With a new album to promote, Adelaide rapper K21 is ready to tour Australia.
The reception of ‘Any Given D-Day’, which came in at #1 in AIR’s indie record label charts, “genuinely overwhelmed” K21, whose last release was the ‘Kid Sinatra’ EP in 2013. “It’s almost like I’m pushing a new artist again, it’s been so long,” he says.
“The fact that people are sort of reacting in a way that they did five years ago... is really, really cool. It’s like the fans have their muscle memory and it’s coming back.”
"If you make it to New York, it’s a two-hour bus [ride] out to Philly. Go and get yourself a Philly cheese steak."
K21 says he’s grown a lot, personally and artistically, since his last release. “It’s been... a lot of making songs, sitting on those songs, letting them marinade a bit and working out what I wanted to do after a while,” he says.
“And just kind of keeping the quality control as tight as possible... [The record has] definitely [had] a fine-tooth comb scraped through it.”
The recording process sent K21 to the United States three times. The rapper kicked off his first trip across the Pacific with a month in Philadelphia, where he stayed with two brothers who were fans of his music and had contacted him online.
The younger brother “had this pressure problem with his brain - intracranial pressure,” K21 says. “He couldn’t fly long distances again. So that kind of scratched his Australian trip off the bucket list.”
K21 pushed back a film clip he was due to record in Chicago to crash with the brothers, who took the rapper under their wing and showed him around the area. “A Philly cheese steak is something you can never look past, ever,” he says, with the appropriate authority of an honorary resident.
“If you make it to New York, it’s a two-hour bus [ride] out to Philly. Go and get yourself a Philly cheese steak.”
‘Any Given D-Day’ brings together an A-list line-up of artists from both the local and American rap scenes including Mac Lethal and Hilltop Hoods.
When he finally made it to Chicago, K21 recorded tracks with Rhymefest in the studio usually occupied by the cast of ‘Empire’. The rapper has been a huge ‘Fest fan since he was a teenager and working alongside the artist was “terrifying. Definitely terrifying, but amazing at the same time.”
The production quality was also a step up for the rapper, used to his “laidback” home studio in Adelaide. ”I can get a bowl of Coco Pops at 3am and record in my pyjamas, if I want to,” he says.
Back in Australia, a collaboration with fellow Adelaidian Adrian Eagle for the reverberating single 'One Shot' started as an Instagram conversation after K21 heard some of the soul singer’s tracks. “I’m a very big 'Overwatch' player,” K21 says.
“There’s a character [in the game] called Widow Maker and she’s got a sniper rifle. When she shoots people, she says: ‘One shot, one kill’ in like, a French accent.
“So I had this reggae beat and I sent it over to Adrian Eagle with me singing that over the top of it… and he flipped that into what you hear [on the track].”
‘Any Given D-Day’ is available now. K21's new EP ‘D-Day: No Tracks Left Behind’ is released 6 April.
K21 Tour Dates
Fri 13 Apr - The Factory Theatre (Sydney)Fri 20 Apr - The Milk Factory (Brisbane)
Sat 21 Apr - Bar 459 (Perth)
Fri 27 Apr - Groovin The Moo Wayville (Adelaide)
Fri 4 May - Grumpy's (Melbourne)
Fri 11 May - HQ (Adelaide)
