April 02nd 2011
Kayo Takes on Canada
By Kendell “Scady” Eugene

It’s not often we have one of our very own who we watched from the beginning work extremely hard at his craft, take all the criticism that was directed at him and used it all to his advantage. Kayo is no stranger to the YO! Magazine or our readers. As we read Kayo is part of a country wide tour of Canada with rapper Classified from Halifax. But he has also worked with artistes who are now opening for The Game. We say congrats to you Kayo and keep working hard. Here is the interview we conducted with him before his performance in London, Ontario.

First of all tell us about the album with you and Quake and how long it took to make?

The album is entitled The Search. It's a conceptual album that follows a story. The story is basically about someone trying to find themselves in life. They get caught up along the way in the glamour of life but eventually discover that what they were searching was within them from the very beginning. It took us about 6 months to complete the project.

Now for people who are maybe wondering, who is Quake?

Quake is a recording artist in Halifax. He is one of frontrunners in the city as far as hip hop goes and probably the best rapper in my opinion.
How long have you and Quake been doing music and what brought you two together?
We met in 2009 through a mutual friend. I got the opportunity to work on his album with him. That album came out the fall of 2010. I was featured on three songs on the album. We worked so well together and appreciated each other’s craft, so we decided to work on a project together. It was originally supposed to be just an 8 track EP, but we just kept recording and decided to make it a full length viral album.

We heard that you are now currently on tour with him, tell us about that. What is the tour called and what is it for?

Actually I'm not on tour with him. I'm on tour with Classified. He's another artist out here in Canada. He just released his 14th album and second album on Sony Records. The album is titled 'Handshakes & Middle Fingers'. I'm one of the official openers on the album release tour. Quake got his own thing going on. He's doing an east coast run as an opener for The Game.

Take us from the beginning how is it for you touring Canada like that?

It's still very surreal to me. Like I find myself just zoning out and taking in everything around me. I can't believe I'm doing this right now. It's one of those moments in my life/career where I feel like 'dude, you're actually doing it. You could make this music thing happen for real'. It's what I've worked my whole life for and its sometimes like a dream to me. I'm nervous every night before I go on now. It feels like there's so much more pressure than before. I never used to get nervous before..

How many venues are on the calendar and tell us about other venues you guys have rocked?

We're doing 20 shows in 30 days. So far we're done Sherbrooke, Peterborough, Toronto and Kitchener. We were London, Ontario on Wednesday. We’re going all across Canada. This the first time I get to travel all across the country like this.

How many other artistes are presently on tour with you all?

There are four acts in total. I open the show, then J Bru, Then Kidz in da Hall from the States, and finally the big homie Classified.

About how many people attend these concerts?

I'd say 1500 - 2000 each night. Our slowest night so far had about 500 people. Our biggest was at Sound Academy in Toronto. The Legendary Pete Rock was on that bill as well. We got a sold out crowd of 2500.

How can we get a hold of your music? Is on it itunes or in CD stores?
My album with Quake, The Search, is available on www.thesearchison.bandcamp.com. I have an EP selling on the tour entitled 'One: The Prequel' that was completely produced by Classified. That project isn't available online yet but may be after the tour. It's up in the air right now though because the plan is to start working on my solo album immediately after the tour.

Finally how are you juggling school with all that touring? And will you be returning to St. Lucia?
All my professors were really accommodating for this tour. I did as much work as I could during the semester up until the tour. I will be doing my final exams when I get back from the tour at the end of April. I'm definitely coming home every Christmas. That's about it for now. As far as the long term goes, I don't know. I'm going where ever my music takes me.

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