This guy is THE hardest working artist in Atlanta, period…and we had to give him some shine in the CE spotlight.
Here’s a little background on Kaos and his crew Vintage Imperial:
Vintage Imperial started as a Hip Hop crew in 1998 in Atlanta. They were young kids who had talent as producers, emcees, graffiti writers, Dj’s, etc. As time went on and everyone got older, Kaos’ passion for promotion and coordinating led to field rep positions with Interscope and Capital Records.
“Labels wouldn’t sign me as an artist, so I found another way to get them to cut a check,” says Kaos. “I got my foot in the door and never looked back. I found a way to fit everything I do under one umbrella.”
Besides running Vintage Imperial Marketing and Promo, Señor Kaos still continues to make music, runs a blog (www.thekaoseffect.com), and hosts an internet radio show (Creative Control Radio – www.creativecontrolatl.com).
Make sure you check out a sample of his contribution to the latest Collective Efforts album in the CE Player…the song is called “The Dream”, and he definitely blesses it.
And for your own good, please don’t sleep on this:
Tracklist:
1. P. Casso ft. Senor Kaos -- Mr. Hollywood Remix
2. M.O.P. -- Blow The Horns
3. Jay- Z -- Death of Autotune
4. Senor Kaos -- Automatic Classic
5. Sa-Ra ft Erykah Badu -- Dirty Beauty
6. J Dilla -- Take Notice Inst.
7. DJ Rasta Roots ft. Senor Kaos ft. 4ize & Punchline -- Classic Example Freestyle
8. Oukast -- Spaghetti Junction (14KT Exclusive Remix)
9. Big Boi -- Magnificent Verse
10. Rick Ross ft. John Legend -- Magnificent
11. Kid Cudi -- I Poke Her Face Inst.
12. Senor Kaos -- Girls Rock Too (Illastrate Remix)
13. Choklate -- 6.8 Billion
14. Senor Kaos -- Gangsta Rap (Wake Up Time)
15. Outasight -- Brand New Day
16. B.O.B. -- Generation Lost
17. Mario -- Break Up Inst.
18. Senor Kaos & DJ Spinna -- Summer Madness (ATL Remix)
18. Waajeed -- Jamaica Funk
19. Senor Kaos & DJ Spinna -- Call Me Señor
20. Mos Def -- Priority
Below are some closing words from el Señor himself:
“I had a passion for being around good music and good people, and I’m lucky enough to make a living being around both. I’ve promoted events with as well as shared the stage with artists and Dj’s such as: MF DOOM, Jazzy Jeff, Big Daddy Kane, Bobbito aka Dj Cucumber Slice, Maseo(De La Soul), Pete Rock, Biz Markie, Raekwon and Ghostface (Wu-Tang), Ali Shaheed Muhammed(ATCQ), Luv Bug Starski, Dj Revolution, Mark The 45 King, Dj Drama, Dj Evil Dee(Black Moon), Prince Paul, Tony Touch, Doo Wop, Rob Swift(X-Cutioners), Dj Premier, Peanut Butter Wolf, Questlove, Sucio Smash, Dj Language, Large Professor, Lord Finesse, Awesome 2(Special K and Teddy Ted), Mad Skillz, Dj Spinna, Rich Medina, Twilite Tone, 9th Wonder, Slum Village, J Period, and many others.
I am a deep listener. I am the type of person who wants to know everybodies story and when people share them I rarely interrupt. I’ve been called weird, crazy, a genius, talented, hard to read, and you know what… I’m all of those things wrapped in one!
My goal as an emcee is to share my perspective of life through musical poetry that will appeal to all open minds. An artist who’s built a reputation based on my ability to multi-task. Talented emcee, writer, consultant, marketer, host. -- Has been featured in Complex Magazine, XXL, The Ave, Import Tuner, Warp (Japan) and on the cover of Southeast Performer (July 2003). -- “Swagger is Nothing, Talent is Everything.” The music speaks for Itself! What Am I looking for??? Opportunity to license music via Video Games, Movies, Television, ETC. Speaking engagements on Grassroots Music & Marketing, Performance opportunities -- Festivals, Concerts, Clubs, Etc. And any other unique opportunity to connect with my fans…”
I remember when I first met this dude. He was about 16 and in the bar. I never understood how he did it. He was super confident at the time, as an older dude, it was hard to take for a minute. As I got to know him more over time, I realized where it came from… He was just hungry for success and nobody would feed his appetite the way he needed.
I guess, he found his plate… and that motherfucker’s still eating.
Good work my man.
Yessir! KAOS!!! Steady on the Grind! Great looks from the CE crew – Don Dillon and Senor Kaos – “Ya’ll Some Hoes” mega soon!
Always reppin’…
Collective Efforts Video Shoot Behind the Scenes Pics (from The Kaos Effect)
Dig it! Kid to Senor fo sho!
