Kota the Friend Wants Everyone to Have a Good Time

Expanding into more funk/ electro-house beats in his latest single “Hope You Heal”, Kota reminds us to brush off other people’s negativity; creating room for the brighter side of hip-hop and continuing to speak on the topics that bind us together. Kota can't be bothered with the drama and the “bad vibes'' that accompany this industry. He wishes all the best to his haters and in the meantime, he's gonna keep doing him.

office sat down with the indie hip-hop artist and producer to discuss his recent investment in NYC Sports Network, how he avoids negativity in the industry, and what fatherhood has taught him about giving back to the people he loves.

Your music provides an escape for a lot of people from the everyday noise,  negativity, and allows them to listen to something more authentic and uplifting. How do you use making music to work through everyday challenges on your own?

For me, writing and making music is a way to express what's going on in my mind and all the inner chaos that’s happening. Sometimes I can’t really communicate something until I write about it, so writing about it through music has always helped me make sense of what’s going on in my head.

How do you incorporate your upbringing in Brooklyn into your music?

I think it comes in and out depending on what song it is or what the song is about. But I’m always incorporating Brooklyn, where I'm from, things that I've been through and how things that I’ve been through are affecting my life now, how they have helped me, how they kind of toughened me up, you know but what I write about is my life, my real life.

Given that you grew up in NYC following high school sports, how does it feel to have that full circle moment now that you’re investing with NYC Sports Network?

Yeah it feels good to give back to roots, I feel like that was a time in my life when I was shooting videos for the NYCSNetwork like high school sports and you get invested in the kids that are coming up. It’s cool to see those kids come from High School to College and then get into the NFL or the NBA. I remember seeing the feeling that these kids would have when somebody was taking videos and reporting on them and making highlight reels of them when they were in high school. They appreciate it so much. So it would be a good thing to be able to like support them in that way again, you know.

You talk a lot about how you value authenticity in your music, how do you balance the pressure of producing commercial music while simultaneously creating an authentic album?

I feel like for an artist it’s always a struggle to stay authentic and I think I balance it just by leaving the music alone and trying to keep the music authentic no matter what. Whether it’s profitable or not. The money side will figure it out on its own, you know. If the music is not making as much money then you know it we’ll do something else that’s why we get into real estate, whatever, I just like to stay authentic on the music side no matter what.

Tell me about the artwork for the album cover of Protea that you incorporated into your collaboration with Dinner Service. What inspired this scene of a gathering on the beach?

I wanted the artwork to really be classic and to remind me of the artwork that I saw growing up in my house. Like the African American artwork that I would see in my mom’s house or my grandma’s house. The cover art has different elements, like my wife is from Dubai so it takes place in the desert, there's music instruments involved, it looks like there’s a wedding, there’s a hot air balloon because hot air balloons are big out in Dubai too, so it was a few things. Kinda like everything that I love about my life rolled up into one and I just want it to look like I wanted it to look like a classic art piece.

Your single “Hope you Heal” is one of your more up beat tracks that talks about brushing off negativity from others. How do you keep this mindset in such a competitive industry like hip hop?

I like to keep the mindset by not participating in a lot of industry stuff.  I like to keep my music pure, I like to just keep it about the music and kind of leave everything that taints it, out of it. I’m kinda in my own lane, I play my own game, I do things my way so it's a lot of stuff that I don’t have to deal with when it comes to the industry.

What inspired you to add more electro house beats into your recent albums?

I’ve always been inspired by that kind of music and I think at that time I was just listening to a lot more house, electronic and different sounds and it became something I wanted to experiment with.

A lot of your music, specifically your latest album Protea, talks about your wife and raising a family. What is the biggest thing you’ve learned from fatherhood?

The biggest thing I’ve learned from fatherhood is you have to give space when space is needed, you have to get closer when that’s needed, and you have to learn the nuances.

Lately, one of my biggest things has been finding a way to do something special for the special people in my life, every day. I think about when it comes to my son, and when it comes to my daughter, I just like to do something that they like to do every day. When you have people in your life that are important to you, you have to make sure that everybody is kind of living a good life.  You wanna do things for yourself, and you wanna do things for everybody in your life whether you have a wife, you have kids, make sure that everybody is enjoying their time on this earth and I try to do my best at that.