an interview with
KRONDON
KRONDON Starting out, tell us about the movement Strong Arm Steady and how the band members came together? Well, myself, Mitchy Slick and Agony, started out in 2003, making mixtapes, but before that I was touring with Xzibit. The first tour I ever did with him was in Europe for a whole month, we did 6 shows a week for 4 weeks and it was amazing and from there we developed Strong Arm Steady, comprised of myself, Xzibit and Agony. We were originally releasing mixtapes because there was no real outlet for new artists at the time; there was no internet, there was no social media. So we started recording mixtapes ourselves, paying for studio time, pressing them up ourselves and distributing them around the world, wherever we could. I was on the road with Xzibit in Europe, Australia, Japan and all over the States; selling them at the merch tables. It created a buzz for not only us but for the West Coast in general and it become a platform and an outlet for artists and for new artists to look up to and say “Ok, we could do it ourselves” and we believed that. That said, you have been writing for many of the legendary artists over the years. So when a songwriter writes the hook, which part does a ghost-writer write for a rapper? Their verses? Well it depends; I have been blessed to be a ghost-writer in the rap game for a long time and of course within the group, in all the
records the group put out; I was the main writer for that. Primarily it was me picking the beats, creating the concept and writing the hook. Then Mitch and Phil will come and do the verses. For all the artists that I have worked with throughout the years, it’s the same core formula, but a lot of times it was writing complete verses for whole songs, and I take that position and job humbly and with a lot of honour and respect. I don’t know why God picked me to become that guy, but I am not the only one, there are a lot of ghost-writers in the game and people talk about the work I have done because I came from a group which has had notoriety in itself. Now with me being a solo-artist , it’s my time to shine. The culture in South Los Angeles is such a melting pot of talent, so much talent is coming out of there and it’s a healthy competition there. So who does the light shine on in 2014? Aside from me, there’s Dom Kennedy, Casey Veggies, Skeme, YG, there are so many artists I really really really love and dig and work closely with on their stuff and my stuff. It’s like what you said, it’s like a melting pot of good music and the irony is that for a long time the focus was on the south and now the focus is on the west and it’s diverse! It’s not the same sound coming from everybody, you cannot predict what it’s going to be like from each different artist. But also, I gotta say me. I am
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I have TwO real relationships that guide my life. My relationship with God and my relationship with marijuana.
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definitely starting over my career as a solo artist, people currently know me for being a writer, people know me for being the face of the group Strong Arm Steady and now it’s time for the albino to come to the forefront and really represent Los Angeles the way I have been wanting to for a long time. I wasn’t gonna mention you being an Albino but stereotypically, have you had any pre-mature judgements which are then rectified the minute you bust your bars? I hope so. I think it’s just prejudice and ignorance. I let it be that and what I do is try to be a pillar of excellence in everything that I do and being the kind of person I am, that shines through. I don’t think there’s a lot of MCs that can fuck with me and what I do and I say that humbly and respectfully.
Conceptually, your music covers a broad range of topics, one of which is women and the other is smoking. How much of your lifestyle revolves around smoking and brings the creativity comes to your music. It’s funny you say that because, I have two real relationships that guide my life (laughs) my relationship with God and my relationship with marijuana. Those things keep me balanced and allow me to do everything else I do. It’s a big part of who I am and I think people get my name misconstrued and say Krondon and think he’s gonna rap about weed, weed, weed and it’s not like that with me at all with my music, it’s not my kind of thing at all. I will admit, it’s a big part of my character and it’s a big part of my personality and my spirit so of course it’s gonna influence my music. In my album I got a song called “Sweet Leaf“ which was influenced by Black Sabbath. I don’t know if you know that but Black Sabbath had a song called “Sweet Leaf” which was influenced by their relationship with marijuana and they related it to a female. I did the same thing on the “Sweet Leaf” song from my album, ‘Everything is Nothing’ in a rap version. So it definitely influences my music, but I don’t make every song about weed; I might mention it somewhere because it’s part of my vocabulary.
In my album I got a song called “Sweet Leaf“ which was influenced by Black Sabbath. I don’t know if you know that but Black Sabbath had a song called “Sweet Leaf” which was influenced by their relationship with marijuana and they related it to a female. I did the same thing on the “Sweet Leaf” song from my album, ‘Everything is Nothing’ in a rap version. So it definitely influences my music, but I don’t make every song about weed; I might mention it somewhere because it’s part of my vocabulary. That is interesting that your scouting for music is so vast, to the point that you go all the way to a Black Sabbath song to draw a bit of inspiration. Do you do the same for all types of music? I don’t really listen to a lot of rap, the only rapper that I listen to in depth is Kendrick Lamar. With Dom Kennedy, I can’t front, I am on his new album, Get Home Safely but I listened to Dom before I was on his album. I like everything and I listen to everything like Nipsey Hussle, there is a difference between hearing and listening to. But I do listen to Kendrick Lamar. That’s my brother (laughs) What’s the affiliation between yourself and Dom ? Is it a family relationship or is he curating your career? I think so in a lot of ways, I mean I dunno if he even knows that (laughs) but definitely in a lot of ways he is. If you listen to my album, everything is different compared to the Strong Arm Steady albums. You hear that this guy is different
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and is bringing something different, and I couldn’t really do that with Strong Arm because we had already built up a fanbase. With Everything’s Nothing, I think it’s time to do that and with all of the new talent that is coming out of the west coast, I make it my point to create a lineage and relationships with a lot of new artists, TDE in particular. If you look at the last Strong Arm album, they were involved from the start. Dom was on that album, Skeme was on that album, Bad Luc was on that album and so I have been there watching and supporting, giving advice, directing, working closely with all this guys. So when they grow and come on to their own they would see that I was there when none of the OGs were doing the same. When Dom and I were recording Get Home Safely, he made a point to reach out and we just started with a hook and then I did a verse, it was crazy and it became Honey Bunz. By the time Honey Bunz was released, Dom was doing a major US tour and he brought me out every night to do the song and that really opened his fanbase up to me, those that might not have known me now solo wise, I just wrapped up in my first ever full tour in Europe so in a lot of ways he is curating the new Krondon in a lot of ways. Keep up to date with Krondon on www.facebook. com/KRNDN, www.twitter. com/krondon and buy Everything’s Nothing on iTunes now!