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Image via Kaiydo
Daily Discovery is a feature that highlights a new or recently discovered artist who we’re excited about. See the rest of our Daily Discoveries here.
Kaiydo just turned 19 at the end of January, but the young rapper is wise beyond his years. His choice to skip college for a career in graphic design led him down an unexpected path of creativity, and it’s paying off.
Coming from Orlando, Florida can often add an extra layer of difficulty for artists trying to get noticed when major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta continue to dominate music. But with only two tracks uploaded to his SoundCloud—both showing very different sides of his sound—Kaiydo has begun to win over the public’s attention. He’s ready for it.
Your main focus used to be graphic design. What made you decide to start pursuing music seriously?
I’ve always been into music, from a young age. Of course as kids we all go through phases, but music had always been the one that stuck with me. Once I hit high school I saw an open market for a dope graphic artist in my city, and it was a good way to make a few dollars here and there, nothing too serious at first though. By senior year it had become more time consuming and I had decided to put music down for a while.
Fast forward to around the time I dropped “Red Freestyle.” I was interning at a local studio doing graphics and sitting in on some sessions—shout out Studio18FL. I was working on a few projects at the time for some clients and ended up finishing them all the night I made the song. The last artist I worked with was Smino on his blkjuptr EP. He didn’t end up using the original artwork but shout out to him and the rest of the Zero Fatigue collective, they showed a lot of love.
But long story short, after I dropped the song I made the decision to focus on where my heart was. Don’t get me wrong, doing graphics and artwork was cool but it was just for the money honestly. Nothing like putting all your energy into something you really care about.
How has your graphic design career influenced this new chapter in your life?
Outside of getting my name out and building relationships with people already in the music industry through my artwork, I’d say it definitely had an impact on the way I view things. Like from an artistic standpoint, this probably sounds hella weird but I hear music as colors. Every melody has a certain mood, a certain temperature, a certain feel. Making song and album artwork, you get to see first hand how the things we hear correlate with the things we see. I could stare at a red wall while listening to a song and get a completely different feel than if I was looking at a blue one. Not to sound to Jaden Smith right now, but that’s how I’ve come to view the world and the things I interact with. Everything is connected.
“Red Freestyle” is an impressive debut single. What inspired it?
It was all actually pretty random. After deciding not to do graphic work anymore I got my first real job so I could support myself while I focus on music. One day me and Jay Jumpin, my go-to producer and current manager, were on our way home from work and were going through beats on SoundCloud as usual. Jay knows I’ve always been a fan of Charlie Heat’s production.
Jay was like, “Yo you seen Charlie dropped a little beat tape?” Couple seconds later he turned it on and the first track I heard was the instrumental for Two-9 “Money Counter.” I was too hype, I had looked all over the Internet for that instrumental for months. I was pretty much screaming over the car speakers telling Jay I was going to record it that day. He kind of brushed it off as one of my ideas I never actually do. But I was serious about this one.
We went over Jay’s crib and I wrote the verse in a couple hours while him and our other two homies worked on some tracks. By the time I finished the verse everyone was tired and ready to call it a day. I managed to convince the bros to stay a little while longer and let me record the track. Jay laid down the vocals quick, in like 30 minutes. It was like two seconds after we recorded it, I put up a snippet on snapchat. People were going crazy messaging me telling me to drop it. So me and my boy Jay spent about an hour mixing it down, throwing a sample of DJ Khaled’s world famous “Another One” on it and uploading it to SoundCloud. Neither one of us knew it would do what it did.
What artists would you say inspired you?
I literally just turned 19 yesterday (January 27). I’m not going to act like I got my sound from listening to old school hip-hop. Of course I will always have respect for the OGs, but I’m influenced by my generation. There will always be hip-hop heads who hate anything progressive and make it a point to complain about anything that isn’t Nas over a boom bap beat, but I can truly say I love where music is as a whole. I feel like music has diversified over the years. I’m constantly listening to artist like IshDARR, Smino, Trapo, Webster X, Saba, Elujay, Max Wonders, etc. They’re carving out their own corner of the industry—completely independent. You can’t help but be inspired by people your age making a living off what they love to do.
What’s “Arcade” about? It seems more personal than the previous single.
I’ve lowkey been avoiding this question since I dropped the track. A lot of people have asked that, and to be honest I don’t have a solid answer. It just describes where I’m at in my life. It was a song for myself, to reflect how far I’ve come in a short time. I moved out my parents’ house like a week before graduation because we had different views on what I should be doing with my life, so it was partly about my conversations with my mom over the last few years. “This ain’t no arcade” is my way of simplifying how she has always told me life isn’t a game. And then I say, “Maybe we could jump right off the roof and fly through the city,” which is pretty much my way of saying I’m willing to take that chance because I know music is what I’m supposed to be doing.
Is it hard coming up in Florida right now? Outside of Miami there doesn’t seem to be much of a music scene, or is there? How different is it for an artist from Central Florida?
I’d say it’s definitely different. It’s really small here, there is a definite sense of community in the Central Florida music scene. I like it though. We don’t have anyone to come from Orlando, not independently anyway, so it’s kind of cool to see everyone working to be that first one out. Only time will tell.
I hope I can do something for artists coming up here once I find out how to make it out myself. It’s not like Chicago, L.A., or New York where resources and music industry contacts are almost unlimited. We aren’t walking out our front doors and bumping into A&Rs. But we’re building.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
Hopefully get some good show dates in. We’re scheduled to head out to L.A. to do a couple dates in March, and then Chicago closer to the summer. There will definitely be a lot of content released this year. I’m doing a series called Colors & Sounds which is basically me dropping one song every month with a different colored artwork and theme.
But It’s only January now and the year has gotten pretty crazy already. Every day me and the team are getting more good news and reaching new milestones. A couple weeks after I dropped “Red Freestyle” Mackwop from TDE hit me on SoundCloud saying he was feeling the track. Basically, the plan is just to build. By the end of the year my main goal is to get a good booking agent so I can quit taking calls for AT&T. Other than that I don’t have much planned. I really like to go with what feels right at the moment. That’s what has got me to this point, so I don’t plan on changing anything, just staying consistent.
