INTERVIEW
Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
on Tuesday, December 07th 2004 - 33 517 views
Krys, only 21, is probably a future great of dancehall. The heir to Admiral T, his talent could only be gauged by listening to various compilations. Until the release of a 10-track maxi bringing together his 4 underground successes and 6 unreleased tracks. A launch pad, in short.
Unpretentious and showing great lucidity about his activity, Krys, a little under the weather, goes along with the formalities of the interview with good grace. One watchword underpins his work: no limits.
Reggaefrance / Hi Krys, you started very young, can you go back over your career?
Krys / I started at 14-15. I come from a “tough” neighbourhood of Pointe-à-Pitre called Lauricisque. There were a lot of rappers there, like the N-O Clan who are very present. We had a lot of rap influences, so I started rapping with my friends from the neighbourhood. I already had a taste for singing, for writing. I discovered dancehall notably with the tune by Red Rat and Goofy, Big Man, Little Youth. I loved that track as a kid, it's what opened me up to dancehall. I fell into it very quickly, and I definitively switched from rap to dancehall.
Then I met my crew Black Micky at 15. They're an underground group in Guadeloupe that's doing quite well, that organises sound systems. They've made several mixtapes and they get around well in the underground, they're respected. With them, I cut my teeth in sound systems. We went to sounds together, we went to rehearsals... The selecta had a cousin in Jamaica who sent us tunes, dubs, riddims to work with. I found myself in a sound system dynamic that allowed me to progress in the dancehall scene.
You then connected with Kickilla...
From the age of 15, by dint of going to sounds, I met loads of people: Admiral T, Tiwony, Little Espion... One year when I was on holiday in France, Little Espion took me to Kickilla's studio. I got to know the brothers, who had already heard about me and what I was doing in the West Indies. They contacted me for their compilation. My first was the compilation “R2D2”, co-produced by Kickilla and Blackwarell (a Guadeloupean sound system, editor's note) whom I knew from back home. It was my first release. Last year, I came to France to study. The connection with Kickilla happened quite naturally. That gave An vlé an gal, which did well. We kept working together all year. Everything went so well with the whole Kickilla team, and I mean on the human level too, that we got started on a more personal project, the 10-track maxi.
On this 10-track maxi, 4 tracks have been doing the rounds in the underground. Did you write the 6 new tracks for the maxi, or earlier than that?
A bit of both. Some of the tunes are new, and others hadn't been recorded but I was singing them on stage. That's precisely where the concept of this 10-tracker was born. I had tunes on compilations that had done well. When I went to perform, it went well, the massives came to see me at the end of the show saying: “”I love what you do, but where's the CD?”” I had to answer: “”If you want Garde-cocottes, buy ‘Dancehall Tracks’, if you want An vlé an gal, buy ‘Megawatt’, etc.”” (laughs) So the idea was to bring these tunes together on a Krys release. But we didn't want to just re-serve tunes that had already come out. What we decided was to put out a maxi of 6 new tracks with, as a bonus, these four tracks known in the underground. So that people could find them again.
Admiral T is mentioned a lot when people talk about you. The comparison is flattering but it must annoy you...
I know Admiral personally, I like him as a person and I admire him as an artist. He has an enormous amount of talent and he's doing superb work for our music at the moment. Obviously, when you're compared to someone like him, it's bound to be flattering. But I lay claim to my style, my originality. I'd like people to talk about Krys as Krys and not cite him in relation to someone else. At the start, having worked with him influenced me a lot, just as I had influences from Capleton, Sizzla or Bounty Killer... But I think I've shown clearly that there is a Krys style, and I claim it.
You were talking earlier about your studies... Did you interrupt them or are you continuing your course?
No, I'm continuing my studies in International Trade. I'm doing my school year in Mexico, it's part of my course, it's a year abroad.
Are you studying International Trade because you're thinking of moving to the other side of the mic?
I didn't think about it when I chose my studies. But when I see my progress in music and what I'm doing in my studies, the logical next step might be a career change: setting up a label, or doing something that combines the two. I can hardly imagine my life without reggae/dancehall.
You sing in Creole. Was that obvious to you?
