I spoke on the above album on Monday. If you haven’t, I urge you to press play. It’s full of great sounds and shows off some stellar moments by young producer Sango. He hails from our area originally, although did depart a decade ago. I doubt the six ever really leaves you though. And if his music is any demonstration he picked up something from the NW.
Having found him via his Tumblr and then realizing he had a connection to the Sea I hit him up and to my surprise he was familiar with the site and was more than down for an interview. If you hadn’t noticed, the bandcamp features have ceased to be weekly as I’ve been trying to let them get a little more flushed out both in my thoughts and curiosities about the featured artist. Things have to evolve.
Enough about the blog, this is about a dope producer who now calls Michigan home. LIsten to his music, check out his online spots and read up on the journey he’s living.
Introduce yourself…
My name is Kai Wright and I make music with the love from God.
You are a south end rep? Where abouts? Where did you go to high school?
South End born and raised man. Right off of M.L.K. and S Juneau. I moved to Michigan back in 2001 so, I didn’t attend high school in the Seattle Public Schools district, but I did graduate in 2010 from East Kentwood High School in Grand Rapids, MI.
How old are you?
I’m 19 years old.
What are you majoring in at university?
I go to Western Michigan University, and there, I’m majoring in Graphic design.
How often are you getting back to Seattle?
I haven’t been back to Seattle for a while, but next May, I’ll be making my way back to catch up. The visit is highly needed!
How closely do you follow the happenings of the Seattle hiphop scene?
I do a bit of research for myself just because I’m curious on what happens back home. I also have some old friends that keep me in the loop of the Seattle hiphop scene. My guy at lo.end.radio, Victor “6S” Garmiles is mainly my go-to guy for anything that is going on in Seattle as far as music that happens back home. So I would say I closely follow the scene.
At what point in growin up here did you start to discover local hiphop music?
Man, since I was about 3 or 4 years old we would have Kid Sensation and of course Sir-Mix-a-Lot tapes around, but later on I found out those guys were actually from Seattle. So, rather young I’ve been on my Seattle hiphop.
How long have you been making beats?
I’ve been making music music for about 8 years now. I started out pretty young. I started out playing around with FL Studio and this program called eJay.
Influences?
My influences include Pharrell Williams, DJ Quik, DJ Battlecat, Fela Kuti, Daft Punk, J Dilla (of course), Nujabes, Q-Tip, Rusko, Noah “40″ Shebib, Empire of The Sun, FlyLo…man the list goes on, but you get the idea.
Equipment?
-MacBook Pro
-Reason 5
-FL Studio 9 & Sony Acid 6.0 [on a virtual machine for Mac OSX]
-Akai MPK mini
I keep it simple because I like to move with my music. I hate solitary set-ups…and it’s what work for you.
What do you think it is about the NW that is breeding so much fresh and diverse hiphop these days?
The fact that the North West has such a diverse environment, it exposes its people to so much culture…making it almost impossible to be out of ideas. Plus we just have that certain swag about us. Just being from such an isolated place that generates it’s own sound pretty much.
Are you meeting fellow musicians in school?
I am meeting loads of people out here at WMU that do the same style of music I do. It’s exciting and I’m able to get new ideas from them.
Is the production work more for fun or something you are interested in actively pursuing/pushing as a career?
Man…I’m in school for visual art, but I wouldn’t mind having music production as a career. It’s never been a chore or some sort of thing I found boring at all. I just let time tell.
Are there some vocalists you’ve already worked with or made plans to work with?
Yeah man I have small & solid circle of people I do music with. At one point in time, I wished to have just anyone lay vocals on my music. Just let’s us know things do work out.
Dream list of emcees or singers you’d like to see bless your beats?
J.Cole, Kanye, Sade, Lupe, Drake, Chris Martin, Sufjan Stevens, Norah Jones…the list goes on again.
What’s in your ears today?
I listen to a lot of Little Dragon, SBTRKT, Mount Kimbie, Toro y Moi, Jamie Woon, James Blake, Drake, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Washed Out, Buraka Som Sistema…mostly hiphop, R&B, Dubstep and Ambient music.
Is vinyl something you collect? You get out into record stores much while at school?
I really don’t spend much time in record stores. I really want to spend more time in those though, but my substitute tends to be hours on YouTube listening to anything and everything!
Last words? Shout outs? Words of wisdom? Rants?
Shout out to Waldo Da Don, Seventh DJ R@C2…the whole AGO. My family & support system. Everyone who is making a difference in my life.
