Kia Shine Interview Transcription:
DJ Booth: What’s goin’ on ya’ll? It’s your boy “Z,” doin’ it real big and joining me inside the DJ Booth is Memphis-born rapper-producer who is about to embark on a very important season: due season. Please welcome Kia Shine. How you doin’?
Kia Shine: Aight. What’s up with you kinfolk? How you doin’, Z?
DJ Booth: I’m great; I know you’re great. We just got the chance to see your brand new video (Krispy). When you pressed play, what was that first feeling like?
Kia Shine: Words don’t even describe. It’s so much more than, like, what’s goin’ on behind it, you know what I mean? It’s not more than just watchin’ the video, but if you know the story then – you ever seen the movie “Cinderella Man?” I’m like Russell Crowe, I’m that character.
DJ Booth: Without the beard…
Kia Shine: Without the beard, you know what I’m sayin’? And the Irish accent. But I’m that dude. I started out feelin’ like I couldn’t do no wrong, I came up to New York to try to keep my brother’s group on. I had a corporate job at first, I worked for Harris Casinos corporate office, and they wanted me to go to Las Vegas and run their casino. I got there and I chose not to do it, I wanted to follow my music. I think that I was crazy, ‘cause I was so young, running a company, I mean, I went to college for one year and dropped out but here I am in this corporate position, operations manager, I got promoted like seven times. I just ride it out, and I was makin’ like eighty grand a year, and I didn’t take the job, and I decided to put money behind my brother’s group. They thought I was crazy, like, “Dude, you got a good job, you gonna move to Vegas,” and all that, and I’m like, “Naw, this music is calling me to be something more.” I thought that rappers couldn’t particularly be smart, so I wanted to come in as a business man and when my brother had the group, there was opportunities for me to come as a CEO, and I still could rap and all that, but I just wanted to come in as a CEO, and I guess sometimes you don’t embrace your destiny. I coulda just been puttin’ my own album out, but I just needed someone to learn off of before I did my own thing.
DJ Booth: What’s interesting, Kia, is the saying, “Give in order to receive,” probably couldn’t be any more true here. You wanted to help put your brother on, before you achieved success for yourself, and, in the end, you definitely were rewarded. Describe the differences here: you found out you got signed to Universal Motown, and just now you’re able to see your video. All these emotions, what was the platinum mark, what was the number one moment where you just sat back and said, “I can’t believe this is all happening to me.”?
Kia Shine: I ah, [voice breaking] it’s like, right now.
DJ Booth: In this interview, with me, right now?
[silence]
DJ Booth: Kia, you there?
Kia Shine: ...yup.
DJ Booth: Let’s talk about your one of your singles for a second. “Respect My Fresh,” one of the hits that you created to help you acquire your label deal. With your experience and knowledge, do you feel that you’ve done enough, right now, to get that respect from your industry peers, or do you feel like you still have a ways to go?
Kia Shine: I went to MTV yesterday, and I hadn’t even seen the video yet, these people were like, “Yo, we’re gonna make a slot for you.” [pause] “Fifty [Cent] has a jam of the week, and we gonna make a slot on MTV, exclusive, and your video is gonna be playing 125 times next week.” And then, I come today, and I see the video for the first time, and I’m like, “Okay, this is what’s gonna be playing next week 125 times,” you don’t understand how that feels… I got into the game, helping someone else, I came to New York to try to get my brother’s group signed. I sold a beat that I was rhymin’ on with my brother by mistake, and an A&R said, “Can I get the beat?” I was like, “What do you mean, get it?” He said, “I wanna buy it.” He offered me five thousand for the beat; I’d already quit my job, so I’m like, “Of course I’ll take it.” I come back the next week, sell two more beats, then get a production deal with Ruff Ryders. [I] take one trip to L.A. get a publishing deal, they give me $125,000, come back to Memphis sign up all the groups that had a buzz during their particular time; I mean I could do no wrong. I buy a tour bus, put my label’s name on it, Rap Hustlers “It Is Not a Game,” drove over to TVT and got a distribution deal where I got 75 percent of the profits. [I] came out with two records through them, TVT did not pay me for the hundred thousand dollars that I put through them, [and] all my money invested into these projects. I lost my house, my car, everything, [I] was homeless, didn’t have any place to stay, turned around, said, “You know what? I’m gonna put my own album out,” aight, cause my brother, he started doing beats instead of rapping, so he did my beats, worked with me, and we produced ‘em together.; We put my own single out, which is called, “Respect My Fresh,” and we pushed that record hard as I could, and with my last money that I had, I fixed my credit, and I was able to buy a house. I bought a house that had fifty thousand dollars of equity in it, I refinanced the house, got the money out of the house, put that money on my, “Respect My Fresh,” campaign, and I pushed that, and I got that record up to 19.6 billion audience in BDS, and that’s how I got my deal.