I don't impose any limits on myself on that front. I didn't even ask myself the question. People often point out that to open up to a wider audience, I should sing in French. But I'm a deejay who writes by inspiration. I have lyrics in French, but they haven't come out yet. I write in French, in Creole, I have some vibes in English. As the inspiration comes, I write it. I don't ask myself the question. It's true that on this maxi, the songs are 100% in Creole. It wasn't premeditated.
Are you under pressure to sing in French or English?
Nobody puts pressure on me, and that's what's good about this production team. The fact that I'm continuing my studies shows that I make music because I'm passionate about it. I'm not doing it for the money. I don't take it as a job: I have a huge amount of fun. Being with a record company made up of young people means we work in a good atmosphere, without pressure. We try to do things properly, and that suits me perfectly. Rest assured, tunes in French will come. It's planned.
What is the song Garde-cocotte about?
“Garde-cocottes” is a concept, an expression that's used a lot in the West Indies. The cocotte refers to the woman, to the woman's sex to be exact. The garde-cocotte is a guy who goes out with women, without the woman being his. He'll take her to the restaurant, to the cinema, pay for all her outings, whereas the woman is simply using him. He gets nothing in return. In the song, I describe all that, I poke a bit of fun and I tell the guy to pull himself together (laughs)
In Pé, you call for positive lyrics. As opposed to yardie dancehall, you promote a positive dancehall, with genuine messages?
As far as possible. It comes naturally to me. I'll be honest with you, I don't limit myself in my creations. Obviously, I'm not going to fall into slackness or badman songs. I'm not going to promote violence, because it doesn't suit me. But I don't limit myself in my creations. I don't tell myself: “”If my message isn't super positive, super clean, I won't sing it.”” I listen to my inspiration. Personally, I'd be more inclined to promote positive messages. I write about reality, it can be treated with humour as on Garde-cocottes. I believe reggae and dancehall have shown that they are good vehicles for messages. It's a positive side of our music, and if I can make that gesture in some of my tracks, so much the better. But it's not a goal in itself.
So the first aim of your music is to make people dance?
I think reggae / dancehall music has several strings to its bow. It's music that can carry messages, but we mustn't forget that it also has this party role. If the rhythm is like that, if we're managing to break through now at a higher level, it's because it makes people move, because it carries an energy that makes you want to move. That's one of its strengths. Sincerely, I love making people move. Even if I'm not going to carry negative messages, I'm not the “conscious” rasta who writes “righteousness” at every turn. I think dancehall has this ability to send messages and make people dance. VIP, for example, is a track to make people dance.
I'm not shocked when people say that, even if my music isn't limited to making people dance. It also carries messages like Pé, which you just mentioned, or Pa goumé ba fanm. The track did well in the community, it tells the story of two cousins who fight over a girl. She cheats on her guy with his cousin. The guy kills his cousin because of the girl, when the cousin didn't know. It's to say think before you act. Me, I send messages, and I want to make people dance. I don't limit myself.
Do you have no musical preference in your riddims, between reggae and dancehall?
I like both a lot. It's true that I've voiced more dancehall riddims. I voiced the Military, by the way. But I don't have a preference.
Imagining an album, will we find both styles on it?
Yes, certainly. We're already thinking about it.
Can you tell us a bit more about it? Will it be the same team?
Yes, there's no reason for it to be otherwise. Everything's going well. The maxi is the first Krys release, to make our mark in the community. I was only on compilations, so in the short term it was necessary to make a “Krys” release. The album won't be for right now, because we did work hard on the maxi. We believe in it and we're going to promote the tracks. After that, it's true that we're already thinking about an album with reggae and dancehall.
You're doing a little tour in France. Does it mean something to travel around mainland France? More pressure? More pleasure?
It would be more pleasure. I love what I do, I sing out of passion. The more I can find myself in front of an audience to share the vibe with them, the better. On stage, I have a lot of fun, the audience joins in. It's always a pleasure to be on stage. Doing it on a bigger scale, simply because the audience is wider, is a really big kick.
Have you noticed any differences between the two audiences?
In terms of the audience's reaction and participation, it's similar. The difference lies mainly in the audience's position in relation to me. In France, people are discovering me, whereas in Guadeloupe they've known me for a while already. They're bound to be two different attitudes.
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