10:13 AM
Vibrant sunrays peer through the blinds, illuminating the meticulously clean, yet homey Museum District apartment. As Roy Ayers’ Virgin Ubiquity 2 plays in the background, there’s a warm, yet comfortable greeting to the place.
This article was featured in RVAMag #28: Spring 2017. You can read all of issue #28 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now.
“You guys hungry? You want some breakfast? Maybe an omelet?”
I decline, but am taken back a little bit by the gesture. After all, it’s uncommon for a young host to offer to make a meal for you not even five minutes into meeting them. But then again, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Kahuna — his focus is always on the details.
Big Kahuna OG recently made waves on the scene with Ocean Grown, his collaborative tape with producer Graymatter. For their first major release together, the tape has a polished, well-rehearsed sound as if the two have been doing this for years. With practical, yet vivid lyricism, Kahuna has a knack for setting descriptive scenes of his day-to-day, encapsulated with memorable hooks over Graymatter’s raw, yet melodically rich and soulful production. It’s a combination that’s undeniably intoxicating, with both Kahuna and Graymatter taking Ocean Grown to be as much energetic on the surface as it is polarizing in its depths.
10:48 AM
After some banter about music and sports (specifically, why the Bills will never win the AFC East), we decide to sit down over some morning coffee to chop it up a little bit on his origins and how Ocean Grown came together.
Originally from Richmond, Kahuna has been bouncing between here and Buffalo for the past few years. However, in late 2014 he made Richmond his permanent home, citing that the scene in Buffalo wasn’t generating anything musically, aside from Conway and WestsideGunn.
“There’s not enough popping people in Buffalo,” he reasons. “It was a corrupt place for a while. A lot of hood shit, drug shit, murder shit. It was big factories, but now they’re mad abandoned. It’s a tough city, but I love Buffalo.”
His love of Buffalo extended to a specific sound he found within the city. “It’s hard to explain the accent, but Westside [Gunn] is the best example of it,” he explains. “I have cousins that sound exactly like that, and to hear somebody rap like that it’s like ‘Wow.’ But hopefully, after they hear us, they’ll be like ‘Alright, that’s really some Richmond shit’.”
Luckily for him, the people he was most familiar here with were also aiming to cultivate a Richmond sound too.
“I’ve known Koncept [Jackson] for a long time, since High School, so when I came back, I linked up with him,” he details. “He was already chilling with [Fly] Anakin and was in Mutant Academy. They introduced me to BSTFRND, Unlucky Bastards, and then Graymatter hit me up on SoundCloud from knowing all of them. He told me to come through for some beats, so I went there one morning and he played me like seven beats. We made “Fly The Coup” first and were like ‘Damn, this shit is tough!’ So we put that out. A lot of those songs on Ocean Grown were some of the first I made when I came back.”
“Everybody wanted to help out when we played it,” he adds, noting the collaborative efforts on the tape “Our friend Ziri helped, BSTFRND helped out. Mad people helped. Duce is on the tape. I’ve known Robalu since high school. All my friends are a part of Ocean Grown, so that joint is classic.”
12:07 PM
Wrapping up our sit down, it’s time to go take photos and check out the Baptism By Fire show fellow Mutant Academy rapper Henny L.O. was battling in.
“You trying to roll, Duce?” Kahuna asks.
Duce declines, opting instead to continue working on the first-person video game he was designing for his upcoming album. Who knows? He might be the first artist to have a #1 album on Newgrounds.
2:36 PM
After snapping some photos and taking a quick lunch break, we head to Graymatter’s house to meet up with some fellow Mutant Academy members before the battle.
The walls of the apartment are lined with stacks of vinyl, with the majority of the room being dedicated to his studio. With BSTFRND, Koncept Jackson, and Fly Anakin arriving, much of the discussion focuses around music, including the upcoming battle, local music, national music, old music, and new music. Make no mistake, this is more than just hobby or side-hustle for these guys: it’s every damn day.
3:32 PM
We’re patiently waiting in Strange Matter for Baptism By Fire to begin. The crowd is packed out, with a diverse mix of fans coming from all over the area. Although it’s one of Henny L.O.’s first battles, Kahuna, Graymatter, and the rest of the Mutant Academy crew are all out to support.
“Are we all going to go on stage when he’s up,” someone asks.
“Nah, there’s too many of us,” Kahuna replies. “That’d be packed out.”
As I look around at what makes up only about half of Mutant Academy, it occurs to me that almost all of them have put out quality projects over the past year. And while Kahuna and Graymatter love that Ocean Grown was largely a collaborative effort, they realize the work they put individually is what’s going to keep not just the group’s attention, but the rest of the city as well.
“You’ve got to do as much as you can on your own. That’s the best, you do it all yourself and try to master it. But there’s a lot more work to do. Graymatter and I just finished another project. But still, there’s a lot more work to do.”
And with tenacity like that, Kahuna and his colleagues will be making waves for a long, long time.
soundcloud.com/big-kahuna-og
Words by Joseph Genest. Photo Credit: Christian Hewett
