INTERVIEW: SonReal & Rich Kidd unite and conquer on new album 'The Closers'

by Chayne Japal

November 27, 2012

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Rap has seen a rising trend of pop-up duos of late, for reasons ranging from artistic ventures to flat-out greed. But in the case of Toronto rapper/producer Rich Kidd and Vancouver rapper SonReal, their honest intentions offer honest results, and people should respond.

After coming across each other on Myspace in 2006, they struck up a cross-country alliance over MSN Messenger. In the six years since, they’ve both done a fair amount for themselves. SonReal has prolifically done mixtape after mixtape, expanding his healthy West Coast fanbase with each release, while Rich Kidd has used his production to break out, showcasing an influx of new local talent alongside his marquee collaborators (Drake, k-os, Redman) on his seminal We On Some Rich Kidd Shit series. Now, after striking up deals with Black Box Recordings (a trustworthy label that has helped spring the careers of Shad and Classified), the two have paired up to reinforce each other’s upside with recent release The Closers.

While the project was initially conceptualized as a buzz-EP to essentially introduce SonReal to Toronto and Rich Kidd to Vancouver, the young rappers’ chemistry turned The Closers into much more. Building on a crème da la crème batch of beats from Arthur McArthur, Chin, Wondagurl, and, of course, Rich Kidd himself, the duo does more than just trade verses. They craft well thought out songs that thrive on SonReal’s knack for catchy hooks. Rich, realizing what he calls Son’s “melodic approach to everything,” instantly complements his counterpart, reminding listeners that even though he’s emerged as one of hip-hop’s premier producers, Rich Kidd is clearly an MC first.

“We went out to Cali and pulled a Makaveli,” Kidd says, referring to 2Pac’s masterpiece which was written, recorded, and mixed in seven days. The snappy recording process might not have gone down exactly like that, but the songs that came from it were too good to be pared down, resulting in a juicy full-length that shows SonReal and Rich Kidd at their best.

This article originally appeared in the November 2012 Issue of AUX Magazine.

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Tags: Music, Cancon, Featured, Interviews, AUX Magazine, rich kidd, SonReal

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