Epidemic Sound is the world’s premier soundtracking platform due to our artists. Collectively, we assist everybody from brand-new creators to family manufacturers discover their voice — that’s value shouting about.
At present, we’re heading into the seventh version of Behind the Sound, wherein we have fun the musicians who’re taking Epidemic Sound to the subsequent stage. This month, it’s West Coast rapper Katori Walker.
Hailing from Pasadena, California, Katori’s honed his craft for greater than twenty years. He doesn’t shrink back from his influences, paying homage to hip-hop legends like Ice Dice and newer stars like Kendrick Lamar. The previous’s G-funk roots, the latter’s susceptible honesty, the uncooked aggression of each — it’s all there.
Katori’s shared lineups with everybody from J. Cole to JPEGMAFIA, Doja Cat to Vince Staples. His music’s been streamed greater than 1.6 billion occasions on YouTube alone, and his 2024 single, Himothy, featured in the Sidemen’s hit actuality present, Inside.
Katori Walker is unapologetically himself, sporting his coronary heart on his sleeve — nowhere is that this clearer than his new album, The Battle Inside. Forward of the report’s launch in October, we sat down with Katori to debate his lyrical type, pre-recording rituals, and…crypto?How does rising up in Pasadena come by in your sound?Katori Walker: “[It’s] the lingo, it’s the slang, [it’s] the word-play — it’s throughout. Pasadena. It’s simply in me.”What’s the one factor individuals misunderstand about West Coast rap right now?
KW: “I don’t assume there’s any misunderstandings about West Coast rap proper now. I believe we obtained everyone’s consideration and everyone obtained placed on discover, particularly with the Kendrick and Drake beef.”
You set a lot of your life into your lyrics. Is there a selected bar that was the toughest to carry out and report?KW: “Once I made the music about my brother and his dying [Ormoni], and coming to phrases with the truth that he truly died. [They were] among the hardest bars to say out loud.”Do you ever report a verse and assume, ‘This one’s only for me’?KW: “Yeah, I report a whole lot of music that’s only for me, that the world won’t ever hear. That’s therapeutic.”Is there a specific music of yours that felt like remedy to make?KW: “[I] have a music that [isn’t] out, known as Superhuman. I’ve one other music known as I Want a Hug…which can also be not launched. However these songs really feel like remedy, as you may see by the titles!”What’s one thing you’ve discovered about your self by making music?KW: “That I’m way more pushed than I believed I used to be, and way more centered.”What’s the primary sound you bear in mind falling in love with?KW: “The primary music that I bear in mind falling in love with was the Fugees’ Killing Me Softly With His Track. I bear in mind once I was a child, that music [would] come on [and] it at all times made me really feel one thing. I don’t know what feeling it made me really feel, however it was an attractive feeling.”What’s one thing you do earlier than you step into the recording sales space, that nobody sees?KW: “I normally go on a stroll within the morning, or I’ll put together my desk with my espresso.”Do you freestyle with intention or write with construction?KW: “Each music that I’ve written is at all times structured — nothing is accidentally.”What’s your go-to inventive reset whenever you’re caught?KW: “I’ve to hearken to music that made me fall in love with music, if that is sensible. I’ve to return to the roots.”What would you identify the chapter of your life you’re in proper now, and what’s the soundtrack?KW: “The chapter of my life proper now shall be known as The Battle Inside, and the soundtrack comes out October of this yr!”You began rapping on the age of 9. In case you might return and provides your nine-year-old self one piece of recommendation about this journey, what would it not be? KW: “Purchase Bitcoin!”Katori Walker’s music is accessible on all main streaming platforms.Take heed to Katori Walker’s Epidemic Sound discography beneath, and preserve an eye fixed out for the subsequent version of Behind the Sound.
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