Certified Fresh: King Los – A Crown Without Gravity Is Never Heavy
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Let’s be perfectly honest with ourselves. Hip-Hop culture has allowed all colors, sects, creeds, origins and dialects to have a comfortable home underneath the culture’s umbrella, yet there are only a particular crop of MCs who generally lay candidacy for the throne.
You have to rhyme with a certain level of expertise, precession and heady content level. The names Biggie, Jay Z and Nas or in today’s rap stratosphere–Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Drake all seem to fall under that particular subgenre nearly 100 percent of the time.
Not to say that King Los has arrived at their table just yet but there is an apparent skill level the 32-year-old well-traveled rapper possesses that deviates him from the most of his peers. Even his brother-in-crowns King Kendrick acknowledged him as having the only “Control” response he respected, back when that was all the Internets wanted to talk about.
Who: Carlos Coleman, a Baltimore-born, NYC, ATL, LA transplant talent. His multiple living arrangements have influenced his artistic value in appealing to fans from all over the country.
Credentials: A baker’s dozen catalog of mixtapes including the recently released Zero Gravity II. Two stints with Bad Boy Records and collaborations with the likes of Rick Ross, Ludacris, Pusha T, Wiz Khalifa spliced in between.
Fun Fact: Los has a baby with former Taylor Gang First Lady, Lola Monroe, and at one-years-old, he’s already recognizing beat patterns and imitating freestyles. Scary stuff.
Hip-Hop Wired: So when did you have the audacity to start calling yourself “King” within the rap game?
King Los: Believe it or not, I didn’t name myself that. But I did a record referencing “King Los” so I guess you could say I summoned it. And around the time, I had released the CD, The Crown Ain’t Safe. It wasn’t like I was saying I was a king then; more so I was coming for whoever may be the king at the time. My nickname at the time on all my social media handles was “Swagga Boy Los” but the people immediately switched it when that dropped.
Hip-Hop Wired: By officially taking on that moniker, do you feel like it elevated your confidence and skill level?
King Los: I feel like I always had elevated confidence because I realize that there’s a certain element of champion that comes along with confidence. If you’re going to take the final shot [in a basketball game] and you want all the responsiblity in your hands–at the game’s most detrimental point, then it takes audacity. Straight up.
Hip-Hop Wired: When you dropped Zero Gravity II, it also came along with a headline: “King Los Is No Longer On Bad Boy Records.”
King Los: Oh yeah. That happened.
Hip-Hop Wired: What was your first reaction to people reacting to it?
King Los: To be honest, I didn’t people would even care…as much as they cared. My fans are my biggest critics.
Hip-Hop Wired: It’s been documented that Bad Boy Records has an extensive track record of letting their artists go.
King Los: Do they? I have no recollection of such! This is all new to me! I’ll have to do some research and get back to you on that one.
Hip-Hop Wired: At the end of the day, it’s still business right? You and Puff Daddy are still cool, no?
King Los: Of course! That’s really my personal friend. It had nothing to do with the actual Bad Boy label. The entire business was just shifting. And when things like that happen, you have to know how to manuever around. You don’t want to get smashed in the middle and be left out.
Similar to when Jay and Dame separated. There were artists that had to make an educated decision on which way to go despite personal feelings. And some people didn’t make that best choice. You have to know how to move. And that’s actually what me and Puff spoke about before the situation happened. He actually gave me options to be perfectly honest with you. I lowkey almost wanted him to make the decision for me but I’m glad he gave me that option because he empowered me to take my destiny in my own hands.
Hip-Hop Wired: But you have been moving. Hip-Hop Wired questioned whether or not you had the best “5 Fingers of Death” freestyle when we posted your Sway in the Morning appearance.
King Los: All-time? I’ve heard that. But it’s weird to me because none of my verses are premediated. I just went on there and did what I be doing. And had fun! I like the energy that me and Sway have. I just think in terms of someone standing next to me in a rap battle when the DJ throws on a beat. I didn’t even prepare for that. I could do that every time. I’ve freestyled for two hours straight before in college.
Hip-Hop Wired: Would you say that rap is coming back around to your prefered style or are you still kind of on a boat of your own?
King Los: I’m still kind of on a boat of my own just in the sense of I like to do super different stuff. I’m glad it’s that way, however. I came up with the Big Pun’s, the Eminem’s, the Canibus’s–the lyrical creatives and in that regard, it made me want to be super different. So even if when it comes back around to what I’m doing now, I want to change to something even more astronomical. That’s just me. You can’t just listen to my raps. You have to research them. There’s an exact science to them. Every flow I create something new within in those moments and a lot of people miss it.
Hip-Hop Wired: There’s a prime example on Zero Gravity II on the song with Royce Da 5’9″, “Don’t Get in My Way.” The line about the one Benz.
King Los: Oh yeah, I said: “Benz on the arm, you can call that an elbow/Get it? I said Benz on the arm/Meaning what you push depends on the strength of your arm/And at the same time, your elbow bends on your arm/But I’m really in a Bent, with the arm/And I’ve got it bullet proof, so really I’ve got the whole bent armed/Same color as baking soda with the old bent arm.” I’m the guy who wants to make that line. I can say that in confidence that nobody else is putting that much detail into a bar. And then creating entendres and different things to build up the construction of the song.
That’s what I was born to do so to speak.
