TOstateofmind

On the Road to Riches.... Rapper/Producer Rich Kidd's Journey from the Bottom of the Can

The other day I was listening to my favourite radio show, Flow 93.5's OTA Live, and co-host Ty Harper said that one cannot claim to be following what's going on in Toronto hip-hop if they don't have Rich Kidd's new We On Some Rich Kidd Sh*t 3 mixtape. Considering that a staggering eight tracks from Rich's tape have managed airplay on the city's radio waves, it's safe to say that Ty ain't lyin'.

What's amazing about Rich Kidd is how much he's accomplished in just a couple of years. My brother Slay, a drummer and producer for rap-rock band Track Dirtyaz, remembers "Richie" as the cool high school kid interning at the Mississauga studio where the Dirtyaz' SonHouse album was mixed back in 2006.

"He was just an intern at the studio, running to get cables and trying to get a little weed," Slay remembers. "I remember him playing his first couple of beats for us. That was four years ago, so he's done a lot of work in four years."

He's now one of the two go-to guys--the other being Scarborough's Boi1da--that Toronto's best artists call when they need a beat. Of Rich's most recent productions, Cali Snipes' "Money To Burn" video is in rotation on MuchVibe, K-os' neck-breaker "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman" is all over the radio and also just cracked OTA Live's Megacity Countdown and his own song "Hypnotic," featuring Ridgeway Entertainment labelmate Junia-T has been as high as number six on the same countdown.

He knows there is still work to do, and he's busy expanding his brand as both a producer and an artist. This Saturday, September 12 he'll be performing twice in one day, first joining Boi1da for a beat showcase at the Scarborough FreshFest at the Scarborough Civic Centre at 4 p.m. and then hitting the stage at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for Importfest's HipHopCanada.com Showcase at 8 p.m. On the 15th he'll be a celebrity judge at a contest for youth who'll be pitching business ideas to win prizes and on the 20th he opens for DJ/producer Hi-Tek and DJ Scratch Bastid at the ManifesTO Afterparty. Somehow he found time to answer a few questions for TOstateofmin.com readers about his grind and Toronto hip-hop.
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TOstateofmind.com: You worked at a studio before you became a producer, so you were obviously looking for a career in music. What part of the biz were you trying to break into then?

Rich Kidd: At the time I was already spittin' and I had started making some beats, but I never showed anybody that. I was rapping, but I wanted to learn mixing and engineering and all of that technical stuff because I knew nothing about that side of things. I just wanted to know everything. I used to fetch coffee for them while they mixed down albums, but I learned how to use all of the equipment and the computer programs like Cool Edit Pro. The purpose was to learn how to make my beats better and make them sound crisper.

TO: You only started making beats about four or five years ago. It must have taken a lot of hard work to go from doing high school co-op in a studio to being one of T.O.'s two or three "it" producers and having the opportunity to work with artists like K-os, Drake and Billy Danze of M.O.P. What did you do in that short time to get where you are now?

RK: Basically I upped my game. It wasn't as much about hard work as making the right connections. It doesn't have to be hard work because I enjoy creating beats. I make a lot of beats that I just sit and wait for the right time. I'm versatile... I can do a happy beat or whatever other beat an artist wants. Plus after working with artists, they know I'm about Canadian hip-hop and artists and they see that I'm putting in work consistently and that makes them want to f*** with me.

TO: You seem to be doing a good job using your production work to set the stage for a career as an artist. Which one did you want to do first, and which side of the game is more important to you now?

RK: I always did both. Some people might see me MCing more than producing, but I make beats more than I MC. I won't choose one to try to bust with, I want to do them both equally. I'll release a couple of singles and when I come up with a really cold concept for an album that I don't think anyone can touch, then I'll make an album as an artist. But the beats are what is gaining me the popularity that's allowing me to MC.

TO: What is Ridgeway Entertainment and how did it come to be?

RK: Ridgeway Entertainment is a record label that was started by my manager Courtney Allen. Ridgeway is the block we're from at the very edge of 'Sauga, about as far as you can go in Mississauga. Courtney started the label from long time with a few artists from the block, but it didn't turn out the way he planned. I got hooked up with Courtney through a friend of mine named Whiskey who had been a part of the label and when Whiskey linked us Courtney and I became a two-man team. Courtney has a talent for talking to people and making connections with people.

TO: So he's the business guy and the idea guy? The marketing expert?

RK: Yeah, he deals with that side of everything. He books the shows and makes the connections. I mean, I call him my manager, but really I manage myself too. I come up with all of the concepts that have to do with the music. But he's good at talking to people. I don't really talk to the big artists when they come to us. When they come in I'm usually in the corner rollin' a blunt.

TO: Toronto producers might possibly have had more success than Toronto rappers so far. What role do you think our producers will play in finally blowing up the city?

RK: It depends. Some say it'll be creating that sound that we'll have. Everyone says that we have to have a sound. Maybe it'll just be the way we talk, but everyone's different. I mean, the Jamaicans here have their yardie talk, but not everyone does that. Up here there are too many cultures for one to dominate and have one sound for everybody. I think our job will be breaking the artists, and that's what I want to do. I mean, a producer could just put out a CD with all the hottest rappers on his beats--and I did that--but I want to push the artists. The Drake song on my CD ["The Search" featuring Saukrates] was the one that made all the bloggers show it on their sites, but I wanted the other artists to be seen too. The artists can push themselves on their own, but Drake couldn't have done what he's done without Boi1da.