”
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/7sCeYtu4DWW9bHlFcd7Ng2?si=V6Vu1PGJSw-VDDM3Jiv95w
Koncept “Sheeesh” https://youtu.be/Lq3EIMZJKuc
CHAMPAGNE ROOM COMING SOON
Follow Koncept below:
http://www.iamkoncept.com/
http://www.instagram.com/champagnekonny
http://www.twitter.com/koncept
https://www.facebook.com/konceptfanpage
Song available on all music platforms: https://soulspazm.lnk.to/qX8MY
Champagne Konny Album: https://linktr.ee/champagnekonny
