Many people in the hip hop world have heard of Strange Music and Tech n9ne. One of the biggest independent labels with one of the biggest, if not the biggest truly independent artists, in the world; however, every night Tech brings his Snake and Bat chains, a wild live show, and the best co-star someone could ask for. We had a chance to sit down with not only an underrated Strange Music partner, but one of the most underrated artists in all of hip hop.

Isaac: Alright so, off the bat, I'm Isaac with Upcoming Hip Hop. The first question I usually ask everybody is just kind of give us, give the readers a little bit about yourself. Who you are and what do you represent?

Krizz Kaliko: I am Krizz Kaliko, man. I am the resident genius of Strange Music. Now, I was actually being funny self-proclaiming that but, most of the songs that are the biggest with our fans I have played a part in. Except for Hood Go Crazy. Most of the big songs are Tech N9ne with Krizz Kaliko at Strange Music including the biggest one with Caribou Lou.

Isaac: Platinum album now correct?

Krizz Kaliko: Platinum. Platinum, and a lot of the other ones are on their way to gold, and platinum as well, man. So, am like ... a lot of people will call me the glue of Strange Music. Tech is the flagship, he's the platform. Krizz Kaliko is generally the glue, it brings it together.

Most if not all of my close friends know how big of a fan of Strange Music I have been for years, so this last sentence really resonated with me. Having seen them perform over the last 8 years, having followed tech n9ne for the past 10 years, there is always been a staple. Krizz Kaliko on hooks, verses, singing, rapping, dancing; Krizz Kaliko is the glue, but if he is the glue, the next man is the applicator.

Isaac: That's true, what I think Strange Music, of course, most people think Tech N9ne, the face of Strange Music. Kind of talking about the glue, and coming together. What can you tell the fans about Icy Roc Kravyn, and the song ‘Who You Came to See?’

Krizz Kaliko: Okay. Icy Roc Kravyn is the guy that introduced me to Tech. He's like my sister's ex-boyfriend from when I was a kid. I know him, and Tech had Nuthouse, and they had formed this group, and Tech went off, and got a deal. A couple of deals, came back to Kansas City, and when he came back the last time, I was Icy Roc's new prodigy. He had been his prodigy before. But, Tech is such the opposite of a hater, he's like the total opposite of any hater. So, he saw that, and was like I want that dude with me. You know what I mean? So, I started out helping his singers with the hooks, then I would end up actually doing them. Roc is who trained me into it. If hip hop was military, Icy Roc was the drill sergeant. He pissed us off so many times by making us do songs certain ways. The biggest thing he contributed, he taught me how to count bars for one. The biggest thing he contributed to me is, making me write songs to perform them. Because, we always could do that and rap like that, but can you perform it?

Similar to talking with Brother Ali, I had a feeling early in this interview that I would be listening intently. Icy Roc understood something that I agree with and have advocated for since I started going to live shows 12+ years ago. If you are an incredible act with a boring live show, you are a boring artists. I don’t listen to Prof often, but every time he performs in town I am there because he captivates. Similarly, I listen to Future almost every day, but I am not taking time out of my day to watch him live after his dreadful performance at Sound Set. Krizz went on to explain how Icy drove that point home.

Krizz Kaliko: Is the biggest thing. You can do studio tricks, and punch in, but Speedom the song that Tech, and I had with Eminem, can you perform it? I could perform my whole verse by myself without any assistance. He taught us how to do that. If you wrote a song that you couldn't perform he would get up from the recording, from the control table, and walk out. Not giving you any explanation, and that's how you knew that you were making a mistake. You know what I mean? Roc was our drill sergeant. I will always have a love, and admiration for him, for putting me with Tech, and he's a big reason why I've been successful all these years.

Isaac: It's really cool to see how these things come together. You might not know it, I mean when I look at the local scene, you see these that have never worked together, and can go, man these guys would work really good together. When you hear that, and you hear how big you guys really made it. I've interviewed [Tech] a couple of times, and he's always got really good things to say about you. Like you said, he's the opposite of a hater. This guy’s going to talk really well, and I was kind of wondering how that relationship has allowed your creative side to flow? How has that allowed you to continue as a creative artist?

