Kris the $pirit : The youth don't f** with nothing

Our special guest this week on The Come Up Show Podcast is an artist from Montreal named Kris the $pirit. I was introduced to his music initially through the group The Posterz, I clearly remember watching the video for The Bass Song and I was hooked. When I got the opportunity to do music programming for Manifesto Festival, I booked The Posterz to perform at Yonge and Dundas Square in 2015. Kris was back in Toronto during NXNE and he’s got a new project out titled “Spirit Mode Vol.1” and from our conversation, this is just the beginning of a lot more music to come. We talked about why the youth don’t mess with anything, why it’s important to live life, get outside and experience things to make good art and so much more. I’ve shared an excerpt of our conversation, make sure to listen to the full podcast below and subscribe.

Chedo: What is like to have the power to create to make something out of nothing?

Kris: It’s fucking amazing, I love that shit. I have always been an artist, even as a kid I would draw; I wouldn’t play with my toys, I would draw shit. I like to create things, it’s just what I like to do. I wanted to be an architect at some point but my school credentials didn’t match that ambition (ha!).

Chedo: Well, you have to learn how to speak French first (haha).

Kris: Oh god! I’m moving on…. I think it’s over for me when it comes to speaking French.

Chedo: I feel like creativity is becoming very important as we go forward…I don’t think you should limit yourself because in architecture as an example, you may have to do four years of school, that may change as education is evolves.

Kris: Yeah that’s true, hopefully, because everything is cookie cutter and hundreds of years old. Let’s update our society, our laws, everything, it’s out of date. You can tell with the youth, they don’t fuck with nothing, they don’t fuck with anything that is happening and you can tell in their music, how they dress, how they talk. It’s super rebellious. It just shows we gotta update our shit.

Chedo: You hear about how an artist has to live life to experience stuff to make good art. Do you agree with that?

Kris: Yes, one million percent. You are drawing from your experiences and your past for a song. I do that a lot, real-life situations you’re drawing from it. If you’re just in your house or in the studio all the time, you may not necessarily have that juice to talk about on your song.

Chedo: How important is to have that balance where you’re not always locked in and studio and you just need to go out?

Kris: You have to have lived a life or else your music will just be like trendy “let me just do what that guy’s doing” because that’s working for him and I’m in the studio and I know how to do this shit now.

Chedo: I guess that’s what makes you unique, the shit that you go through are what people are gonna resonate with.

Kris: Exactly, exactly, that’s what makes you as an artist, is your experiences.