The only remedy for this mental mayhem was the pivotal decision to abandon his pursuit of the practical in favor of pursuing his passion, music. The million dollar question, however, is which music? The answer to which depends upon who you ask. According to Vivek Menon, the music in question is classical violin. But that answer changes if you ask the independent hip hopper committed to delivering dejected intimacies and dreary insights that is Kevin Venom.
Which brings us to the topic of today's interview, i eat stars now and shit. Kevin Venom's 11-track debut features guest verses from Atlas Selasi and Yeen Neen, significant production from the homies Contour and n2Deep, a beat from fan favorite Lentra The Gawd, and one from Meshi. Interestingly, the capstone tracks on the project, "1421 murrayview" and "1421 murrayview/i eat stars," were produced by Kevin Venom himself. "1421 murrayview/i eat stars" which is just "1421 murrayview" realized in full, is the best track on the project because it's exclusively composed of Kevin Venom's depression driven artisic expression. Other tracks on the project feature his downtrodden regret-filled verses, but they don't have production coming from the same emotionally raw place the lyrics do. The featured production shines bright on this project, but it cannot compete with the potent emotional soundscapes created by the synergy of Venom verses and Venom beats.
In the interview, you will briefly hear from Vivek Menon as he interrupts to email a professor. Outside of that interaction, you will gain a deeper understanding of the concept that is Kevin Venom through a frantic yet focused exploration of his debut album i eat stars now and shit released via BANY Records.
What’s up with you and BANY? You guys are like a high school couple in an open relationship or some shit.
Kevin Venom:
Hahahaha I'm just tryna get them to notice me lmao. But honestly, they gave me my first ever blog write up like a year ago and have been fuckin with me ever since then. I didn't get signed but I also was at a different level a year ago. A lot of my homies fuck with BANY (mainly contour, he's a personal friend), but I'm better now and I think SMKY just digs my music enough to work with me on releases and things. It was this one off single I made called dry spells. It's still on my Soundcloud somewhere.
OK-Tho:
Didn’t get signed, yet. Haha. If you were to sign to a major label, which would you pick and why?
Kevin Venom:
Haha yet hopefully. Oooooo I've thought about that so much I'd have to say Brainfeeder just because musically they're so forward-thinking and getting an album produced by flying lotus is a dream of mine. Me and the Brainfeeder crew could talk music and jazz theory and shit it would be lit.
OK-Tho:
So you fuck with flylo, what do you think happens when we die? Do you agree that we are already dead?
Kevin Venom:
Yea flying lotus is one of my favorite musicians ever. I don't think we're already dead, although one could say that there's no way to perceive if anything outside of our conscience is real and that we're just projecting a version of reality for us to consume and if that's the case we might as well be dead. Some people say a lot of DMT gets released when you die and that the afterlife is an infinite DMT trip, I'd be into that. But I personally believe that once you die you just cease to exist and it's just nothingness forever. There's something kinda beautiful about that I think.
OK-Tho:
Yeah, the fleeting nature of existence makes each moment more meaningful. Would you rather live in a world with or without race?
Kevin Venom:
I think race is a part of life cuz like human beings are different and any delusion of a post-racial society is mostly bullshit. Not tryna be one of these weak ass people who are all "I don't see color." I wanna live in a world where we don't oppress and discriminate people because of their race.
OK-Tho:
While still being able to celebrate our cultural differences?
Kevin Venom:
Yeah exactly. And like where everyone is respectful of their place and all that.
OK-Tho:
Good, that was the correct answer haha.
Kevin Venom:
U sly dog you I knew I had to hit em with that educated and nuanced view on race.
OK-Tho:
On “orion’s dogs” you make an allusion to Lord of The Flies. If you were a Lord of The Flies character, which one would you be and why?
Kevin Venom:
Ooh good catch. Sounds weak but I identify with piggy or whoever a lot because he was just a genuinely good person but life just kept fucking him up.
OK-Tho:
Too true... him and his assmar couldn’t catch a damn break.
Kevin Venom:
Hahahaha. I also identify with Simon a lot. I think I had Simon in mind when I wrote that line.
OK-Tho:
Why Simon?