Krizz Kaliko: Being with Tech the way that has allowed me to grow is because, Tech will push you without doing it. Without ... inadvertently pushes you. So, my competition is him, all the time. We've been in constant competition, and not like in a fuck you way, but in a like a, oh you gonna do that? Okay, I'm gonna do this. Okay I'm gonna do that. I just sent him something that I had to do, I had to co-write with him the other day. I didn't see him for the whole day because, I left. I get up in the morning, leave, like I've been sitting at Perkins for like three hours this morning. I go to Perkins, and I write because, I'm writing. He emailed me, he's like, damn you can rap. Even after 20 years of us being together. He's like, damn you can rap dude, that's crazy that you can still rap like that. I'm like, it's crazy but, it's the competition man, it's the friendly competition that pushes us to be better. Once he can see that I was trying to be better than him, okay now he's trying to one up me. Okay, now I'm trying to one up him. It just never stops, so, that's how he has encouraged me to be like, elite. Plus, if you ever hear Tech on a feature with somebody else, he like, annihilates them. So, my job was to annihilate him.

This mentality is one of the healthiest and most fun to watch. Whether it’s something like Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara pushing each other to be better running backs or myself pushing myself to compete with the best photographers I know. There isn’t a better example of this than one of the most underrated versus of all time in Speedom. It’s hard to be going against Tech n9ne for 20 years, it’s even more difficult to add Eminem to the mix and hold your own, but for Krizz it was just another chance to ‘annihilate’ them.

Isaac: I was going to say, in that Speedom, when I listen to Speedom, I love Tech's verse, I Love Em's verse, but your verse on Speedom stood out the most to me.

Krizz Kaliko: Everybody says that, Eminem said that. Eminem was like, ‘Dude, Krizz's verse man, I was like, whoa.’ He was like rapping my verse in the interview, he was trying to rap my verse. I'm like damn, this is Eminem trying to rap my verse in the song. You know what I mean? That's crazy, because he's always been the goat to me, too. One of the goat's. Yeah man, so it's just that friendly competition man. I feel like I can sing with any singer, and rap with any rapper like, I feel like I can give anybody a run for their money, anytime, whoever it is, no matter what.

This is the craziest part of an artist like Krizz Kaliko. He not only has outshined Tech n9ne (Tech will be the first to tell you), not only bested Eminem on their only song together (Em will tell you), but also has a voice that will blow you away. The songs where his voice appears most powerful are not always the easiest ones to write. It isn’t just that you have to do a lot of introspection, but some of these topics aren’t easy to let the world know about you.

Isaac: But, my question on that is it's not an easy thing to talk about, anybody talking about their mental health. How do you go about that, [bringing mental health] into a song? Is it just how you're feeling that day, or is it something that you kind of try to look at it from different perspectives than yours?

Krizz Kaliko: Those songs are therapy to me, man. I've never said this in an interview, but, I don't want to make those songs. I don't even want to write those, I want to write songs like, ‘Girls Like That’ “I like a girl with a big butt”, I want to write those kinds of songs where, everybody's in the club partying, drinking, kicking it, and I want to make those songs. But, I have to make the Unstable's. The Bipolar, the songs like that because, it was actually therapy to me. You know what I mean? I wrote those songs so that I wouldn't go crazy. I've been suicidal, I know how to describe it in a song.I know how to describe what I think, what I feel, and what I think everybody's probably feeling when they go through this because, everybody who was suicidal has these same thoughts. Everybody thinks the exact same way, I knew I could convey that in a song. I know certain melodies, and notes, like there's a science to it ... will get to you. I could have sang that any kind of way. You know what I'm saying?

Music has always been an outlet for me, but writing is my therapy. I can get out feelings and thoughts that maybe I don’t trust to the world yet. I have been able to open up throughout the years working with UHH and it is always a pleasure to talk with artist who are able to tap into this therapy as well, but we aren’t the only ones who benefit from the worlds we write to help ourselves, as Krizz would go on to explain.

