Features : In His Latest Album, Wow, That Was Fun, Kyriq Is Growing Into His Ambitions

With the album Wow, That Was Fun, rapper, songwriter, poet and spoken word artist Kyriq is breaking out — professionally, musically, emotionally.

“It’s a tale of me overcoming survivor’s guilt, creative anxiety, and a kind of toxic humility where I kind of have to downplay myself, almost reject myself,” said Kyriq.

The survivor’s guilt comes from having escaped to college at Florida A&M University from an unhealthy, dangerous lifestyle in Miami, where he was born and raised, when so many of his friends weren’t so fortunate.

“I went away to school and they didn’t. They stayed in Miami, and a lot of times when I would come back home during a winter break or spring break, I would find that some of those people were dying while I was in school.”

The first lines of the first track, “WTWF”:

God in the flesh, the devil he in the details
Came out my mother this earth that birth seashell
Praying postpartum depression would never prevail

“That’s me talking about being born into this world, into a sea of feelings, and trying to navigate those things while also trying to stay attached to my roots and to where I’m grounded,” he said.

The album title challenges the idea of what fun is. “Is it fun,” the song asks, “when the fiends came round and he got a gun? / And it’s beef in the streets they slide you gotta run? … But yo homie ill advised, you wondering if he died?”

The answer is in the final lines of the verse: “No it’s fun when you truly can say that you found peace.”

The album is also Kyriq growing musically.

“I’m focusing less on being so overly technical with my approaches to songs and more on just being led by the musicality. This project is about me overcoming those things and just allowing myself to be a vessel for the music and let people feel something in the music.”

He is expanding his art to infuse other genres and subgenres – soul, neo soul, pop, and more — into hip hop.

“I’m expanding my musical palette.”

He grew up listening, and still listens, to a wide variety of music, from The Jackson Southernaires, Robert Glasper, Grover Washington, 50 Cent, Tupac, and Biggie, to name a few. He lists his primary influences as Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Anderson Paak and Rapsody.

All of it provides more colors for his musical palette. There is yet another aspect to his growth in Wow, That Was Fun.

“I really wanted to get into my vulnerability and do a little singing. I’m getting responses to this album where people are saying, ‘Wow, I did not know that you could sing.’ And I'm really happy that people are like, ‘Man, this really made me so emotional.’ Some people are telling me that this or that song made them cry.”

A genuine humility is in his conclusion: “It’s beautiful to be able to provide an experience like that for people.”

In addition to the personal and musical growth, he is looking to get into the music profession as a serious player. When he summarizes his abilities, it is a confident, professional evaluation, not arrogance.

“I feel like I have the whole package,” he said. “I feel like l'm well rounded. I can give people a lot of information within a song. I don't ever waste a moment in a song. If you want someone to give you super crazy wordplay and technical writing, I can do that. If you want someone to provide this wavy, melodic musical experience, I can do that. If you want someone to give you something very uplifting and super upbeat and hype, I can do that. And now that I’m diving more into the melodic aspect and being able to do more singing, I’m becoming even more dangerous.”

In the eight tracks of Wow, That Was Fun, he plays with tempos, instruments, sounds, melodies, crowd noise, conversation, and more. The opening track, “WTWF,” has a definite blues vibe. The story in “Deuteronomy” is carried throughout in time to a repeating, four-beat bass-drum-chimes pattern that never varies, though the speed of the rap does.

Except for the last track, “WDWGN (Herrera’s Healing),” which is more alt-pop than anything else, all of them feature Kyriq’s signature play with words and rhyme.

He wants to be a legend in the music industry. In Houston, his home base and the fourth-largest nation in the United States, he was selected as one of the top 20 male rappers in the latest Broadcast Houston voting.

“I want to be mentioned in the conversations with the Kendricks, the J. Coles and other great lyricists who have dominated the industry over the years because of their sheer ability. I want to be remembered as someone who transformed music,” he said.

He would also like to get into acting and, ultimately, “develop a career that will provide for my family and for myself in an enormous way and that will feed the world musically.”

Kyriq plans to put out another EP this year, and he has some singles ready to come out after the release is complete for Wow, That Was Fun. He will soon release a series of visuals, one for each of the album’s eight tracks. A website will launch in the near future.

“I’m just beginning to write my story,” he said.

To be part of that story, stay connected to Kyriq on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts. 

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