Christchurch producer Kamandi says when he sent LA based rapper Azizi Gibson samples of his beats last year it was only intended to be a demo of the sort of music he could make.
The song ended up as Crown Violet, the biggest song of Gibson's career.
“It blew my top, as soon as I heard it,” says Gibson.
“I just knew that something was special inside of it ... I just started really thinking about what I should do with music and then I feel like he pulled that trigger off in my head.”
Currently in New Zealand, Gibson made time to work on new music with Kamandi, which they say is different to Crown Violet and previous tracks.
“I'm waiting to see what type of feedback we'd get if we made a full-fledged project together,” says Gibson. “It's the real deal now.”
In November last year the pair opened for Chance The Rapper at The House of Blues in Los Angeles. Kamandi, who remixed Chance's track Paranoia, says that LA was a crazy experience for him and never envisaged being able to play there so soon.
“Obviously there's a whole different world out there and it was cool to get a wee slice of that.”
Video shot by Aleyna Martinez.
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