Feb 01, 2019

NOT SILENT with Kid Pharaoh

We sat down with Kid Pharaoh post his homecoming gig at Yours & Owls to learn more about his motivations and inspirations in the music industry.

1. Who or what inspired you to get into music?

Kanye.

I heard "Jesus Walks" for the first time when the music video came on TV one morning and everything about it blew my mind, the visuals, the message, the production.

Everything he's done creatively since then has continued to blow my mind and what I do right now is very much a product of the Kanye legacy.

He was a dude that came out in a pink polo and a backpack rapping about whatever he felt like in a time when every other rapper was wearing a jersey and 10 chains around their neck rapping about the size of their rims.

He never cared about a wave or trend and that's super inspiring to me even right now considering how easy it is to succumb to trends to score a quick come-up, the long haul is the goal.

2. Being from Wollongong, was performing at Yours & Owls an extra special gig?

Yours & Owls was huge for me. If I'm not mistaken, I was the first hometown rapper to ever play that festival which is even crazier.

Culturally, Wollongong has never been too big on Hip Hop but things are definitely slowing progressing and I've worked hard to help change that, the love I've received from everyone here over the last few years especially after Yours & Owls has been really cool to see.

Yours & Owls is definitely the gig every local artist down here aims to play, I'm just happy I got the opportunity to be a part of it.

3. We’d love to know more about the story/motivation behind Modern Revelations?

I started making Modern Revelations around late December 2017, I had a couple of loose demos that had somewhat of a metaphorical religious theme to them and thought it'd be cool to make a whole project of those.

The album before this one was called "Ancient Revolution", so the fact the title "Modern Revelations" both fit the theme and continued from the last project felt like it was meant to be.

The main theme of the album is basically questioning the relevance of a lot of religious beliefs in a modern light. I grew up in a very religious Orthodox Christian family so a lot of these themes were things I had always questioned but maybe never necessarily spoken about out loud.

"Jesus Looks Like Me" was the big single that came off this album and was the song that ended up getting me onto Yours & Owls too.

That song is not only a perfect example of the album's theme but I think a great representation of my content as an artist, being able to deliver entertaining and hard-hitting production while still conveying important messages through the lyrics. Why is Jesus represented as a white man even though he's of Jewish descent from the Middle East?

I used that song as a vehicle to both empower people that look like me and inform the rest of the audience on issues we face every day regarding representation, and how we need more of it.

4. What was the first album you ever bought?

I've been waiting so long for this question to come up in an interview.

It was Confessions by the GOAT himself, Usher.

I probably bought it just because "Yeah!" was all over the radio when I was like 8, but after I bought it and listened through once or twice it became all I listened to for months on end during every drive to and from school and literally everywhere else I went.

To this day I know that album front to back and it's still one of the best R&B albums of all time.

5. I read all you cover artwork is your own…is that true? Is art something that’s a big part of your life?

The artwork for Modern Revelations is the only artwork I didn't design myself.

It was by an American artist named Gordon Skinner and it depicts distorted imagery of Jesus. I found it one day and knew it was perfect for the album, the style was super crazy too.

I reached out and got to talking with him and showed him "Jesus Looks Like Me", he loved it and instantly gave me his blessing to use it.

Visuals, whether it be the artwork or music videos, have always been a huge part of the process for me, the quality of the artwork you create for your project can be the determining factor or someone choosing to listen or not listen to your work, it's the first impression and I always aspire to make mine the best they can be.

6. What are you listening to right now?

Some really great new albums I've had in rotations are "CARE FOR ME" by Saba, "DiCaprio 2" by J.I.D and "TA13OO" by Denzel Curry.

It's exciting to stumble across new artists that inspire you the way that your favourite artists did when you heard them for the first time.

With that being said, there's always some classic Kanye in rotation too.

7. And lastly, parmi or parma?

I grew up more of a schnitzel man myself, but I'll go with parma on this one.