Krizz Kaliko: The biggest comment I hear about me, and not how talented I am, or good I can rap, sing, none of that. It's that this music helped me. Dude, I hear what you just said to me, every day. Like, every day of my life. Not even just on the road, or the meet, and greets, merch booth, or nothing. Even at the store. I go to the grocery store by my house sometimes, and people will be in there, and I'll see somebody kinda looking at me, and I'm over here trying to squeeze the avocados to see which one I want, and somebody's looking at me, I'm like, okay is it weird? Or is the avocados? Is it me? They'll go dude, you're Krizz Kaliko. And I'm like, yeah. They're like man, can I hug you? Like grown men. I'm like, yeah man. They're like your song so, and so kept me from killing myself. I've probably heard that over a thousand times. When I was kid, people said I was going to be a minister. I didn't know if that was necessarily going to be true but, this is ministering right here, in this environment. Because, if I was a mister you can only touch people in a church. Where if I operate within this environment when people talk about ... not to get too religious but, if you're Christian, people talk about being 'Christ like', no one knows what the hell that means.

Religion isn’t something that is brought up too much by me in these interviews because I personally am not a very religious person. I have my own connection with a higher power; however, I am very supportive of all religions that promote positive lifestyles. Something that I loved when we continued was that Krizz talked about the fact that being “Christ-like” involved preaching in the streets. ‘Walking amongst the people that weren’t in the church’ and continuing to spread a positive message. While religion is a great way to get a positive message across, it is always a way to talk about the difficulties we go through, another thing that can also be accomplished in music. As we would soon figure out, we were even more alike than we thought.

Isaac: That's actually ... this was another one that I wanted to get into. Anxiety was ... when I was first having really bad panic attacks, I don't know, when I listen to this song, I don't feel like it's talking me through anxiety, I feel like it's telling me exactly what's happening and that helps me out way more than trying to solve it.

Krizz Kaliko: Yeah, it's saying this is fucked up. This is horrible. I hate this. And [the fans are] like, me too.

Isaac: The other big one that I wanted to talk about was, Stop the World, on your last project. I don't like to talk about [depression] this is why I wanted to talk to you about this because, I struggle talking about depression, my anxiety has been a lot easier to talk about lately. But, depressions has been the really difficult one for me to talk about. The way you feel about it, the suicidal tendencies, all those types of things, they're really ... I feel that sometimes even just talking about it isn't the same as when you hear it in a song. When you hear it in a song it makes it more easily digestible. I feel the same way when I get into my writing, that if I'm going to talk to somebody about it, it's not going to be the same way as if I just write it out, and then they read it later.

Krizz Kaliko: In the song, I feel like you can convey exactly how you want it to be conveyed. You know what I'm saying? Music is kind of spiritual, you know what I'm saying? Certain notes, it's proven, that certain notes make people feel a certain way. You know what I'm saying? You ever that thing on the internet, on YouTube, where the dude plays the three chords, and sings like a hundred songs with the same three chords? There's a reason why all these songs have those chords. Because, they know that people are going to be attracted to those particular chords, there's a science behind it. But, it spoke to me, and it told me to do this, you know what I mean? I feel like if it does that's to me, it'll do that to you. You were talking about Anxiety. That's kind of trappy sounding, if you really listen to it. It doesn't sound like it's supposed to be serious. Mm, mm, mm. In my head I just heard anxiety. I didn't have nothing else, but I just had that. Then I heard right after that, I'm going, going, gone. I was like dude, I got to do that. It felt like I was just getting it out. It made me feel like I was getting it out of my body by expressing it on this aggressive sounding beat. You know what I mean? That's what I presume you feel too.

Isaac: Yeah. It's weird because, you're right, it doesn't tap into the side of it that's like, how am I going to fix my anxiety? It taps into the side, the aggressive side ... not the aggressive, but the frustrated side of it. Where you're like, why does this keep happening? Why can't I just ... like why do I continually feel this way, even though afterwards I know it's going to go away, or even during, I know it's going to go away. But, it doesn't. That's what I got. Like that, I feel like a fucking maniac in public.

