Certified Fresh – Chicago’s King L Used To Work For UPS, Says His Music Is Like Gumbo

So many new rappers, how can you possible keep track of them all? Hip-Hop Wired will help vet who is worthy of your ~~CD collection~~ hard drive space with our “Certified Fresh” featurettes. Every week or so we’ll speak to and provide some insight on a Hip-Hop artist that displays the skills and potential to be that next big time rapper. For our first, we caught up with Chicago’s own King L of “Val Venis” fame.

Who: King L (shortened from King Louie) is a hard hitting, fun-loving rapper from the emerging hotbed of talent Chicago, Illinois.

Fun Fact: The emerging rapper, whose single “My H**s They Do Drugs,” featuring Pusha T and Juicy J used to be a camp counselor and worked at UPS. “Back when I was like 16 years old I used to work at a center and watch kids, know what I’m saying? But that was only on some Summer s**t. The only other job I had was working at UPS. I spent like three weeks there and that wasn’t making no money so I quit that s**t once I got my little bonus check.”

[CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE]

MORE ON HIP-HOP WIRED!

• Supreme x Nike Air Force 1 Low – Black, Camo [PHOTOS]

• Behind The Scenes Of Rick Ross’ “Pirates” Video [PHOTOS]

• Chris Brown Dresses As An Arab Terrorist For Halloween, Angers Just About Everybody [PHOTOS]

• Bangin Candy: Caked Out Cuban Stunner Kathy Ferreiro [PHOTOS]

• The Aftermath: Hurricane Sandy Ravages East Coast, Millions Left Without Power [PHOTOS]

• Bangin Candy: The Return Of Stephanie Monique [PHOTOS]

• No Church In The Wild: 10 Hip-Hop Moments That Got Religious Folks All Riled Up [GALLERY]

• Coon Affiliated: 10 Rap Songs That Set African-Americans Back As A Race

—

Photo: Epic Records

Credentials:

Mainstream cats caught their first whiff of King L. when Kanye West shouted him out in the remix for Chief Keef’s “I Don’t Like” (“Chief Keef, King Louie, this the Chi, right? Right?!”), but he’s held down the streets for a while.

In a modern day renaissance for Chicago Hip-Hop, King L has been at the forefront of the movement by releasing mixtapes such as Boss S**t, Band Up, Hard Body, More Boss Isht and Chiraq Drillinois. He’s gained massive notoriety once he landed on Andrew Barber’s Chicago Hip-Hop driven website, FakeShoreDrive.

Signing a management deal with Kanye West’s former manager, John Monopoly, King L’s struck fire with his single “Val Venis” and the latest effort “My H**s They Do Drugs,” featuring Pusha T and Juicy J.

Hip-Hop Wired: What can we expect from your major label debut album?

King L: It’s going to be something different man. It’s going to be Chicago, that new s**t, you know. It’s all about the realness and I put out real music, man.

Hip-Hop Wired: “Val Venis” did a lot for you as far as visibility on a national scale. Describe exactly what Val’ing is, because I don’t think a lot of people know exactly what it is.

King L: If you watch wrestling or whatever, Val Venis used to always have all the b***hes, you know? He used to be on some straight pimp s**t, he used to do the dance when he came out and stuff. It’s just like being silly but at the same time he had the h**s, you know so for me it went hand in hand.

Hip-Hop Wired: What can you tell us about the possible collaboration project that you are working on with Lil Durk?

King L: We are working on it, we already are about 3 to 4 songs in. It’s called Project X and we just figured, “why not?” we both going hard. We just link up and s**t, we are both from Chicago know what I’m saying? I could bring my audience to his, and his to mine. It’s a slick move, it shows motherf***ers that we are working together.

Hip-Hop Wired: If you can describe your sound to somebody who has never heard you before, how would you describe it?

King L: Gumbo. It’s a mixture man, lots of good stuff. If you listen to all of my old songs, none of them sound the same. I like listening to all types of music. If I like it, I’ll try making the same type of music. I don’t care if it’s pop, jazz, know what I’m saying? Anything like that. If I can write to it then I’ll rock with it so it’s like gumbo.

[CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE]

The Essentials:

“Val Venis”