by Bryan Culver
It’s an unseasonably bright February afternoon in Philly’s scenic Passyunk Square neighborhood. I’m sitting at a table in Plenty Café, a hip little neighborhood eatery that serve up a delectable range of off-beat sandwich and salad combos and a mean cup of java. I got to chat with Nkosi Harmon, aka Kidd Sweeney, hot off the heels of his latest record Well Traveled released via BGMG Music Group, of which he’s a part owner. You should check out his album on SoundCloud. Kidd Sweeney provides a bit of background into his influences growing up, his life experiences, and his philosophy on life and chasing goals.
BC: You’re from Philly, born and raised. A city that’s been a hip-hop mecca since the inception of hip-hop itself. Who were the big names in Philly’s hip-hop scene growing up?
KS: Me growing up, I’ve got to go back to Will Smith, Jazzy Jeff, Freeway, State Property, Cassidy, they were the big names growing up, they were the guys.
BC: That’s pretty early on in Hip-Hop.
KS: Yeah. I’m not old though. I was only five or six when Will Smith came out.
BC: Philly’s a diverse city by any measure in the United States – one neighborhood seamlessly flows into the next – did that have a big impact on your music?
KS: Yeah, especially my earlier years growing up. You’ll be in one school and everyone listens to Hip-Hop. Then you’ll be in another school and everyone listens to rock and pop, or electro. That’s one of the themes of Well Traveled, it doesn’t mean you physically have to move, it means you mentally have to move.
BC: Who were your music idols growing up (were the different than the names mentioned above)?
KS: Busta Rhymes, Nas, and Kanye West, Block Party, those are my music idols. Those guys are pretty good points musically that add to me today, I mean, I take some from other people also, but mainly them.
BC: As you graduated from high school and began working with 787 you began developing your craft. Who were some artists that inspired you then?
KS: 787 happened after secondary education, after I left ATC. I had an option after I graduated from ATC: I had a job offer to go to Charlotte, North Carolina, to work for number 11 truck car in Nascar’s truck car series, Red Horse Racing team. But instead I wanted to pursuit music with my brother and my cousin. The group was called 787, which is my cousin and myself. I have a tattoo; he has his too. The reason why I chose that is because we reconnected. He said ‘man, if I didn’t believe in this I’d say go to Charlotte, but I believe we’re really going somewhere’. And we were, but we just couldn’t last the test of time, and we had a few back and fourths, but that ultimately spawned Blonde Gang, which was like 787 on steroids. 787 kind of fizzled out and Blonde Gang just blossomed.
BC: And Blonde Gang was a pretty big thing?
KS: Yes, we were “it”. We sold out the TLA first time performing there. We were the go to guys for a while. When big acts came down and the tickets weren’t right they would call us up and we would come down and get the tickets out. We were it, you know? We were the first guys with dyed hair, before it was a big thing. We got called names, crucified. You know, this was 2010 and we had died hair, it wasn’t happening yet. We got more names than anyone that got called names. But we provided a lifestyle, you no longer had to be caged into what people think you are, you could just be who you are, and that’s what we offered, and that’s what people love.
Unfortunately, we didn’t last the test the time, and we broke up.
BC: There seems to have been a growth spurt in terms of your execution and attention to detail on this album, you’ve grown into your skin as a solo artist – can you describe that process?
KS: Blonde Gang broke up and it’s all on me now. Echoes was actually done prior to the breakup, and I even had one prior to that called Kidd Sweeney, all before Well Traveled. But the thing was that at the time I only did 100 copies of the Kidd Sweeney project, so it was meant to be more of a collector’s item. Then Echoes was just me in a candy store. I started engineering and recording myself, I didn’t feel like paying engineers anymore and I really didn’t feel like being under the gun for time, so really didn’t feel like I could create under the clock. So that’s why I started recording myself. It was me just having fun with effects. When Echoes came out I was doing things that people didn’t see, but no one liked it, and everyone told me I needed to conform.
Well Traveled actually took three times to record before I was happy with it. I made it, then recreated it, then trashed it. It was originally supposed to show all of the styles of music I was working with, it was supposed to be Gumbo. You know? It was supposed to show how Well Traveled I was. All of my inspirations. Everything going on with me. I was slipping in and out of depressions. It was a lot. So I finally decided to trash that because I didn’t like it. So I really buckled down on this one. I tailored to a certain sound, I stuck with this specific sound, and just made it. You can be the jack of all trades but never be the master of anything. So that’s what I wanted to do. I was being a jack but now I wanted to be a master. So that’s what I aimed for with Well Traveled.
BC: You created BGMG Music for this project, as well as your previous project, The Echoes Project – how did that relationship manifest itself?
KS: It was me and four other people. When Blonde Gang separated, some went this way, some went that way, but the four of us didn’t have a problem with each other, so we said we might as well keep going. So we made Believe in Your Goals Music Group. We turned it into a music label because everyone’s strong enough to stand on their own.
BC: Was BGMG important in helping you grow as a recording artist?
KS: Yeah it was because it puts the fire on you. When you’re in a group and you’re falling short your partner comes and picks up the slack, and you might not even recognize it. This time around there is no one to pick up the slack, so I just have to get better and better.
BC: You were in a serious car wreck back in 2007 and got pretty scuffed up, has that moment had a major impact on your career as an artist?
KS: It made me no longer be complacent. It happened very early, so I had to start taking life by the horns because life can be gone in an instant, like that. It’s not an over process thing like that, I actually just went to a funeral for my friend’s daughter. She was six, and she got sick. Life is heavy. Life isn’t guaranteed. That’s why I stopped depending on people, you know? I’m doing it all myself, engineering my own music. I refuse to let anyone outwork me. I’ll be the pillar, because at the end of the day you never know when your time is up. We could walk out right now and get into a freak accident.
BC: You’ve been down the block and back – what advice do you have for aspiring hip-hop artists, MCs, DJs, and producers trying to make moves in the Philly area?
KS: First things first, don’t chase the money, chase the art. That’s number one. Number two is don’t be afraid to work with anyone and everybody, cause you never know who the next ‘it’ person is going to be, and if you don’t put in your time, you won’t get to collaborate with them down the line. Don’t be afraid to step outside of Philadelphia. Don’t be afraid to invest in yourself, you see because people are only going to believe in you, if you believe in yourself.