Kevin Venom:
He like is not on the spectrum of good and evil that jack and Ralph are on. He does some good things and some bad things and I think that's real. There was also that part where he was talkin to the pigs head and gettin all existential I was like that's some shit I would do.
OK-Tho:
Yeah, your view of his morality is interesting because many view him as a Christ figure. What with the visions and insights he got.
Kevin Venom:
Yeah, I can see that. I prefer to compare him to the Buddha because I'm atheist but I feel it.
OK-Tho:
Take me through a typical day spent working on i eat stars now and shit.
Kevin Venom:
Hold on one sec lemme respond to this email from my professor.
Ok so that's a hard question because the process for this album was interrupted by long soul draining periods of writer's block. During which my depression got way worse. And I'm so busy with school on a daily basis that I only have time at night. To be honest most of these songs were written at odd hours of the night, when the depression hit something inside me and the verses just happened. They just sort of wrote themselves. But also I wrote some songs over long periods of time and went back and changed them. "Gotham" was one of those songs, but songs like "nehru jackets" were written in one night when I was feelin some strong emotions.
OK-Tho:
So you dropped your math major but are still in school? What are you majoring in now?
Kevin Venom:
I'm majoring in classical violin performance, I've been playing violin since I was 3 years old and I really love it a lot.
OK-Tho:
Which creative process do you think yields better results?
Kevin Venom:
I think when songs write themselves in one sitting it's definitely gonna be better and more raw. But that's not to say taking your time on a song doesn't yield results. I think the best process is to not force anything. If you need to take time, take time. If you're feelin it all in the moment, get it down before it slips away.
OK-Tho:
What does it mean to eat stars?
Kevin Venom:
Hahaha so are you asking what the meaning behind the album title is?
OK-Tho:
If that will help me understand what eating stars entails haha.
Kevin Venom:
Ok so the genesis of the name was originally a joke between me and a really close friend of mine. We were at a house party last summer, outside by this pool, and someone brought up that Rick Ross "I eat pears now and shit" and my friend looked up at the sky and said "I eat stars now and shit" and we were all sorta fucked up so we laughed and he was like "that should be your album name haha." Later I began adding my own meanings to it; for example, everyone always told me to shoot for the stars and that by striving for those goals I would find success. But people's definition of success for me was never really what I wanted. Their goals (the stars) never really resonated with me so I began destroying those goals (eating the stars) as I tried to find my own way in life. Another meaning is that eating stars refers to doing all this shit I never would have seen myself doing when I was younger, and that just speaks to how much I've changed as a person and how I'm not the person I thought I wanted to be. But honestly the real reason I kept that name was because my friend came up with it, but we never really talk anymore and that night at the house party was one of the last times I saw him. He was like my best friend but I wouldn't really consider us to be friends anymore. I wrote the song “west vaco” about him.
OK-Tho:
What happened that changed the status of your friendship?
Kevin Venom:
We were high school friends and I think we drifted apart in college. If you want my depression and anxiety riddled interpretation of what happened I think he never liked me that much to begin with. Shit happens, people change. I was sad about it at first but I've accepted it now. I have better friends haha.
OK-Tho:
Listening to “west vaco” with that in mind makes it much more potent. College has a habit of pulling people apart. And life in general.
Kevin Venom:
Yeah, especially cuz we aren't in the same area. He wound up going to Berklee college of music. Life definitely pulls people apart. I'd say most of the people you meet in life don't really stay with you.
OK-Tho:
Life is a lonely endeavor. How is your working relationship with the producers on this project?
Kevin Venom:
A few of them I don't really interact with that much, and really only hit up for a beat. Meshi, the producer on "Gotham," is a good example. He's a good guy but we never really interact. Contour and I probably have the best working relationship considering that he's a good friend of mine. We both grew up in Charleston. He also knows what kind of beats I like so he sends me that heat rock every time. n2deep is also amazing to work with, he knows what to do to complement my sound and every beat he's sent me has been perfect. Super humble dude too. Shout out contour and n2deep. Lentra as well is great, first encountered him through my dude Crosby, he sent me the beat for Sirius and was really happy with how it turned out so we're definitely gonna be working together in the future. He seems like a good guy too. Now that I think about it those 4 people I mentioned are the only producers on the project, everything else was produced by me. Oh also my sound engineer who mastered the album, Alex. He's a stand-up dude and was nice enough to master the project for free because he liked it enough. Which was a huge blessing because he has worked on the mastering for "all day" by Kanye and also he's working on the new frank ocean album. He's like a legit engineer who works at this mastering studio in Charleston, he's my friends roommate so that's how I got the connect. Huge shout out to Alex the gawd.
