Toronto rapper k-os finds innovative ways to stay connected to fans
Detractors have called k-os an indie rocker in rapper’s clothing a wack MC even a bad judge of the remixes that others have made from his songs. They claim he doesn’t represent the Toronto scene or that he represents it in the worst way possible. To garner such negativity despite his positive outlook and critically lauded vibe he’s obviously doing something right to get the haters’ underwear in knots.
Choosing the high road k-os has disregarded the recent disses and continues to do things his way. Earlier this year he launched an online contest to promote his then-forthcoming CD Yes! making most of the tracks freely available before the record was commercially released. Contestants were then invited to remix the songs with the winning results compiled on a companion CD entitled Yes! You Can . (Predictably a few losing contestants criticized k-os on his blog for selecting the “wrong” remixes.)
In another unusual move k-os’s upcoming cross-country tour has been organized as a donation-based event. Dubbed the Pay What You Want Tour audiences can attend the concerts for free or choose to donate whatever they feel is an appropriate amount. If they so desire they can also donate part of their proceeds to the David Suzuki Foundation. If anything the innovative contest and tour strategies demonstrate that k-os is well aware of the music industry’s changing landscape and that he’s willing to do things outside of the establishment’s common practices to stay connected to his fans.
“We’re not trying to fight the fact that music has changed” explains k-os. “We’re trying to embrace [the changes] and do something different. I think rock ‘n roll music and hip hop music have always been at the forefront of spontaneity and doing something different. So it’s a great thing that we can push the envelope.”
For years now k-os has been splitting his time between Toronto and Vancouver although he has recently taken up a more permanent residence in Vancouver rather than staying in hotels there for extended periods. There’s a stark contrast in lifestyles between the two cities and it was inevitable that the differences would have a role in his songwriting.
“Toronto is hip hop” he says. “When it’s not hip hop it’s punk rock. If it’s not punk rock it’s indie rock. There’s a buzz and there’s always a band playing. There’s magazines. There’s a constant pulse of what’s happening in Toronto. Toronto is ‘Man I Used To Be’ and ‘Crabbuckit’. And on this record Toronto is ‘Zambony’ and ‘4 3 2 1.’”
“Whereas in Vancouver people are like ‘No worries man.’ They’re aware of all [the things happening in the city] — it’s not like they’re ignorant to it. But they don’t choose to make those things their focal point. So most of the experimental music I write happens with me in Vancouver.”
While Toronto and Vancouver figure in his songwriting insofar as how these respective cities set the tone and mood K-Os is quite adamant about trying to feed mental pictures to the listener from his songs. To that end he recently purchased a TV again to aid his creation of these mental images.
“I’m a really visual artist” he explains. “A lot of times when I’m writing music I want it to be able to be seen by the people in their heads. I just don’t want to write a song I want to write something so that people will sort of create a different world. Visual art and TV have always been a big part of what inspires me. But as of late I got uninspired by what was on TV but I decided to kind of watch it and see what I can take out of it. Some of this record I think you can feel that it [was written by] somebody who was a bit more plugged in to what was going on as opposed to [my previous album] Atlantis [which was written by] somebody who dropped out and tuned out.”
