Multi-platinum recording artist KYLE kicked off Homecoming week with an energetic performance in the Armstrong Field House. He performed his hits such as “Don’t Wanna Fall in Love”, “iSpy” and “Hey Julie!”.
Performing to a small but intimate crowd, KYLE kept the audience engaged with high-energy choreography. At one point during the show, he picked a fan to rap Lil Yachty’s verse from “iSpy” on stage, creating a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The DC’s Deputy Managing Editor Cambyll Francois spoke with KYLE on his life growing up in LA, how his album SMYLE changed his life and his other nonmusical ventures.
Francois: How did growing up in LA form your music taste and the music you would eventually make for yourself?
KYLE: Growing up in LA, it formulated like a very sweet feeling with music. Even though, you’re listening to Snoop Dogg on repeat, just gangster rap all over the place, but I think overall the music you hear on the radio, whether you’re listening to Power 106 or Krock or whatever, all of it kind of has a sweet feeling, like an energizing feeling.
Francois: If you could think of one word to describe the kind of rapper you are, what would it be and why?
KYLE: Optimistic. I think I sort of believe in a type of rap, rapper, rapperness that doesn’t exist. They won’t allow it to exist, if that makes sense? I’m like fighting an uphill battle. I’m trying to be the happy rapper. I’m giving people high fives, as a rapper, you know? I should be mean with a bunch of chains. So, I think I have a crazy belief in what I’m doing.
Francois: Do you feel the pressure to become a ‘mean’ type of rapper?
KYLE: No, that’s over. I couldn’t do it if I tried. I lost that battle. It’s over. So no, I don’t feel necessarily like pressured to be like something I’m not. I have felt that before. But I feel like I’m like a real grown-up now. And I no longer pay attention [to]that pressure, if that makes sense.
Francois: “SMYLE” has hit its 10-year anniversary. How has that project impacted your life?
KYLE: That project made me and my friends legitimate. We got to go to different places in the world to do one specific album. And at one point, me and like four of my best friends, we lived in an apartment on Skid Row, in LA. I don’t know if you guys are familiar, but it’s like crazy. But we could afford it, and they had five bedrooms, which is strange, right? A big apartment in the middle of Skid Row. It was crazy. We were working on that album, wondering if like, music was real, wondering if that full thing is an actual reality for people. When I put that album out, it became real. I owe everything to that album.
Francois: As an artist who gained much of your fanbase in the 2010s, have you noticed a current revival of the era?
KYLE: Yeah. I would say that, because [of] what I’ve seen happening now. I’m always pretty like close [up to date], not a trend but just knowing what is coming. I think what’s happening now is lyricism got so unimportant for a number of years, that now, we’ve developed [a] taste for it. When we hear somebody writing a song with any kind of intention. Like ‘I’m making this song intentionally because I want to tell you this message type of thing.’ That is fully coming back, because it’s so lost, it’s so gone.
Francois: Isn’t a crazy full circle moment, that the kids that are gonna be in the crowd at your show today, were listening to you as a kid and now are in their adult years. How does that make you feel?
KYLE: It’s kind of a crazy feeling. I just realized that I was really, really good at something super young. Even though it was just fun to me. I was just dropping songs on YouTube or whatever, when I was like 15, 16 and it just got popping a long time ago. It’s a cool feeling, though, because you start to realize you’re weaving yourself into the fabric of culture in general.
KYLE ended the interview, promoting his new coffee brand, “SMYLE”, to his fans and movie content.
