Brooklyn-born rapper Kota the Friend continues his musical journey authentically, independently and with positivity. Back with a new album, Just Happy to Be Here, he finds himself in a place of bravery and vulnerability, embracing every version of himself. A musical therapist of sorts, he’s built a career around introspective hip-hop and storytelling.
Religiously adopting a do-it-yourself mentality, he’s turned down record labels in exchange for creative freedom. His music often feels like a collection of snapshots photographing love, growth, heartbreak, and everything in between.
Ahead of his upcoming performance at Rooster ArtFest, Kota spoke about his new album, rediscovering the guitar, his connection to Colorado, and what it means to be an artist before anything else.
Your music often reflects a version of yourself in that particular moment. Does Just Happy to Be Here capture a specific version of you?
Just Happy to Be Here captures the version of me that accepts all the versions of me. I’ve been in different eras in my life and I’ve done different things. I think this era is me looking back and reaching back for all those different parts of me that I kind of sectioned off, and parts of me that I let go of.
You’re performing at Rooster ArtFest, an event that combines art, music, fashion, and culture. If your upcoming album, Just Happy to Be Here was an art exhibit instead of an album, what would it look like?
I think it would be black and white photos. Black and white photos of the good times in a relationship, and tough times in a relationship. Just the highs and lows, that’s it.
That’s kind of a recurring theme in a lot of your music. You even have an album called FOTO. Do you think about photography and taking snapshots of life when approaching your music?
That’s a crazy observation. I’ve always had a thing for photography. Cameras and capturing life have always been something I see when I’m writing music. I see images and even when I listen back to my music, I see the images. So yeah, images and photos matter a lot to me.
In previous interviews, you compared songwriting to sculpting. How do visual art and music overlap in your life?
I’ve never been much of a visual artist as far as drawing or painting or sculpting or anything like that. When I compare songwriting to sculpting, I’m just thinking about the way that a sculptor would do it. They start with a block, and it gets more detailed and more refined as you go along, you know? I love film. I love camera work. When I’m writing a song, I already see it as a film or a video. I already see the story. I think that’s the connection between film and cameras and music – the story, you know?
How do you typically approach making a new song? When you start writing a song, do you start with a beat, a story, a line that you thought about?
I always start with the music. Whether it’s like somebody sent me a beat or whether I start playing on the guitar or the keyboard. It starts with the music for me because I feel like I have unlimited stories that I can use for my life. The music creates the story for me. When I hear the song, instrumental, or guitar riff, I’m able to translate the music into words.
Going back to one of your older projects, Local Art Dealer, why that title? Do you think of yourself as an artist before a musician?
I consider myself an artist before musician for sure. I feel like I was always an artist, even before I picked up an instrument. I think being an artist is a way of life. I feel like I’ve always been an artist since I was a kid. My mother used to tell me she noticed differences between me and other cousins or siblings. She was like, you could notice a sunset when you were a one year old. There’s certain things that you paid attention to, that the kids around you just didn’t pay attention to.
You mentioned picking up the guitar again for this tour. What inspired you to pick it back up and start playing it live?
I don’t know what really inspired me to just pick it up a few months ago, but I tried to learn some of my songs that I had already had on the guitar just to have some fun. I realized that I was pretty good at transcribing the music and then playing it. After a while, playing a guitar just became an anxiety reliever for me. I started doing it every day and getting better and more confident with it. I figured it would be something cool to give to the fans and an opportunity to see my artistry in a different light and some of the songs that they have come to know, in a different way.
You’ve been an independent artist throughout your entire career. Has there ever been a time when you considered going an alternate path and signing with a label?
I think at the very beginning of my own career, I wanted to sign. I didn’t always think I could do this independently. I didn’t see it as a possibility until I started seeing the success. The goal was to sign to a label, but the record deals were so bad, and I just didn’t want to be messed around with. I just care about my music a lot, and I realized that the labels weren’t gonna give me what I wanted, and so I just kept doing it by myself.
You’ve been releasing music almost every year for more than a decade now. When you make a new project like this, what do you do to keep things new and creative?
I’m always experiencing new things in life, so it’s so easy to create something new, because life is ever changing. The world is ever changing if you’re paying attention or if you’re in tune with your emotions and your feelings. Nothing is ever really the same. There’s no way I can get stagnant because every year, I’m learning a different lesson. I have a new perspective, I have a new, big experience that shapes the way I feel. I’m always growing and so the music is always changing.