OK-Tho:
That's pretty clutch, mastering can be a bear. Why didn’t “Zero Point” make it onto I eat stars now and shit? Were there any other tracks or features that didn’t make it?
Kevin Venom:
"Zero Point" was originally gonna be the opener (after the first little interlude track) but once the album was done it didn't really fit sonically with the rest of the tracks so I decided to release it separately because I still really love the song. Me and Crosby were gonna do something over this Cameron Butler beat but we never got around to it. There was this other song called "preying grounds" that I wrote way at the start of the album process, I felt like I kind of forced it tho so I didn't put it on there. It is recorded tho, I may revisit it and do something cuz the beat is pretty nice. There was also this other track produced by infinitefreefall that was gonna be on the album as an interlude but again I kind of forced it during one of those periods of writer's block. I wound up replacing it with "Sirius."
OK-Tho:
Classic Crosfather, I'm still surprised he actually got around to dropping The Crosby Show.
Kevin Venom:
That song was supposed to be on The Crosby Show actually but we still didn't get around to it. We have some tings planned now tho. Classic Crosby lmao.
OK-Tho:
Which track are you most proud of? Which was the hardest to share content wise?
Kevin Venom:
I'm definitely most proud of the last track, "i eat stars." I first heard that beat in my head a year ago. It took me a while to capture it but I managed to create it exactly the way I heard it and I'm so proud of that. And lyrically it's my most honest and also most positive track. It's sort of like a mantra to myself to remind myself to keep going through everything and that shit does get better. It holds a special place in my heart.
Content wise the most difficult track to share was "karna_kevinsgotagun." I wrote that at a super low point and I didn't know if I wanted people to know how bad my mental state gets sometimes. It's very bleak and despairing, I had trouble admitting to myself that I actually feel that way sometimes. I wanted to put it on the album so I wouldn't be hiding from the darkest parts of myself. It's only gonna get better if I acknowledge it. I think people will appreciate how visceral it is.
OK-Tho:
How have those who have already heard it reacted?
Kevin Venom:
They seem to really like it. My girlfriend heard it first, at first she was sad to know that I really felt that way sometimes because she wants to see my happy, but she liked it because I was honest while still rappin my ass off. One of my rapper friends who also suffers from depression, atlas selasi, he wanted to hop on it for a remix cuz it spoke to him. I don't think that song will get a remix tho, it came from a place I'm not tryna go to again. As for "i eat stars" tho, contour told me the beat was great. So it's lit.
OK-Tho:
Yeah, I think the last track is my favorite on the project.
Kevin Venom:
Fuck YES man, you're the only other person besides me who likes that track the most. People still like that track tho but you know everybody has their preference.
OK-Tho:
I love the line "As a kid I just wanted to be a villain" and the tone it sets for the rest of the song.
Kevin Venom:
Yeah, that's a theme for the album especially since the first half of that song is the album opener. And it just ends abruptly.
OK-Tho:
What are some things we should not expect from you, iesnas, and your upcoming works but you will deliver anyways?
Kevin Venom:
Ooooo interesting question. I feel like a lot of people don't expect bangers from me but I have some bangers coming. They don't expect to see my out here with some flex bars but imma do it anyway.
We were high school friends and I think we drifted apart in college. If you want my depression and anxiety riddled interpretation of what happened I think he never liked me that much to begin with. Shit happens, people change. I was sad about it at first but I've accepted it now. I have better friends haha.
OK-Tho:
Listening to “west vaco” with that in mind makes it much more potent. College has a habit of pulling people apart. And life in general.
Kevin Venom:
Yeah, especially cuz we aren't in the same area. He wound up going to Berklee college of music. Life definitely pulls people apart. I'd say most of the people you meet in life don't really stay with you.
OK-Tho:
Life is a lonely endeavor. How is your working relationship with the producers on this project?
