Atlanta has become a mecca for commercial success within Hip Hop. Hell, what’s not to like about the hook and bass heavy bounce the city’s scene provides. This year along as seen revered albums from city favorites including Migos, Future, Father and Young Thug. Hoping to join club is K Camp, best known for last year’s biggest anti-gold digger anthem “Cut Her Off.” Since then, there’s only one direction his career has gone and that’s forward. It began a few months back when K Camp made XXL’s highly anticipated 2015 Freshman List with Fetty Wap, Tink, Vince Staples and OG Maco. Next month, he hopes to make good on his promise through his debut album Only Way Is Up. Featuring the lead single “Comfortable,” K Camp’s chances of success could become higher than expected. Speaking with DX, the rapper talks his debut, making this year’s XXL Freshman List and exactly what motivates him.
K Camp Talks Making XXL Freshman List & Moving Past “Cut Her Off”
DX: So now that you’ve been to LA more than a couple of times. What are your thoughts on the LA hiphop scene?
K Camp: I love it. Niggas out here holding it down. Ty holding it down. YG and RJ coming up. I’m a fan of them. It’s a lot of people out here that’s going crazy. Who else? Where my boy, Jay Rock. Naw, Jay 305 and Jay Rock matter a fact. Jay 305 just sent me some crazy shit. Some K Camp and Jay 305 is going to be coming soon.
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DX: So yo when you got the call saying you made the freshmen list this year. What was going through your head?
K Camp: I was hella excited. I felt like it was well overdue. I thought I should of been on it last year, but the fact that I got it this year is still a good feeling. So the hip hop game know i’m coming. That’s just like a big stepping stones for a artists, a Hip Hop artist at least. XXL is real big in the Hip Hop community so I believe that was a big thing for K. Camp.
DX: At that time. What’s the goal for the follow up to “Cut Her Off” or where you at?
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K Camp: The goal for the follow up is to make one bigger than “Cut Her Off”. Keep recording. I am constantly, consistent dropping records so hopefully “Comfortable” is huger than “Cut Her Off.” “Cut Her Off” was a big one, but “Comfortable” is a whole different feel. But hopefully that captures the other side and take me to where I need to be as an artist.
DX: I was just watching the video “Comfortable.”
K Camp: “Comfortable” was like me stepping outside of the box and showing people I am a real artist and I can take it to another level instead of just being in that one little box, that Atalanta sound. I think we did a great job doing that. It was the lead single off my album and the females loves it, the Djs, the PDs love it. Yesterday I added it on instagram it was the #1 added record on Urban. Like 32 stations picked it up. That was a good luck so I think we got something with “Comfortable.”
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DX: Obviously, life since “Cut Her Off” has changed significantly. Where’s your mind compared to then and now?
K Camp: I’ve been exposed to a lot. I see a lot more things, and I am dealing with a lot more issues, and a lot more success. So it all goes into the music. Everything that I deal with I put it into the music. I keep building I keep growing. I practice my lyrics, I’m practicing my hooks. I am just growing that’s why I named my album Only Way Is Up. We keep going, we don’t stop. We just keep building.
DX: So how does it feel for you coming out of Atlanta and being joined by other artists from the area like…
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K Camp: OG..yeah it was two. Wasn’t there somebody else? Raury! Raury is three. It’s a beautiful thing man. It shows that Hip Hop staying…it’s in Atlanta now. A lot of folks they try to downplay atlanta. Like all we do is trap, rap, and shake that ass, and strip club shit. And having three artist on the cover that shows that Atlanta is still one of the Meccas. It used to be New York and now it’s like down south and I love it. I feel honored to be on there. I am a fan of all of em.
DX: Atlanta’s scene has grown into something even bigger than Hip Hop itself almost.
K Camp: I love it man, because at the same time like I was saying Outkast they like the pioneers. The really stamped the Atlanta scene. When motherfuckers was sleeping on Outkast and wasn’t giving them the chance saying it wasn’t Hip Hop. They broke the barrier as far as the music in Atlanta. I love it like I said man. As long as I am here, I am going to keep this Atlanta shit going I am going to keep the South. And whoever..all the artists that’s,..what…what…Migos, Que, T.I.P, just anybody. We going to keep this shit going keep that torch going. We can’t let it fall.
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K Camp Talks Advice From Big Sean & Motivation
DX: What’s the best lesson an OG has taught you?
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K Camp: Best lesson..I can tell you the most motivating shit I done got so far. I was at Big Sean’s crib. He lives in one of these little what’s-it-called, The Hills. Yeah he live somewhere in The Hills. We was on the balcony and he was telling us. He could see, when he first moved to LA. When he was recording at a hotel. He could see the hotel from his balcony and how he is where he is now. Like damn that alone is motivation. You came to LA, you was in a little raggedy ass hotel and now you in The Hills just looking at yo shit. Looking at the whole city. That right there can make me go. That right there alone can make me go.
DX: Plan on working with Big Sean soon?
