Today we are with Ibi Kino, Venezuelan artist. He tells us part of his musical career and his professional complement in the visual arts. Enjoy it.
Astrid: Since when did you decide to rap?
Ibikino: It all started in the second grade of primary school, with the idea of making music, when we saw the parameters to fulfill the dream we obtained the tools of easy access at that time, and we found rap: badly marked, along with a cluster of accusations.
From that moment we decided to exercise his will and learned. I found many with an accumulated anger and that was where we felt identified with their forms. Since then we love RAP, “I fell in love with how anger transformed into poetry.”
Astrid: What other genres do you like to dabble in?
Ibikino: At first I sang with some friends from high school for a couple of years, we got together with a Reggae band and we joined rap with this genre (Reggae); Since then I always have musical variations, added to the inspiration of its origin, right now I have albums of:
_Jazz
_Soul
_Reggae_Trap
_Drill
_Afro
among other genres,
without a doubt rap now comes out as the roots leave the earth.
Astrid: When did you first record?
Ibikino: Good memories!
Together with the classmates already mentioned we had a recording studio near the lyceum, one day we decided to collect all the money for the snack to pay for our first song; I was 14 years old.
Then we tried to make an album and well everything was in music for the street. Since then I have always looked for ways to learn from the arts of music production.
Astrid: How many musical projects have you been in since your inception?
Ibikino: Wow, a lot!
I was 20 years old when I managed to conceive about 1,000 thousand songs, lyrics which are full of projects among them: Clandestine Instinct, Barlovia Root Raege, Box 2, Kultura Santa. After that I took my first steps as a soloist and countless projects that accompanied me throughout this magnificent journey.
Right now I have 8 projects in a row without brand new of different genres and that’s how I ended up being clear that this music is my thing.
Astrid: When was your first live performance as a solo rapper or with a band?
Ibikino: Well I grew up in the world of electronic parties and my mentors of the time always did rumbas concerts and in all of them we sang, I remember one day I met with my neighbors and invited all the communities to make the New Year’s Eve party, there begins our opening in endless events, meetings, parties, activities. We always sang at any rumba/party as a natural move that made us represent our intentions wherever we were.
Astrid: What other trades do you have outside of music?
Ibikino: When I left high school I did my first food handling course, I did cooking until I got an audiovisual production company at age 18 and I started in this media in the department of arts, there I got my first film participation as an actor In _SHEILA A HOUSE FOR MAITA_, was my first appearance in Venezuelan cinema in which I signed a contract with the Villa del Cine to manage my career as an actor
, Training, profile and I trained in the sciences for the audiovisual I recorded my first commercials for television until once I tried with the voice for a Christmas wedge. From there I do audio-visual productions, photographic direction, sound engineering, voiceovers, graphic designs among other disciplines. Today I have a diploma in performing arts, approved voice certificates and the unstoppable desire to create.
Astrid: Any reference artists?
Ibikino: My father was my first influence, then these Caribbean teachers and a lot of leaders all over the planet. I like Blues, Jazz, Gospel, I like music that influences like the music I make. This music is a universe
and now more than 1000 all these exponents have multiplied by 1000.
Astrid: Have you attended events nationwide?
Ibikino: Yes, I knew the country singing everywhere, the networks barely arrived and we traveled with music, festivals, concerts, events.
I remember that one day at a concert the presenter did not arrive on time and the producer scared, asked how we started without the presenter and I said: Let me do it, when the presenter arrives I sing and give him his turn, let’s do it! After that he suggested that she accompany him on a tour as a presenter and singer.
Those days were prosperous!
If this is tattooed on my paths through life, that music, events and everything that has to do with bringing the message to the brains.
Astrid: What is the goal in your lyrics?
Ibikino: My lyrics are a wake-up call to the conscience encouraging love, peace without changing the modality of the elementary formulas, from the beginning rap does things that conventional music saw impossible or violent but when translating them you understand their real intentions and their similarities of the idea of awakening consciousness or generating alternatives for transformation from poetry.
Astrid: Would you do this for the rest of your life?
Ibikino: Well in the trips we trained by moving to schools, communities and lyceums with the purpose of multiplying this of the poetic arts. And you see now society has a different perspective
on rap.
Everyone raps, loves rap, eats rap, which for us is a tool for transformation and today
is like a heritage. Since 2018 we have an organization dedicated to new taletos called _RAP NACIONAL_, which began as a showcase for talents and ended up being a nucleus destined to integrate new talents born and to be born.
Right now I’m working on a project with Enmanuel Rojas: _EL SOUND OF THE
ARTISTAS_. I have alliances with Spain, USA and France.
_HIP HOP WITH THE VALIENTES_, in Spain, for fundraising for children with cancer.
In the U.S. I belong to a group dedicated to promoting social sustainability for legislators or students who advocate for equitable access to materials, tools and creative spaces that have as their purpose cultural exchange, promote the improvement of health for the evolution of economic autonomy through audiovisual, cinematographic and performan.
In France I have alliances to facilitate access to digital palataformas to all interpreters of _ADN MUSICA_, a project that aims to support national talents. At the moment we are building a project called _EL PORTAL_, where a large part of exponents from all over the world of various genres participate.
Anu” The Sound of the Artists ” in charge of all the musical engineering analyst of projects and generational processes “Geometrix productions” with the audiovisual direction for the demarcation of the before and after of the processes of the image together with the production company Cine de Calle led by Humberto Walner ” who is in charge of the new modalities adjusted to the cinema from its platforms thus linking the US in this multilateral project.
Last but not least:
_RAP NACIONAL_
here in Venezuela more than a brand we are a movement in charge of awakening the lethargy of leisure spaces for the transformation of the new generation.
Many thanks to Ibi Kino for allowing me to conduct this interview today, for me it is always an honor to know more about these great artists and their talent. I invite you to follow him on his social networks and digital platforms.
Social media:
Facebook: Ibi Kino Instagram: @ibikino
Link Uktra: ibikino