POPOUT ARTIST HIGHLIGHT
POPOUT, interviewed musician, Mr. Kayz from Saint Quentin, France. He shares his story and unique perspective on his life and creative journey.
Can you share with us a little bit about your journey into the music industry and how you got started in rap?
I was in an accident as a kid. I had a sharp stick in my throat, that I still have scars from. I was two when the accident happened. The first doctor who saw me said I was going to die. The second doctor said I wouldn’t be able to walk and the third doctor said I’d never be able to talk. As you can see, they were all wrong. So growing up, I would remind myself that God wanted me to do all of these things. Since I’m able to use my voice, even when I wasn’t “supposed to” maybe it's because I have something to say.
I performed for the first time at the age of six — I had another brother who was making music, which is when I really got started. I have a pretty diverse background. I’m African, from the Congo, but my grandfather has been living in Indiana his whole life. Part of my family is American, so growing up in France I was always the one who was a little bit different.
where dID your name ‘Mr. KAYz’ come from?
There is this movie called The Usual Suspects. My older brother used to watch that sh*t. Back in my neighborhood, I come from the west side of Paris it’s near Versailles but a little bit further than that in a city called Saint Quentin — it’s a pretty small city.
If you watched that movie, I’m probably going to spoil it for some people, but there’s a character called Keyser Soze. He’s pretty much the guy people underestimate. When I started rapping, I was the youngest one and people didn’t expect me to be good. But when I started rapping, people would say ‘you’re doing that Keyser Soze stuff’ and that stuck with me.
“MR.KAYZ - but my real name is Peter Kelly.”
Can you SHARE A MOMENT WHERE YOU FELT A SHIFT IN YOUR MUSIC CAREER?
Honestly, I started to lose faith in my ability when it came to rap. I wasn’t seeing anything that was like me in my immediate space - but, I kept writing. I started ghostwriting for people, then I gained a little bit more confidence in myself, once I saw people were really f*cking with what I was writing. Eventually, I got signed to soccer player who had a label. He signed me first. Then after that, I went on and signed to Sony Music and dropped a couple projects over there as an artist.
Once COVID happened, I was able to get out of that contract and do some regrouping, build my own company called Borderline. It was before COVID that we opened up a shop and dropped our first EP. One year after, we were ready to move on with the music.
WHAT DID REGROUPING LOOK LIKE DURING THIS TIME?
My current manager, who used to be a fan, is now working as the head of a record label, Pious. He called me and told me he wanted to manage me, and that we’d find a way to get out of my contract. A friend of mine, who I grew up with, is a DJ and he was like ‘let’s create something, we have the time.’
So we locked in.
We spent about six months thinking about the conversation we wanted to have, the end sound we wanted to have — just going back and forth trying stuff. And then once we found it, it took one week to record everything - even after all of the building. So that’s the story of how this thing happened.
what’s your creative process LIKE?
I feel like all of the greats because I’m really just a student of arts, especially when it comes down to music and writers. As listeners of music, we enjoy it when we hear it, but I know what place that music comes from. It comes from pain a lot of the time - it’s very personal; my process is like that too.
It’s the ability to talk to myself, and have conversations like the one we’re having now — and I’ll use that as an angle to my music. There’s something you’re going to say that’s going to stick with me. Jacques Brel, one of the greats, once said that there are only six or seven topics you can have in music — it might be pain, joy, or even something that you’re longing for.
How do you keep the faith in moments where things seem like they’re in disarray?
I have to keep growing as a person. That motivation, and staying grounded all comes from my personal life. Before COVID happened, like in 2018 I dropped the first Borderline. I was already working on the second one in 2019. The label was giving me a hard time because I wasn’t doing what was expected of me.
The director of my label, was saying that they really believed in me and I took that as a blessing, you feel me? Signing to Sony Music gave me validation from people because now there’s this major company backing the talent I already had. But once I signed, I was being blocked because I wasn’t doing the “usual thing” you know? Talking about selling drugs or something like that. That’s not where I come from, I never sold drugs, that’s not the story that’s mine to tell. But I was always into doing things my heart believed in.
And if the heart ain’t in it, I’m not going to do it.
“ Music is just like the expression of who you truly are. That’s the case for art in general. So sometimes, that’s not what you need to work on — sometimes you don’t need to focus on the art.
Sometimes the thing that you need to be working on is yourself. Conversations, like real honest conversations that you can have with yourself, spark it all. Once you can do that, the world is yours.”
HOW IS THE MUSIC LANDSCAPE IN FRANCE?
The musical landscape in France is very stereotypical. Once you have a sound popping in the UK, we’re going to have it here. When there’s trap music in Detroit or Chicago, there’s going to be the same thing here. Whereas in some of these places, the trap exists because there’s a trap house, that’s how they live, and the music resonates with them because it reflects how they lived for real in some cases.
But you know what they told me?
Black life does not matter in France. That it doesn’t exist. They literally told me that in one of the meetings we had. And mind you, COVID happened and we had our first Black Lives Matter Movement in France — in our history. So just to give context to the people on this sh*t, in the French Constitution there is no color. So you’re not supposed to point out differences saying this person is Black, or this person is white. If you say things in that way, you’re perceived as a racist. You’re the racist one if you say, “Oh you’re saying this because I’m Black.”
In the culture here, it comes across that way because you are the one bringing up color. So when they told me that, I was so shocked. I felt lost. Like I did when I was younger, and only ghostwriting, it felt like I didn’t belong. I took the Black Lives Matter Movement as a sign that it was my call to keep doing music — just on my own.
can you GIVE ADVICE TO aspiring artists who are just starting out in the music industry?
I would say have conversations. And fail! Fail as soon as you can. You need to fail. Because the sooner you fail, the sooner you’ll be able to enter conversations to figure out why things didn’t work. Failure gives you an opportunity to pivot and show & improve.
MR.KAYZ
POPOUT has selected Mr. Kayz as our POP Artist of the month because of the light he continues to share with the world through music. As we were able to experience his live shows, it inspired us all and we felt the genuine energy he posses.
Mr. Kayz thank you for sharing your art with the world. We encourage you to keep going! We are rooting for you always.
To our readers, support Mr. Kayz by streaming his music on all platforms!
-POPOUT tribe
CONNECT WITH MR.KAYZ
CONNECT WITH MR.KAYZ
article image credits: @iyal.awo - @kalwatson35 - @jeune_roshi
edits by aalyiah heath & jessica clark