Kid Ink Describes Being 'In Middle of It All' as Producer and Rapper: Interview

He went on to explain, "I made a different type of music at that time that fit that sound or that mold that people wanted to hear so I think signing with the label and getting on the radio was something I needed to do."
 
As a producer and a rapper both, Kid Ink thinks he looks at music in a different way from most rappers. He explained that as a producer, the goal was to create something that an industry leader like <a href="/music/Pharrell-williams">Pharrell</a> or <a href="/music/Timbaland">Timbaland</a> might have wanted to use because those were his idols at the time.

Moving into rap, he said, "I think maybe I was still conscious of that [more] than the average rapper who has more time to focus on the lyrics and isn't thinking about making the beat or being on beat all the time, none of that is as important as the lyrics. I had to find the middle ground, and I think it's a good thing and a bad thing because I'm in the middle of it all and some people might not respect the lyricism and some people might not respect the production but then people that really get it and understand respect all of it as a whole, and I think it just gives me two sides of fans instead of one."
 
Talking about the growth of hip-hop and the changes the genre has gone through in the decades since its inception, Kid Ink has much to say about the newest generation of rappers and their place in the industry. He explained that he often sees rappers being banded together in strange ways, combining the artists with real potential in groupings with artists who had a single hit song or found success through Instagram fame, but that young artists need to take what they can take and start however they can start.

He goes on to say, "There's a lot of kids out here who don't appreciate the culture as much as they appreciate the social media aspect of it and I think it takes away from their real core fan base and people really appreciating them as an artist and not just a gimmick. I never really wanted to be a gimmick, so even though I have a lot of tattoos and my name is Kid Ink, not every song is about tattoos. I just never wanted to be that type of artist."
 
It's been a few months since his latest project, 7 Series, was released in early May of this year. The EP, his second, is an attempt at a new start for the rapper, a way to slowly introduce the ways in which his music might have grown over the years and an attempt to show people that his style isn't as boxed into certain hit singles as people might expect.

In many ways, 7 Series is a passion project for Kid Ink, a return to his roots of mixtape production where the commercial effect of songs took a backseat to projecting a rawer energy and emotion that brought him up from the early days. He might be signed to a record label, but 7 Series is Kid Ink's way of showing that his heart is still as independent as ever.
 
Listen to the full interview at <a href="http://www.billboardradiochina.com/bb2/05-December-2017-Kid-INK-redfining-independence-10-Questions" target="_blank">Billboard Radio China</a>.