K Camp: Yeah I got a record with Big Sean. It’s probably in the stash we ain’t released it. I went to his crib and he recorded a record. I tried to get it on my album, but I think he was working on his. It’s all about timing. We going to get it in though that’s the homie.
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DX: What’s the plan for the album itself? What are you planning on doing to make your first impression as memorable as when people did hear “Cut Her Off.”
K Camp: First of all, once you press play on the album. The intro alone is going to draw you in. It’s something you rarely hear from me or you have never heard from me. Like I’m taking you back, like where it started. Like when I was git. Like I am really telling a story. It’s featuring… I ain’t going to tell you who it’s featuring, we gone hold that down. But naw like number 1 to number 15. I think it’s fifteen tracks or twelve. Deluxe is fifteen. Just stay tuned man, you going to hear the real K Camp when you hear the album.
DX:What’s the theme of the album?
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K Camp: What does the album mean to me? Man it’s really like everything I’ve been doing so for the last 25 years wrapped up in just a project. Since like my first mixtape I dropped, all that shit is all a collective of where I’m at now. Like how far I’ve came, like the growth of my music, the growth of me just being a man period. It’s all in one project man. It’s my debut album. It’s the most important thing I have done this far in the music game or the music industry I guess you want to say but I’m excited. I’m excited for the world to hear it.
DX: What kind of thoughts run through your head as you plan the release of your album?
K Camp: Numbers. Even though numbers and shit don’t sale the way it use to, I try to not even think of that shit no more. I just want to put my shit out and have my new and old fans appreciate it. if I get that, I’m happy. As long as mutha fuckas is vibing and they love it, I’m good. All that other shit is for the birds.
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DX: Where does this unfiltered grind come from?
K Camp: Being broke. Not having nothing. Broke ass shit. Dollar menu everyday. No gas, EBT.
DX: Must feel great to live a life beyond that now right?
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K Camp: That shit felt good. It’s crazy because before we dropped “Money Baby,” I had made a vision board . On that vision board, I had a Porsche, I had like a sold out arena , I had Grammys on there, I had investments and I had boats. I had all kind of shit. Just monkey shit that I thought I could get. And a year later, I got everything on that mutha fucka but a Grammy. I got a Panamera; I bought it cash. Sold out arenas, doing all that shit. So that’s how I know anything possible. And I just made a new vision board like last week and I got some more monkey shit on there. That I’ma get in probably in about a year.
DX: Wait, what’s on this vision board?
K Camp: I got all kinds of shit on there. Man I got Bugattis on there now. I got mutha fuckin penthouse skyscrapers. I got all kind of shit on there man.
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K Camp Explains Influence On Fans & Legacy
DX: Is it difficult keeping that freeness of a mixtape considering what new fans and your label expects from the album?
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K Camp: With my label man, they let me do me. When I came in, they didn’t try to change me. If they had tried to change me, I would have been bucking it anyway. Ain’t nobody going to change me. You feel me? Like I do me and it work. My formula work. What we do it work so why would they come in and change it. They just like K Camp do you. We just going to push that shit. We the machine behind you just do you.
DX: So what keeps you recording even though the album is finished?
K Camp: Shit, you still gotta put out music. I just dropped a freestyle yesterday called “935” because I was bored as hell. Shit, I was just sitting at the house like man let me just write some shit and dropped it. Called it “935.” Fans asking why it was called “935.” Because I bounced it down at 9:35PM and I just put that shit out. [Laughs] Mutha fuckas were like: what that mean? I’m like aye go ahead and just let yo mind wonder. I like recording man because that’s what I do for a hobby. That’s what I do in my free time. I go hoop, I go workout, I record and chill with a bitch. Excuse my French but that’s the shit I do. I like making music.
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DX: What’s been the most impactful moment of your career thus far?
K Camp: I remember I was in Mississippi and I had walked in this little bar. Some dude was just staring at me and I hate when people when mother fuckers stare at me because I don’t know they know who I am or they want to fight and do some monkey shit. So, I am always on alert. I am always on aware. So, buddy had walked up on me and he said you K Camp. And I was like Yeah I’m K Camp wassup? He was like yeah I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate you my wife died in a car accident and her favorite song was “Blessing” and that’s all I play. Shit like that, it’s like I know why I’m doing it. That moved me and that touched me and that made me want to keep doing this shit.
DX: Did you ever think you would ever be able to impact somebody’s life like that?
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K Camp: Naw, I was just making music and shit. But, that just made me see that I am here for a purpose. I am supposed to make this music and I am supposed to do this and motivate and inspire the world. So that’s how I look at it.
DX: What do you want your legacy to be?
K Camp: I want my legacy to be…I want to go out like..not go out like Pac. I don’t want to die and get shot up. R.I.P Pac though. But, I just want to be remembered. When I’m gone, long gone. I want everybody to be like Camp was one of the realest to do it. He had great music. I want to build my empire, I want to put my team on. I want my squad like artists, producers, it don’t matter what it is, to come up and make money and be something. I want to keep this shit going for a long time.
