What is the origin of the name “Kami de Chukwu”?
sh*t’s a random coincidence. Chukwu is part of my real name haha, I took Japanese class for one year in highschool on some other sh*t and Kami means the same thing as Chukwu in Japanese which is “god” haha, de in french means “of”. It’s loosely inspired by the BasedGod himself, so I guess it’s a representation of how all over the place I am.
Both your delivery and much of your production boasts this dark, aggressive vibe, is this a style that came natural to you or did you try out others until you found this one best suit your skill set?
Well I know a lot of the exsisting sh*t is that, ironically I’m not really a dark person per say, I just feel like were just living in times where there’s alot of sh*t that influences that type of emotion floating around – so indirectly it’s affected me I guess. As a shorty I spent a lot of time alone so I guess that contributes to it as well. I don’t know to be honest, but I don’t think I make a specific set of music to be fair.
All eyes are on the Chicago rap scene these days; what’re the benefits of coming up alongside so many other talented artists from the city? Any disadvantages?
That sh*t is love! I got love for everyone doing it right now, especially all my brothers (SAVEMONEY). That’s one advantage, a lot of people I wanna make music with are an arms length away. I mean there are disadvantages I guess, the scene is getting saturated and everyone wants to pick up a mic, but who I am to tell someone not to, sh*t’s better than n*ggas killin’ each other.
Your debut project “Light” was really well received within the music community; making it’s way onto blogs and into speakers far beyond Chicago, but if you could drop a copy of the mixtape into one person’s stereo to listen to who would it be?
Haha could have done better, um I’d probably want FlyLo to hear that sh*t, homie had alot of influence on me stepping outside of traditional Hip-Hop since a n*gga heard Cosmogramma.
We saw on Twitter you’re already working on your next mixtape; what can you tell us about that? Any other releases fans should look out for?
I’ll let you know I got a couple different projects in the works, some joint EPs and I’m working on my next tape, no names yet but some works done the sh*t’s gonna be that much better. Also, Ig’Nant II dropped this Monday so check out that. SAVEMONEY