It’s not uncommon to hear of children who pick up an instrument at a very young age. More often than not, their instrument of choice is either the guitar or the piano, and some may even start singing young too, but how many children do you know of who start rapping at the age of six?
I want to listen to and discover as much as I can, as this will help me develop my own style
Not many, is the likely answer, but there always is an exception, and 16-year-old Kid Crisis is one of them. He wasn’t always called Kid Crisis, of course. Behind the music he is Julian Gatt, but after toying with a few other names, in 2010 he settled on Kid Crisis because “I’m still young, so ‘kid’ represents the voice of youth”.
I hesitate before asking what ‘crisis’ represents, ditching the thought completely as I move on to my next question.
So, one wonders, how does a six-year-old get hooked on hip hop?
“There was no big plan,” this young man admits rather casually, and in a voice way deeper than the one he reels out his rap in. “It all started with 50 Cent’s In da club; the song was playing on the family car radio and that was it; it stuck in my mind.”
He explains it was the way the beats and words came together with such powerful rhythms that particularly caught his attention. This was followed by a journey of discovery into the world of hip hop, readily available in the music collection on his brother’s computer.
“At first it was mostly 1990s stuff, but I’ve since started to dig deeper into the underground scene and even the spin-off styles,” he continues. “I want to listen to and discover as much as I can as this will help me develop my own style.”
Listening to rap and writing verses and actually rapping are, you will surely agree, two different things altogether. Where most people tend to find their voices singing along to other people’s songs, Gatt’s approach was markedly different. “At first I’d write my own verses and rap to instrumental versions of other people’s songs,” he recalls. “Then I decided to experiment a little and further to my own verses, I’d devise my own phrasing when rapping and give the song my own twist to make it sound even more different.”
He posted a few of his experiments on You Tube and got some very encouraging feedback, which of course, led him to the next step – that of recording his own work, the first of which, a single called Almost There, was released in December 2011.
“That song was written over a beat and chorus I bought off a producer abroad,” Gatt explains when I ask him how he went about making his first single.
That didn’t stop it making a dent in the upper reaches of online music community Soundclick’s international unsigned acts chart, and in doing so, giving Kid Crisis an important boost, both in spirit and profile.
Boosting his name around the internet further – with a nifty reference to our island in the line “comin’ to you from the MLT” – was a You Tube clip of a song called Don’t Kill My Vibe.
“That’s a cover I did of a Kendrick Lamar song. Well, the idea came from his song, but I added a lot of my own stuff to it.”
Enough in fact, to make it more of a Kid Crisis track than a straight-take cover.
“I was very pleased with the way it turned out,” Gatt says, beaming. And so were a lot of other people too apparently, as the clip notched up over 100,000 views in a very short time. Despite this further boost, however, his focus remains on writing and recording his own material.
“My next release was a song called Miss Me, which has been doing rather well on the local radio stations.” Indeed, the song has been on the radio airplay charts ever since it was released last year, its tenure perpetuated thanks to its blend of hip hop and contemporary electronic sounds, fused together with an evident pop sheen.
Music apart, Gatt says he puts a lot of time and effort into his lyrics, which are often quite close to the bone. “I’m inspired mostly by life – my own as well as everything else going on around me.” He is also keen to explore what influences other artists and likes nothing better than to put on an album by some of his favourite bands and immerse himself completely in their music. “I particularly like to listen to rock albums… stuff by Santana, AC/DC, The Beatles and other rock acts that have been part of life forever, but I must say that one of my biggest influences is Eminem.”
Gatt explains that more than just a fan, he sees in Eminem a beacon of inspiration.
“The man achieved something unique as much with his music as well as by becoming the most successful white rapper despite all the odds being against him.”
World domination may not be within his grasp just yet, but there are plenty of exciting prospects on the Kid Crisis agenda all the same. “I’ve just released my latest single Religion, which I’m rather excited about.”
Rightfully so too, as the new single is distinctly different from his previous two releases; certainly more akin to where he wants to head for musically.
“This song is the bridge that links to the kind of music that will be featured on my debut album.” Work on the new album, he tells me, is well under way and very much a solo affair.
“Once I’d made up my mind to produce my own music, I wanted to go that step further and practically do everything on the album myself.”
Acknowledging that there may be some areas where he’ll need some guidance, Gatt discloses he intends to bring in guest rappers too, but “other than that, the beats, the music, the verses and the production are all me – I want the record to totally represent who I am and what I can do”.
Religion is out now and is available at http://thekidcrisis.bandcamp.com .
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