This is something that we ran in the loaf after Jax’s passing. It was written by Kaos. Check it out…
Before Señor Kaos became a hip-hop marketer/promoter in Atlanta, he was Jax’s protégé. They met nearly a decade ago when Jax used to work at the Fat Beats record store.
I used to hang out at Fat Beats. I used to go down there after school. Sometimes I’d skip school, go down there on weekends, whatever. I would just hang out and listen to records. I was broke. I never bought anything. I would just be in there chilling, trying to see what’s going on. And I met him there, I recognized him. I was like, “Yo, you whoopty-whoop, I just saw you on stage and shit.”
He was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Mind you, I was 16 at this point. Jax was maybe 22 – somewhere around that ballpark. So he was really playing me to the left, like, “Yeah, buy my CD. Keep it moving.” You know what I mean?
I used to always come through the store and just ask a whole lotta questions about whatever: “Yo, can you play me this? Yo, who is that? Yo, where’d they sample that from? Yo, how’d they do that?”
I was that dude. I would just come through and just be very annoying and just ask a lot of questions. And I could tell when I first met Jax he was very annoyed like, “Yo, who is this dude?”
But after a while, I think he just kinda recognized that ambition and he started warming up to me and answering a lot of them damn questions.
He was sorta like a big brother. He was like a mentor because he put me on the game on a lot of stuff, as far as being an up-and-coming artist trying to record music. Jax was really the person who just kinda saw what I was doing and was willing enough to help. And he was still trying to get his stuff off the ground and Binkis off the ground, but he was still like, “Hey, if you wanna do a show, you need to talk to such and such. I’ll introduce you to him.”
I remember he hooked me up like when I released my first [real] record. By then I had known him for a while. And I was like, “Jax, I’m trying to get this joint out of Atlanta. I’m trying to get it overseas. I’m trying to get it to these magazines. How do I do this?”
He went to his room and he came back and he had a list. And the list had like college radio [stations], cats that’ll review you, XXL, this magazine, that magazine. He was like, “Yo, I’m only giving you this because you work hard, I fucks with you.” It was basically his personal shit [and] he turned a copy of that over to me. That’s just the type of dude that he was. If you were somebody who was working and he saw that, he was just always willing to help like with whatever you needed.
And he would let me record songs at his crib for free and I didn’t have no damn money, just cause he saw that I was hungry and trying to make music. “Yo, come through. If you’re serious, come through, you can record here. ‘OK, cool.’”
Jax would always be there to help out on shows, if needed. It’s just me and my DJ, me and Grandman. But Jax would be like, “Yo, if you need a hype man, I’ll come through, do the hype man!”
Like, I’m dead ass [serious]…. No other MC would ever put themselves out there like that to be like, “Yo, I’ma come through and be your hype man.” This is somebody who has albums out, who has material out, somebody who’s recognized. But that’s just the type of dude he was. He was always willing to help somebody else out even though he was stupid busy.
Dude constantly worked on music. Constantly. He would put out one album, and then just start working on another one.
I used to always say, “Yo, work the album. Let people get a chance to hear this album. Let ‘em get a chance to digest it, then come back with the new album.”
But he really didn’t work like that. He was more like, “They’ll catch up.” That’s what he would always say, “I’m just going to keep on working. They’ll catch up. I’m not gonna wait for them to get it. I’m not gonna wait for them to understand it, I’m just gonna make it and put it out. They’ll catch up later.” That earned him the name Jax the Catalog, because he had a catalog of material – solo material as well as Binkis album material.
You could listen to each of his joints back to back and just have an instant connection with it. ‘Cause everything that he went through, you felt like, “Damn, I’m going through that too. Damn, I gotta get up and work this bullshit ass job, too.”
The weird thing is how we all feel – everybody’s kinda sad but we’re also a little angry as well. When somebody passes, people try to show love. Like when we did the tribute show, one of the things Flux said was like, “Yo … where the fuck was y’all at before?”
And that’s the realest thing. It’s very frustrating, especially as an artist, because you see what happened with J Dilla. You see what’s happening with Jax now. You just feel like as an artist nobody even cares about you until you’re gone. And once you’re gone, people are like, “Aww, I used to love his music.” But it’s like, “Word? You never bought nothing!”
Like they say, you don’t realize what you got till it’s gone. People are real unappreciative. And when something’s in front of your face you think it’s always gonna be in front of your face.
You have to have an extreme love for music to do what he did, to record album after album. And even people around you will start to second-guess you, like, “Yo, you think you ever gone blow up?” Or, “You gonna make money off this?” You have to have an extreme love to go through all that hate and be like, “Yo man, fuck all that. That’s not why I do this shit.”
He made music because he truly enjoyed and loved making music…. Jax just had a lot of heart for this shit. He had a lot of heart and he had a lot of compassion a lot of people don’t display.