Krizz Kaliko: Dude. I was walking through Wal Mart. A lot of times I got my hood on like this. You know, of course, the way that I look, sometimes I think is different than what I am, or how I speak, or any of these things. So, you walk through Wal Mart, big black dude with a hoodie on, gold teeth. To some people that seems a bit menacing, or intimidating. So, when I'm going through anxiety, I'm like, what is this mother fucker thinking right now? Even though I'm just going to the electronics to get me some ear buds. I mean, but I'm like, I'm looking at her, and I'm looking at you, and I'm looking at him, I'm just like ... I felt crazy.

Feeling crazy, feeling anxious, not understanding why these things happen or what triggers them. There have been days I thought it was over, days I couldn’t get out of bed, days where I thought everyone knew exactly how I was feeling. This is the most important aspects to music for myself is the ability for me to see myself in the songs. “Anxiety, it freaks me out. It’s driving me, it creeps me out. Inside of me, Can’t keep me out…” The ability to make a song that directly relates to the way I feel is what connects me to an artist like Krizz, but I always wonder what keeps them connected to the fans.

Isaac: So, in talking about this connection because, this is one thing, we just sat down with Brother Ali a couple weeks ago.

Krizz Kaliko: Yeah that's who helped me. Super good dude.

Isaac: One thing that we kind of talked about is, even though ... I mean you guys may have a little bit bigger of an audience than some of the guys at Rhymesayers but, even so, within the underground, independent artists, one of the things I like is that when you create your music, and this was something that ... this is a direct quote from him was saying that, "it's music not trying to be anything but what it is." That's kind of what we were talking about here but, what is that connection with the fans kind of do to your side of things? What does the connection to your fans mean to you?

Krizz Kaliko: For real man. Not even during the creation, it means I can't quit. Because, I wanted to quit a couple of times. Several, several times. It just means that I can't quit because, I feel responsible for my fans, for our fans, and for Tech fans. I feel responsible for them. I feel like they kind of need me. That sounds very pompous but I feel like they need me. I feel like if I stop, remember when JayZ said, they can't leave the game alone, the game needs me. I feel like the game really does need a JayZ. I feel like in my world, the game, our fans need us. The service, I say this all the time, man. I understand my talent, and I appreciate it but, I'm a servant of this world. I'm a servant of the people. I serve folks. You know what I mean? In my way, and I feel like I would be doing a disservice to them, to not be here, and exist in this music world.

We went on to talk about the fact that artists are human. They have flaws, they have depressions, and they have bills, children and a taxing life on the road. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that they are the same as us when in some cases people become dependent on the music as a ‘savior’ for certain issues in their life. People couldn’t fathom why Dave Chapelle left show business at one of his most popular, but sometimes the fame isn’t worth the pressure. However, the road can be enjoyable even throughout the issues and pressures.

Krizz Kaliko: You know what I'm saying? You only have this little space to occupy, and you gotta find ways to keep your little stuff how you want to keep it. Because, Tech likes to put his stuff everywhere. I'm constantly doing this with Tech's stuff. I'm like, here's your area. I mean this is 20 years later. I'm like no, put your flip flops right there. Dude, you got Gucci flip flops, they're like 300 dollars, why are they just in the middle of the hall? Put that up. Last night, he got in his bed, and I was in my bunk because, I usually sleep on the bottom, he's always on the top, and he's like across. He put his flip flops in the middle of the hall. I was like look what you're doing, look what you're doing, look what you're doing. Why are these here? Why are these here? You're flip flops are 300, mine are 30, and I take better care of my 30 dollar ones, than your 300 dollar ones. Why are you doing this right now? Please put your flip flops up. He'd be like, okay man. That's one of the funnier parts but, it's a little bit tougher. Like military, athletes, prison all live the same way. We all live the same way with this. It's taxing man, it's mentally taxing. All of our dudes are tired. The last day of the tour's tomorrow. Everybody's beat. Everybody's beat. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm sitting at Perkins like, oh I'm so tired. I do not want to do this show tonight. But, as soon as that music comes on, it's like vroom. It just turns back on, and then you're like, let's go. That's why we can do crazy shows every night. Every night because, this is what we do. Even if we don't want to do it, this is what we do, so it just turns on. You know what I'm saying?

