Karii, an emerging R&B artist, possesses a magnetic quality in his music that instantly captivates listeners from the moment they press play. Hailing from the 801 music scene, his arrival promises to change the landscape of contemporary R&B. Karii's journey to this point has been anything but easy, marked by a tumultuous upbringing in which he found solace through music. His talent and determination became evident when a diss track catapulted his name into recognition, leading to the release of his debut single, 'Ex'. Now, having recently dropped an electrifying EP titled 'Cater2U', Karii is poised for a monumental year in 2024. With his unique sound and undeniable passion, Karii is set to leave an indelible mark on the music industry. Continue reading our interview below to learn more.
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RIPDAYDREAM: Bro, I am very excited about this interview. I discovered you going into 2024 and was impressed right away. I want to learn more about you but first, we like always to give you the floor to tell our readers who Karii is.
Karii: Thank you first of all! Karii is an R&B artist and a vocal engineer from Salt Lake City, Utah.
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RIPDAYDREAM: Looking over your already impressive discography, it appears that your releases date back to 2020. I'm curious, did your musical journey begin then, or were there earlier years spent learning, freestyling, and honing your sound? Also, 'Ex' being your first release with that quality is crazy.
Karii: I had a rough upbringing music started as a way to vent when I was younger going through family problems. Being kicked out and moving a lot. At the time I did freestyle videos in the car and posted them on social media. Such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Some kid ended up dissing me my first year of high school, and mentioning my sister in the diss. So I posted the diss on Facebook. It did like 11,000 views. That’s when I really started taking music seriously. A year later I dropped 'Ex'. One of my first songs on all platforms. This YouTuber Patrick CC, did events where they reacted to their fan's music. But I had no idea what was going on. The producer that made the beat to ex sent the song into the guy's stream and it went crazy from there ^ it skyrocketed to the views we have now today. 1.5 million listens on Spotify. That made me fall in love with music more and made me realize that anything was possible. I was 15
RIPDAYDREAM: Your most recent release, 'Cater2U', is a big vibe, and all three songs make me very excited for the direction you are going with music. Walk me through creating this EP and the inspiration you took for each song.
Karii: ''Cater2U' was brought together by me and my brother JuJuIsDatYou who also came up with the name of the EP & he is on track 2 “Right Now”. I definitely wanted my EP to give off a night-time drive downtown vibes. 'Cater2U' was inspired by the name JuJu gave me for my EP. So I put my song together after he told me and I made the song the day he told me. “Right Now” was made partly in his studio in Salt Lake and made my verse partly in my home studio. I asked JuJu if he wanted to be a part of the EP I had coming up, and if he wanted a song on it. He said yes and made a hook and verse asap! Sent me everything in like 30 minutes. Then I finished my verse in about 10 minutes and had the song done within like an hour. “GoYard” was made in a studio in Salt Lake City. That night I felt great because this producer and I finally made something great after a while of knowing each other. It was just my girl and me, We were smoking in the studio and catching vibes. I freestyled a couple of lines in the booth and we just knew it was gonna be the one after I said the first few lines. We stayed in the studio until 3 am in the morning. We were hella excited.
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RIPDAYDREAM: Gun to your head who is the first artist, dead or alive, you would want to feature on a song?
Karii: Lil Wayne and Drake.
RIPDAYDREAM: You just dropped your first music video so tell our readers about your experience and some behind the scenes details.
Karii: My first video was shot at cornerave smoke shop in downtown Salt Lake City. My boy was working there and asked his boss if I could film there. So He showed him my music and he said yes! We got there that night and started shooting. I asked if we could smoke in there he was hesitant and then he looked at me and was like fuck it 😂 And NO ONE is allowed to smoke in there bro. So that was the coolest thing for me. During certain car shots, we had to keep telling my cameraman (juushotdat) to get back in the car cause he was hanging out the window filming me and cops would roll by. If you know downtown Salt Lake 12 be hot down there lol.
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RIPDAYDREAM: Can you give us a sneak peek into new music or projects you are working on for this year?
Karii: This year I’m really focused on giving my base more music videos and singles. They can definitely plan on new music within a few weeks. 👀