If you really look at him and you look at Binkis, Binkis was kinda the last of an era for Atlanta. Because if you look at the era that they come from, they’re kinda like the last of the Mohicans, so to speak. They’re the last group that’s still together, that’s still doing shows, still consistently putting out music. Everybody else from that era either isn’t in Atlanta anymore or broke up or went on to do different things. They were the last group that was from that ‘98-’99 era who were still around releasing records, still around doing shows, making shit happen.
So not only with his passing do you feel like you miss him, you kinda feel like an era of Atlanta indie hip-hop has changed. It’s different. Because now there’s nobody left really from that era…. It just feels like underground hip-hop in Atlanta won’t be the same without Jax. It won’t be.
Just to clarify I’m talking about what Kaos said about Jax. What really rang true was the part about Binkis being the last of an era of Atlanta hiphop. It truly saddens me when I think of all the people who used to be involved in the scene who you don’t see anymore. It’s inevitable, really. People have kids, people get married, people need more money, etc…. There’s a ton of reasons why it happens but regardless it’s sad. I miss how I used to feel when I went to hiphop shows in the A. I still have a lot of love for a lot of people in Atlanta but I miss groups like Mass Influence and Prophetix, even the period after that too. I miss Mic Club at Apache, I miss Second Sight Tuesdays (AT THE OLD LENNY’S!), I miss the Ecko Lounge. I miss Minamina Goodsong, I miss Mars Ill. Neither of the last two groups had played a show in Atlanta before the “Everybody Loves Chris” benefit in literally years. That night really felt like old times, but not the same since it only happened because Jax wasn’t with us anymore. I’m really glad I got to do a track with him before he passed away. I’ve even thought to myself, “Damn! I wish I could have worked with him more, I wish I’d put more time into fine tuning that beat, Why didn’t I get to know him better?” So in a way, I too am guilty of the same thing Kaos was talking about: not fully appreciating what’s right in front of your face until it’s gone. Just knowing him as much as I did, his passing hit me really hard so I can only imagine how difficult it has been for his family and friends who knew him on a closer level than I did…..Damn! I didn’t expect to write this much. I don’t even know who’s reading this,or if it’s ever gonna be posted. To be honest I don’t even care. This just really struck a chord in me for a number of reasons. If this does get put up on the yall’s site I guess I have to say this to wrap it up…The main purpose of this portion of the website is to highlight Kaos, whether you know him as Kid or Senor. I think what he said about Jax shows that he’s worth getting to know not only for what he does but for who he is. In a way, brother, you are carrying on Jax’s legacy. All of the people he knew are. Binkis, Mas Influ, CE, Minamina, Mars Ill, Lisa(his wife for those who don’t know), his parents, his siblings, his friends. Keep doin what you do Kaos. It’s good to see someone put into words what I’ve been feelin for a long time.
Word up…well put, CL. Thanks for sharing! It’s really the camaraderie that feels missing. That’s another reason we started this site, to continue to do our part to help bring that back. We plan to eventually spotlight all artists that we feel best represent that era and its legacy. Yours will be coming up very soon. Keep it flowing, brother, and please feel free to fall through anytime and share your thoughts.
In reference to the “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” thing, I think it goes with everything in life. It’s so easy to get caught up in our own day to day, that it’s easy to overlook some of our biggest gifts. I think as a lot of artists get older, they find themselves at the crossroads. On one hand, there’s this creative outlet that you live and breathe, on the other hand, there’s the need to sustain. It’s hard to figure out the path, but it’s there for sure. Where? I don’t know, but I’m gonna keep looking for it.
I know that the experiences that I’ve had already have left a irreplaceable mark on my life. I’m just glad to be a part of this thing.
Thanks for posting that Kaos segment, this is the first time I’ve seen it and he’s saying things exactly as they happened. I might’ve met Kaos on one his first times out at a live ATL’ venue. He was so young and was the only cat who looked like he did that, you couldn’t miss or mistake him.
I would always stand in the front row of a show because I wanted to hear and feel what cats were saying in case the sound system was janky. Plus, there’s so much other bugged out shit that happens during a set that, you’d have to be that close to catch it. From day one of dude’s sightings on the scene, he’d be standing in the front row as well. Every time I looked over I would see Kaos until one day I was like, “aint you too young to be in here? How the f@ck did you get through them doors?!” He would always respond with, “man, they got tired of seeing me stand outside!” From then on, whenever I ever saw him gittin’ hassled by the door man I’d vouch for him. He came in this game with a genuine love for this shit. So when I started seeing him at Fat Beats and then seeing him doing promo work for Cognito, I felt like dude had always been in the mix already. I looked at him like a little brother as well cuz he was a kin to my whole crew.
When Nito hit me with that first Vintage Imperial album, I was like, “oh, he rhymes too? Looks like we’ve got another make-it-happen man in the works.” Fast-forward to today, he’s turned out to be just that.
“Out grind Kaos you must be crazy…” – Count Bass D