Troy Kingi opened up about his collaborative new album in a Rolling Stone AU/NZ interview.
Speaking with us ahead of his support slot for Lenny Kravitz, one of his childhood heroes, last weekend, Kingi discussed the forthcoming Night Lords, due for release later this month.
Night Lords is a collaborative record featuring a selection of acclaimed hip-hop artists from Aotearoa. Featuring names like Tom Scott and Lucky Lance, Night Lords will be Kingi’s first-ever hip-hop-inspired album.
“I basically just DM’d them on Instagram. Most of them I’d met, but there were a few, like SWIDT, I hadn’t met before. I didn’t know if they were going to say yes. I just sent out the email, and within 24 hours, everyone had said yes,” he told us.
“I was lucky that everyone I picked complemented each other. They worked together on the same album; it’s not a mish-mash. It’s just a super cohesive album, and it feels like we were all in the studio at the same time working on it — even though none of them actually saw one another.
“People listening to the album will think it just sounds like a cool party, everyone’s sitting around smoking vapes and eating pizza, and waiting for their turn to jump on the mic.”
On venturing into hip-hop for the first time, Kingi said, “I was having a lot of conversations with a lot of people who were like, ‘Why didn’t you get so-and-so on that album, or this person, or that person?’ I’m like, man, I’m not the be-all and end-all of hip-hop. Don’t try to pin whatever it is on me. I’m just doing something for me, first and foremost. I’m doing something cool that I enjoy.”
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Night Lords is part of Kingi’s 10/10/10 series, a challenge he set himself to produce ten albums over ten years that explore ten different genres. It began with his debut album, Guitar Party at Uncles Bach, in 2016, and features titles such as The Ghost of Freddie Cesar, Time Wasters, and Leatherman & the Mojave Green.
Troy Kingi’s Night Lords is out November 28th (pre-order here).