Going back to Rooster Art Fest, bringing musicians and visual artists together. Is there a piece of art or painting or a film that kind of changed the way you think about making music?
Pharrell and N.E.R.D. played a big role. There’s so many different artists that inspired me. One of my first inspirations as a rapper was Jay-Z. And then all of the East Coast rappers, Biggie and Nas, then Kanye came along. At some point, I started listening to a lot of Beatles music and Bob Dylan. That was a whole other era of my life. I feel like my taste in music and those early influences shaped how I view music.
One of your most popular songs is Colorado. When you wrote that song, were you referencing Colorado as an actual place or is it more of a state of mind for you?
I come from New York. Being from the concrete jungle, I always had dreams. I knew that Colorado had a lot of mountains and nature and whenever I would think of Colorado, I would think of this very peaceful place that I wanted to be. At the time, I was in a very hectic, toxic, life situation. I just wanted so badly to imagine its peace. That’s why I called the song Colorado, because for me, if I was in Colorado, I would be able to have that peace.
The first time you came to Colorado, did it feel like that peace you were looking for?
100%. It was 2019 on the FOTO tour. I remember when we got out of the car and landed. I remember the air just being so clean and fresh. We just took a breath. We were like, yo, is it me or does this air feel a little bit cleaner?
What do you bring to your live performances that really stands out? What makes a Kota the Friend show different from just listening to an album?
The show that we’re doing on this tour is probably the most special show that we’ve had. I’m reciting poetry. I’m doing the classic songs that people love, like Colorado and Long Beach. I’m doing some album cuts on the guitar that I’ve never performed before. We’re taking all of the different parts of me and my life and my past and I’m putting them to the forefront and showing people my most authentic self. We’re not pigeonholing ourselves to one kind of vibe. It’s gonna be like a poetry slam mixed with an unplugged session and rap show.
Tell me a little bit more about the poetry elements. What kind of inspired you to do that and what does that look like?
When I did shows at the jazz club Bruno in New York, I wanted to add another element. Poetry is something I always did, but nobody would ever know. Obviously, the music has poetry in it, but I actually enjoy writing poems. I just wanted to challenge myself to create a special moment for listeners.
When people finish listening to Just Happy to Be Here from front to back, what conversation do you hope it kind of starts with them?
I hope when people listen to it, it starts a conversation about experiences and about vulnerability. I want them to feel like it’s okay to be that vulnerable. I want people to be happy, to be feeling their emotions. Sometimes as humans, we struggle with our emotions, and I just want to create that space for people to be able to become friends with even their negative emotions, even with sadness, and grief, anxiety, and heartbreak. I want people to talk about and think about living in the moment.
What are some of the things that are bringing you joy right now?
My kids, my music, being able to make music, play my music, travel, do shows. I’m living a dream. I’m just appreciating being alive and experiencing nature. Spider-Man is about to come out. That’s gonna be fire.
Inversely, when you’re grappling with the harder things in life, what do you do to kind of wrestle with those harder feelings other than write music?
It’s not really something that I’m doing, but something that I’m not doing. It’s just not distracting myself from the emotions, not looking for a way out of pain. I think when you just face it head on and you understand that it’s here, you’re feeling your way through it. That has been helping me actually get through it faster. At the same time, using positive things like playing my guitar, helps to ease my anxiety a little bit.
Any moments or places you’ve traveled to perform that really stand out?
So many places. Colorado, I’ll never forget the first time I played Colorado in Colorado. It was ridiculous. I wish I could go back and experience it for the first time again. I remember what the building looked like. I remember, like how it felt to be on the stage. I remember so many things about that night. Chicago was up there, the first time I performed Chicago Diner in Chicago. The room was shaking. We thought the stage was gonna fall apart.
Do you ever end up disliking any of the music that you’ve released after it’s been out for a while?
100%. That’s how you know when the song is really good though. I know a song is really good when time can pass and I love it like it’s the first time I heard it. But sometimes music is for an era too, you know?
Which songs are some that you really, really like? Looking back upon them, you’re like, yes, this is my music.
I have a song called Summerhouse on the album Everything. I can listen to that song every day. It makes me feel like this, this is life. No matter what phase I’m in, that’s what that song makes me feel.