Photo by Monsieur ComsThough he now resides in the heat–both in terms of climate and rap scene–of Atlanta, Kaymbo Shines is enjoying a rare sunny moment home in Montreal. "I can't really complain with the winters that we usually get," he says over the phone. Kaymbo hooked up with Brian Richardson's Defient label, affiliated with T.I's Grand Hustle, to produce and write songs for artists like B.o.B. before pivoting into a solo rapping career of his own. "I didn't really want to be a writer," he says, "but I figured that if I get my foot through the door, I could eventually get to the top of the building." His new EP I Quit My Day Job is a post-Beyoncé visual album and we're premiering one of its videos, "Crazy." The New York-shot clip finds Kaymbo emoting on a dock while black-and-red Jordans ("breds" for the sneakerheads) are set ablaze. Coupled with an equally possessed performance by Kaymbo about frayed love, you'd have to be legitimately insane to not find this dope. Watch the "Crazy" video below and read on for our interview with Kaymbo.What's the difference between working in Montreal and Atlanta?
There ain't no hip-hop platform in Montreal at all. There's no way to get your music out there besides the internet. We don't have a hip-hop station in Montreal, people learn about songs through blogs like HotNewHipHop or Noisey. Atlanta's very small so you get to know everyone quickly.Tell me about the EP. Why do a video for every song?
Now that you're not relying on radio or TV to break you, you have to do twice the work. You need to market yourself better than ever because now you don't have those big budgets behind you. Every day there's a new song getting premiered. How do you get people to listen past the first 30 seconds? I'm in a position where I can shoot quality videos, videos where people will feel compelled to watch more than the first 30 seconds. It's cool that I can promote a lot of videos instead of a lot of songs. I think if everybody could do it they would probably do it. Beyoncé did it but her releasing the compilation in one day is very different than me going slowly at it.The "Crazy" video is obviously shot in New York, what's the vision with that choice of setting?
If it wasn't for the cold weather, I think New York's the greatest city in the world. At first we wanted to go to a lot of different places but I just looked at the backdrop and I just thought, "this is perfect, this is so dramatic." It's like Gotham. For "Crazy," an emotional song, shooting at night with the New York skyline would be perfect.Another thing. Why are the shoes burning?
[laughs] It was actually supposed to be a scene of a lady setting the shoes on fire and walking away. We were not able to get her in the video so we decided to still keep the shoes burning as something artistic. It's still crazy for someone to be burning breds! They're collector's editions.Phil's got breds in Atlanta. Follow him on Twitter.
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There ain't no hip-hop platform in Montreal at all. There's no way to get your music out there besides the internet. We don't have a hip-hop station in Montreal, people learn about songs through blogs like HotNewHipHop or Noisey. Atlanta's very small so you get to know everyone quickly.Tell me about the EP. Why do a video for every song?
Now that you're not relying on radio or TV to break you, you have to do twice the work. You need to market yourself better than ever because now you don't have those big budgets behind you. Every day there's a new song getting premiered. How do you get people to listen past the first 30 seconds? I'm in a position where I can shoot quality videos, videos where people will feel compelled to watch more than the first 30 seconds. It's cool that I can promote a lot of videos instead of a lot of songs. I think if everybody could do it they would probably do it. Beyoncé did it but her releasing the compilation in one day is very different than me going slowly at it.The "Crazy" video is obviously shot in New York, what's the vision with that choice of setting?
If it wasn't for the cold weather, I think New York's the greatest city in the world. At first we wanted to go to a lot of different places but I just looked at the backdrop and I just thought, "this is perfect, this is so dramatic." It's like Gotham. For "Crazy," an emotional song, shooting at night with the New York skyline would be perfect.Another thing. Why are the shoes burning?
[laughs] It was actually supposed to be a scene of a lady setting the shoes on fire and walking away. We were not able to get her in the video so we decided to still keep the shoes burning as something artistic. It's still crazy for someone to be burning breds! They're collector's editions.Phil's got breds in Atlanta. Follow him on Twitter.