The fans can be tiring, the love overbearing, but the truth of the matter is they are the driving force that gets artists on stage and continue to put out their best shows. Krizz was the first to mention both sides of it and to talk about the pure joy of stepping onto stage, or in his case a full out sprint, and hearing the crowd scream in pure ecstasy. Since we had been talking about this connection, the final thing to do was to make this connection within the interview and bring a fan in to ask their question.

Isaac: love what I get to do here, getting to sit down with guys like you, and Tech, and Ali, and all these guys. So, I always reach out to the fans, and see kind of what the fans are thinking, and if they ever want to ask questions. So, we had a question from a fan who, he reached out to ask. He said he had tried to get you to smoke, and drink with him way back in the day at the Myth here, and he said you were sober at the time, and he knew that you were very religious, so he wondered if you're still sober, and if you're sober, is your sobriety based on religious beliefs? And then also, how does it feel being on certain songs that may portray, you know, getting drunk or going to the club, and that sort of side of it. Along with the sobriety side of it.

Krizz Kaliko: So, couple of things. I was sober when we talked to me, that doesn't me that happens all the time. I drink. I don't smoke too much man. Like, it always freaked me because, I have anxiety. The right strain of weed, I'm looking for it. If I had the right strain of weed, I would smoke. My sobriety has nothing to do with religion, at all. It's literally because, I have always been, for real, I've always been like the daddy of the crew. I've always been like the mature one of all of us, for real. Tech is older than me, but I've always been like his big brother. Like you see what I said, what are you doing? What are you doing? Pick your stuff up. You know what I'm saying? Even though he's like the boss of us, but if you were around all the time, he doesn't seem like that.

Even sitting down with the both of them this could be seen. Tech has always seemed more outgoing and likely to party, while Krizz in the interview gave out more of a vibe of someone that has to remain much more in control. It is something I feel about drinking and loss of control with my anxiety and its one of the reasons I do not drink often; however, even the most socially awkward like to let loose.

Krizz Kaliko: He don't seem like he's the boss because, usually I'm telling him what to do. But, that's only because, Tech has always been a little more of party animal than me. I'll kick it for a while, then I get off of it. So, I'm not a big drinker. On this tour, I have a thing that I do on tour where, I drink for a whole week straight. Every day. Every single day for a whole week, and I did my week. Then I'm back off of it. One because, I'm concentrating on my health more than anything. That's the main reason. Secondly, I like to be in control. I don't have to be in control of you. But, I want to be in control of me. You know what I'm saying? I'm a cool drunk, you know what I'm saying? But, I may lose control here, and there sometimes. So, I don't want to do that. I want to usually be watching. I'm slightly paranoid too, so I want to like peep what's happening. If I'm drinking in the VIP, and there's a hundred girls around, I can't fucking pay attention to everything that's happening. I'm usually watching. Usually if somebody's doing something, I see it. Security sometimes doesn't even see it. Their sitting there whistling. I'm like, dude in the red hoodie over there, blah, blah, blah. They're like who? I'm like, dude right there. Pacing back, and forth, reaching in his pockets, keeps coming over here. You know what I'm saying. And if I'm drinking, I can't, I'm not on. You know what I'm saying? That's really the reason, it don't have anything to do with religion.

Isaac: This goes back to what you were saying, a lot of people that have these like anxiety or depression, they think the same things, this is literally ... I don't drink very often, and I don't drink for that reason. I don't like to lose control. I don't like ... when I think about operations that freak me out, I was like, if I have to be put under, that freaks me out. Like that idea that I'm not going to be in control. I don't have to control everybody else.

Krizz Kaliko: How do you do on airplanes?

Isaac: I don't fly.

Krizz Kaliko: See. Yeah. I have to travel for a living, I have to do it. I have to fly over the ocean for 17 hours. That thought is like I'm analyzing like what is happening? What would happen if that shit went down? You're fucked. So, I study stuff that I'm afraid of. I don't like to drive over bridges, so I study bridges, and how they're made. The construction, and why it works. Why are these triangles? What are the suspension cables? How did this come about? I have to study this shit so I can go over them. I still, if it's a big, tall, long bridge over water, man it's a little bit of an issue. Once I'm in the middle of it, I'm like oh fuck, I'm screwed. But, I'm driving, and I can't kill us, so let's figure out. I learned coping mechanisms, man to do that. To function. The doctor said, you do good on alcohol don't you? I said yeah. He said, people that have your brain wave patterns, do really well on alcohol. I was like yeah, actually it feels great.

