One of my favorite producers at the moment, 14KT, drops his new album, A Friendly Game of KT. The first half of the album has been made available for free download but I recommend buying the full version on iTunes. There's not much else to say, listen and let the music speak for itself.
14KT - Where Else? (One of ATCQ)
Download: 14KT - A Friendly Game of KT (Tracks 1-7)Read the full story behind the album as well as a track by track breakdown below.
" This project just created itself. One day, I woke up and decided I wanted to make a project. I took a handful of arbitrary beats and put them in a folder. My most FAVORITE thing to do as an artist is sequence and mix together music for albums. It’s kind of like a game of Pick Up Sticks. I had a can of “beats” with different colors, poured them over a table top, picked them up randomly, and whatever “sticks” I ended picking up, I took and made a project with them. I didn’t have a title for it, so I sent the beats to my A-Side family, in a email with the subject, “It’s time to play a friendly game of name KT’s album!” Being the geniuses that they are (Shouts to Mayer Hawthorne!), they named the project off the email subject. Perfect. About 2 weeks after I got the title, the project was turned in. Simple! Enjoy. " –14KT
1. Pick Up Sticks
Nov. 2010. I made this joint on Reason. I remember I made it like 2 days after I got back from Red Bull Big Tune. I started with the high hats. I sampled some random sound that was supposed to sound like pick up sticks. Then the rest of the beat was created. I sent it to my bro Drew and he added the singing and keys. Later I added the kid telling the genius “story of Jesus” picking up his toys in the intro. I thought it was hilarious and fitting.
2. It Ain’t Really That Funny (Janet Flip)
DJ Houseshoes hit me up randomly one day and said, “Bro. You should flip that janet ish.” I said ok, flipped it REAL quick for fun, and sent it to him not too long right after he hit me up. “That was FAST.” Shoes said. Time flies when you’re having fun I guess.
3. CNColors
A few people contacted me all at the same time telling me that when they listened to my music, they saw colors. I wasn’t familiar with the term “Synesthesia”, so I researched it to find it to be a condition when you associate colors with music, numbers, or words. I’m sure I don’t have the condition, but a little after I learned that, I made this beat and I started seeing colors in it too. Haha. I usually make beats off pictures, so I actually saw a picture with colors in it. Music is interesting.
4. Blindsided
I didn’t mean to make this beat.
5. Blessed
I was listening to records one evening and I threw the OG record on. I had way too much weighing heavy on my mind and the song reminded me that things were going to be okay. So, I sampled it to express the way I felt.
6. Lessons from IX Lives
Shouts to my brother IX Lives! I think it was May 2010. Right before I went on tour with Crown Royale, my bro Mike D was teaching me how to make beats on Logic. I made the drums first. Then Mike Demps jumped on the keys and played them. I thought it was fresh. The feeling reminded me of Paul Hardcastle’s “Rainforest” somehow. I then jumped on there and added the bass line. My first beat on Logic.
7. As We (Turn It Up)
I had this beat for YEARS. I made it in 05’. It was hella simple, but the sample sounded real colorful when I slowed it down a lot and I loved it so I kept it that way. It definitely reminds me of Dilla and makes me smile. I did the ending of the beat later. Of course I was looking at a picture. It was a picture of Dilla in the clouds. Salute.
8. Rain Delay
On this one, I was trying a different way of flipping a record for me. I just listened to the OG record and found the key it was in. I stopped playing the record and just started playing synths. I started with the synth loop that you hear in the beginning, then the drums, then everything else. I just sprinkled the sample over it at the end. The quality is dirty sounding, but I like it.
9. March Madness
This beat was created from a bet I had with Rapper Big Pooh. We’re both big sports fans and we had a bet on a College Basketball March Madness game. If he won, I owed him a beat. He won, so I made the beat for him. He ended up recording vocals too it, but didn’t get to finish it as he got tied up in finishing up his album, “Dirty Pretty Things” at the time. So, I decided to share it with ya’ll. He shouted me out on his album though! So shouts to the homie Rapper Big Pooh on mine! Let’s get it next time bro. Salute!
10. Another Age
I really just wanted to flip this breakbeat that I’ve always loved. I wanted the swing of it to sound different then how it originally is. Beat makers, can ya’ll guess what break I flipped? I attempted to make it sound SoHo “Hot Music” –esque without it being that uptempo. Haha.
11. Grainy Guitar
This is a raw chopped loop that I had been sitting on since 06’. I made a lot of beats in 06’. I didn’t know what to do with this one. Besides the grainy guitar sound, one thing I loved is how my brother Wesley Taylor described the high hats. He said the high hats sounded like they are spitting a verse. They do though!
12. One 4 Black
OKAY! Well, after “Black N Gold” off my album Nowalataz, I hollered at Black Milk about doing a remix to the song. I wanted to get him to rhyme on it and I would do the beat. It was around the time he was working on “Album of the year”. For fun, my plan was to make a beat for Black that sounded like Black possibly did it to throw people off. Both of us got really busy and I forgot to send him the beat, so I ended up sitting on the idea. I suck. I know. I’m sorry.
13. Where Else? (One of ATCQ)
I made this in 2007. I was listening to A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Love Movement” album. I was listening to one of my favorite joints off there, which happens to be the fourteen track on the album. I was inspired and for fun I went to create a beat as if I was in the lab with Tribe. I just sat on the beat because I didn’t have any intentions on using it for anything. IRONICALLY, fast forward to 2011, randomly I get contacted by Peanut Butter Wolf, which leds to Michael Rapaport randomly calling me in the lab about putting some beats together for the ATCQ “Beats, Rhymes & Life “Documentary DVD bonus scenes. What tigga what tigga WHAT?!? Like on Low End Theory, I was “Buggin’ Out”. The first beat I thought about what this one! Glad I actually got to use it for ATCQ in some way. Crazy how life works when you dream outloud.
14. Width feat. Tony Ozier
I’ve been trying to get my brother Tony Ozier on a project for a minute. We’ve done a couple tracks together for his album “Aural Penetration” in 09’. I had yet to get him on one of mine. One day back in 07’-08’, he stopped by the lab. I had this song for another project I was working on. I wrote the lyrics and sung the melody, but I wanted him to sing it. So, he laced it. I also asked him to play the bass on it as well and it came out sounding like love! I found this flute sample off a jazz record and filtered out all the instruments, so it sounded like a solo. It went perfectly and I couldn’t sit on this joint any longer. This song was dedicated to God and the love He has for His children. Lyrics, “When can they measure the width of our love? Never a time. Never a time. Never a time.” Inspiration: Romans 8:37-39
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