Georgia rapper Izza Kizza, who just put out his mixtape Wizard of Iz[click to watch], recently sat down with HipHopDX to talk about his drive for creativity, collaborations with producers, and work on his debut album.
Formerly signed to Timbaland’s Mosley Music Group, Izza Kizza explained to DX that other projects were keeping Timbo occupied, and he didn’t want his music to be held back. “When it comes to your own career, you have to take the necessary steps to get to the next level. But it wasn’t a bad break from Mosley Music Group. Timbo was cool with it,” he said.
Now on Decon Records, Kizza has been able to put his musical aspirations in motion, as evidenced by mixtapes, features, and a recent music video being released called “I’m The Izza Kizza” [click to watch]. Kizza provided some context to the video saying, “When I make a video like ‘I’m The Izza Kizza,’ I want to raise my bar in creativity, to make my shit stand out…Now, it’s not necessarily my specific style, but I’m also not going to have my creativity contained.”
Besides Timbaland, Izza Kizza has built relationships with several other producers within the rap game. One group in particular is Soul Diggaz [click to read], based out of New Jersey. “Those dudes have been behind me since day one. They allowed for my projects to happen, and it’s been a beautiful thing,” he said.
Along with Soul Diggaz, Kizza also has done a good amount of work with Koolade, a Croatian producer who has done beats for Ghostface Killah [click to read] and Consequence [click to read]. “I met Koolade through [my manager] Dan Glogower, and his beats was just awesome. After that, we grew an instant relationship.” Making it clear that their work together is not even close to being finished, Kizza added, “We got a lot of records ready that weren’t even featured on my mixtapes.”
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In terms of his debut album, Kizza told DX that he has a few features in mind, including Missy Elliot. “Right now I’m in the studio working with Missy, and that joint I’m doing with her is going to be a single…That record is basically setting the bar for the album, which will be finished soon.”
While Kizza has been quite successful thus far in his career, the Georgia emcee is humbled by the mark he’s made through music. “Sometimes I gotta slow down for a minute and realize what I got is a blessing. You know sometimes I feel like, ‘okay I got a car, now I want a phantom.’ So I just step back and appreciate what I got already.” Continuing, Kizza said, “You got to be happy with what you got, and I love everything that I’m doing. It’s a beautiful thing at the end of the day because it paid off, but you gotta come hard.”