Kevin Venom:
A few of them I don't really interact with that much, and really only hit up for a beat. Meshi, the producer on "Gotham," is a good example. He's a good guy but we never really interact. Contour and I probably have the best working relationship considering that he's a good friend of mine. We both grew up in Charleston. He also knows what kind of beats I like so he sends me that heat rock every time. n2deep is also amazing to work with, he knows what to do to complement my sound and every beat he's sent me has been perfect. Super humble dude too. Shout out contour and n2deep. Lentra as well is great, first encountered him through my dude Crosby, he sent me the beat for Sirius and was really happy with how it turned out so we're definitely gonna be working together in the future. He seems like a good guy too. Now that I think about it those 4 people I mentioned are the only producers on the project, everything else was produced by me. Oh also my sound engineer who mastered the album, Alex. He's a stand-up dude and was nice enough to master the project for free because he liked it enough. Which was a huge blessing because he has worked on the mastering for "all day" by Kanye and also he's working on the new frank ocean album. He's like a legit engineer who works at this mastering studio in Charleston, he's my friends roommate so that's how I got the connect. Huge shout out to Alex the gawd.
OK-Tho:
That's pretty clutch, mastering can be a bear. Why didn’t “Zero Point” make it onto I eat stars now and shit? Were there any other tracks or features that didn’t make it?
Kevin Venom:
"Zero Point" was originally gonna be the opener (after the first little interlude track) but once the album was done it didn't really fit sonically with the rest of the tracks so I decided to release it separately because I still really love the song. Me and Crosby were gonna do something over this Cameron Butler beat but we never got around to it. There was this other song called "preying grounds" that I wrote way at the start of the album process, I felt like I kind of forced it tho so I didn't put it on there. It is recorded tho, I may revisit it and do something cuz the beat is pretty nice. There was also this other track produced by infinitefreefall that was gonna be on the album as an interlude but again I kind of forced it during one of those periods of writer's block. I wound up replacing it with "Sirius."
OK-Tho:
Classic Crosfather, I'm still surprised he actually got around to dropping The Crosby Show.
Kevin Venom:
That song was supposed to be on The Crosby Show actually but we still didn't get around to it. We have some tings planned now tho. Classic Crosby lmao.
OK-Tho:
Which track are you most proud of? Which was the hardest to share content wise?
Kevin Venom:
I'm definitely most proud of the last track, "i eat stars." I first heard that beat in my head a year ago. It took me a while to capture it but I managed to create it exactly the way I heard it and I'm so proud of that. And lyrically it's my most honest and also most positive track. It's sort of like a mantra to myself to remind myself to keep going through everything and that shit does get better. It holds a special place in my heart.
Content wise the most difficult track to share was "karna_kevinsgotagun." I wrote that at a super low point and I didn't know if I wanted people to know how bad my mental state gets sometimes. It's very bleak and despairing, I had trouble admitting to myself that I actually feel that way sometimes. I wanted to put it on the album so I wouldn't be hiding from the darkest parts of myself. It's only gonna get better if I acknowledge it. I think people will appreciate how visceral it is.
OK-Tho:
How have those who have already heard it reacted?
Kevin Venom:
They seem to really like it. My girlfriend heard it first, at first she was sad to know that I really felt that way sometimes because she wants to see my happy, but she liked it because I was honest while still rappin my ass off. One of my rapper friends who also suffers from depression, atlas selasi, he wanted to hop on it for a remix cuz it spoke to him. I don't think that song will get a remix tho, it came from a place I'm not tryna go to again. As for "i eat stars" tho, contour told me the beat was great. So it's lit.
OK-Tho:
Yeah, I think the last track is my favorite on the project.
Kevin Venom:
Fuck YES man, you're the only other person besides me who likes that track the most. People still like that track tho but you know everybody has their preference.
OK-Tho:
I love the line "As a kid I just wanted to be a villain" and the tone it sets for the rest of the song.
Kevin Venom:
Yeah, that's a theme for the album especially since the first half of that song is the album opener. And it just ends abruptly.
OK-Tho:
What are some things we should not expect from you, iesnas, and your upcoming works but you will deliver anyways?
Kevin Venom:
Ooooo interesting question. I feel like a lot of people don't expect bangers from me but I have some bangers coming. They don't expect to see my out here with some flex bars but imma do it anyway.
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