DJ Booth: Well, two things: one, I’d like to get you a book deal, and two, after hitting rock bottom, was there a sense right away before any of this happened that you knew things were bound to turn around, with all that hard work?
Kia Shine: My wife was my support. I met my wife when I was going to sign my deal with TVT, in the middle of the street in New York. While on the way to the meeting, to TVT, it was like God knew I was gonna need some support, because of what was about to happen to me, but I didn’t know, I’m thinkin’ everything’s goin’ right. We slept in our cars, she prayed with me, we stayed together, we knew that in the Bible it says, “You’ll reap in due season if you faint not.” So we kept prayin’ on that scripture, and we knew that our due season would come ‘cause I was doin’ everything I thought was right, and low and behold when I dropped “Respect My Fresh,” that all started in 2006; labels started callin’. [Shortly thereafter] I went down to Dallas and showed them that I could do a record with a Grammy-winning producer and still make a hit, that is what got everything rolling.
DJ Booth: The single that you’re referring to is “Krispy,” the one you just saw the video for, which will be playing on MTV 125 times next week, and is gettin’ crazy spins on radio, mix show, Internet, everywhere. If a listener who’s unfamiliar with Kia Shine hears “Krispy,” do they get everything Kia Shine has to offer?
Kia Shine: What you get in that record is, that there is a new artist coming with something new and fresh: a new slang, a new style, a new culture that he’s bringin’ to it, a new way to dress, just something new. If you listen to the words, to the verse when I say, “Been broke kinfolk now I pop crispy/ You would do the same thing if you knew my history.” That is an end line to the fact that – do not think that I’m all about just being fly, there’s a real story behind what I’m doin’, and when you buy the album, you gonna be pleasantly surprised that it has a story. I’m also making a verse saying that, I’m not a trapper rapper.
DJ Booth: Define that for me.
Kia Shine: I’m not a rapper who’s gonna rap about the trap, the drugs, the dope.
DJ Booth: Is that because that’s not the lifestyle you know?
Kia Shine: Two reasons: it is not the lifestyle I know, it is not the lifestyle I live myself personally, and I believe that, you have a responsibility when you have a platform of speech and when you sell to these kids that listenin’, you gotta give ‘em something that inspires them. Now, if you used to sell dope and God brought you out of it, and you doin’ something better with your life now, cool, but don’t be on records tellin’ me, “Man, I got all the bricks” and then my kids is hearin’ that. If you women man, or you a white dude, or you some kid, you don’t wanna hear about some dude sellin’ dope all the time, or about some dude killin’ each other in rhymes all the time. Even if you black, you don’t wanna hear that. You wanna hear some music. I’m from Memphis, man, the birthplace of blues!
DJ Booth: I agree completely, and it’s interesting because a lot of people, the title of their album does not necessarily dictate the life that they’re livin’. I think now, more than ever, “Due Season,” really means more than just – oh, it sounds like a cool title for an album, it really, really has to do with what you’ve gone through and what the time will be when it drops in June.
Kia Shine: It’s not about what it does first day, first week, it’s a season, you know what I mean?
DJ Booth: And hopefully longer than that…
Kia Shine: Yeah, and until your hear me drop the album post-season, it’s gonna be due season for a minute.
DJ Booth: Let’s go back for a minute, you mentioned the youth of America, you mention the influence that you know hip hop has, on the youth of America, and over the past month or so, hip hop has taken a lot of flak from news oulets over its content. There are other issues that are at the forefront of Americans’ minds, including gas prices and the war in Iraq. What do you think will change first, the gas prices or the content in hip hop?
Kia Shine: First of all, you talk about the content in hip hop, what about the movies? What about what I see on television. Come on, like, topic of the hour?
DJ Booth: It’s a scapegoat.
Kia Shine: A scapegoat, c’mon man, there’s a lot bigger fish out there that need to be fried. We over in Iraq, we don’t even know what we over there fighting for; I don’t know?
DJ Booth: We’re certainly not going to know what the future holds for hip hop, gas, or war, but I’d like to know from you: a year from now, where do you see yourself? You’re going to have your album out in stores, and you’re going to have a shoe [line], out in stores as well. What is going to be Kia Shine’s future, a year from now?
Kia Shine: Everything you just mentioned would have taken place… I just know that today, I want to get one today, so I’m gonna make the most of today, and pray for tomorrow.
DJ Booth: Definitely. Go ahead Kia, give everybody a website, a Myspace address, so they can find out more about you, and your impending release.
Kia Shine: Sure; http://www.myspace.com/kiashine, you also can look me up at http://www.kiashine.com .
DJ Booth: Beautiful. I wish you nothing but the best of luck.
Kia Shine: Pray for me and stay for me, man. Thank you very much for your time.
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