Learning how to cope with anxiety has been the biggest trial over the past few years for me. Flying is one of a few things that I haven’t mastered but talking with Krizz really gave me a few ideas on how to cover this topic. One thing that I think those that really suffer from this can’t get across to the rest of people is that an unlikely event, is still possible to happen. For me, elevators breaking down is a big one. It’s super unlikely, but every time I get in one that thought of ‘what if?’ goes through my head, this is something Krizz was familiar with.

Isaac: What it is, is, what if something happens to me, and I'm five miles in the sky? That's the part that freaks me out.

Krizz Kaliko: With anxiety, possibility outweighs probability. If it's possible, I'm imagining it. The probability of the airplane going down or course, is very, very low. But, the possibility it's low too, and it exists so I'll think of it. [However], anything you do on a regular basis, you'll stop being scared of it. So, if you go, eventually ... I mean I've had times that I would not fly, and I was cool for years, then all of a sudden it came back, and I was terrified again. That's because I had a bad flight, a bad experience. But now, dude once I started eating like ... really if I eat vegetarian, and not the fake vegetarian, not the carbatarian way, but really just eat fruits, and vegetables, and narrow it down to just eating plants for real, I was cool. Last time I took a flight, I was like, okay here come these dark clouds, and I was like, uh it wasn't that bad. Now for some reason I feel way more cool. You know what I'm saying?

Isaac: Alright, well yeah, the last thing we'll do here is have you shout out your social media's, and kind of what you guys have coming up. If you have any projects coming up, the last date of the tour, and everything like that.

Krizz Kaliko: My social media man is, K-R-I-Z-Z K-A-L-I-K-O. Krizz Kaliko on everything. It's not the real, and none of that, you know what I'm saying? It's just Krizz Kaliko on Facebook, Krizz Kaliko on ... it might be Big Krizz Kaliko on Facebook. But, I think it's Krizz Kaliko on Facebook, on Instagram, those are the ones I'm on the most. Twitter too. Snapchat is geniusKK because, somebody already took my name. Snapchat. But people are pretty much on Instagram. So, Krizz Kaliko on Instagram, man. I'm just now getting ready to start working on new music, man. I actually just wanted to take a break. I took a break for like two years, and I wrote stuff for other people.

Isaac: Go was your last project.

Krizz Kaliko: Go was the last one, album came out in 2016. I also had been writing for a lot of other people, and just pitching songs to country artists, and rock bands, and R&B, and gospel. I pretty much can write anything. So, I've been writing for a lot of other people, man, and just wanted to pursue doing that. I also do a lot of voice over work, and stuff now too.

Isaac: Awesome. Anything coming?

Krizz Kaliko: Not that I can talk about yet because, I don't have it secured but, I got some really big voice projects that I'm doing reads for. Hopefully. There's one that's really, really big, and I'm like trying to be that. You know what I'm saying? Just doing that, man. I'm just getting ready to get back to making new music. I've been making, like I said, I've been making music for other people. I wrote some stuff the other day, that's when Tech's like, damn dude that's crazy, you can still rap like that. Like. It's in there. It's in there. It's in there, I just got to pull it out. You know what I'm saying? So, I will be working on all new music coming up, 2019.

Isaac: Awesome, well thank you for again for sitting down with us.

Krizz Kaliko: Yeah man. Thank you brother.

I have sat down with some of the biggest legends in the underground game. I have had knowledge spilled, laughs, thoughtful convos, and this one contained it all and then some. I had been waiting a while to have this sit down and it didn’t disappoint. Krizz Kaliko, resident genius, has done everything from stunning Eminem to picking up after Tech n9ne’s Gucci flip flops and will hopefully be making his way to the big screen soon on some voice overs. . I urge everyone reading this to check out his music, watch his interviews and if you get the chance to meet him give him a big hug, he loves giving them out.