Kari Faux is The Alt-Rapper With 10k Followers You’ll Want to Have Known About First
Kari Faux is the self-proclaimed “alt-rapper” and producer out of Little Rock, Arkansas, who gained recognition by having her music posted on music blogs, then holding her own against Childish Gambino on the “No Small Talk” remix.
Now, the rapper has fans, but is still in the stages of her career where you could brag about knowing her before anybody else did. After spending a year living in Los Angeles, the rapper is back in AR gearing up for the release of her debut album, aptly titled Lost En Los Angeles. She cites Britney Spears and A Tribe Called Quest as influences, and produces often with another musical artist, Black Party, but Kari but doesn’t sound like anybody other than who she should, as Kari Faux herself.
Get to know her below, and then let her music speak for herself. This is her new single, “This Right Here,” which you should listen to, then keep an eye out for her debut album, Lost En Los Angeles out April 8th.
Her Favorite Album Growing Up: My favorite album of all time is “The Love Below” by André 3000. I owned it as a kid. I remember hearing it and just thinking, “What is this! I don’t understand what is going on but I like it.” He’s a rapper but he was singing and playing instruments and doing all these things. I thought it was the best thing I had ever heard…and I was a kid saying this. It is not even like I had listened to many things at that point but I just knew it was a really dope album.
Process of Making Her Debut Album: My inspiration for “Lost En Los Angeles” was me feeling lost and questioning my relationships. I was growing up and trying to figure out who I am as a person and an artist. As far as my sound, it has evolved a lot since my earlier mixtapes. On this album I wanted to show that I could do a lot of different things both sonically and vocally and that I had range. Black Party, my producer, and I were just having fun with sound. When I moved out to LA, I was exposed to new things. I would listen to music either from my friends, or people I was around. It would grab my curiosity and I would go back and research music I did not know much about. As I was discovering new music, I was discovering new sounds that I liked. I took those sounds and tried to recreate them, make them more modern and my own. That part was important. I wanted it to feel like it was my thing not just a recreation of something that had already been done. There are bunch of sub-genres that are bigger than just rap. “Lie 2 My Face” sounds like a punk rock song.
Her 3 Favorite Songs Right Now: I will give you what I have been listening to on Spotify because that seems to be what I am on most these days. So my 3 standouts are “Whatever You Want,” by Tony! Toni! Toné!, “Droogs” by NxWorries (which was a project released by producer Knxwledge and singer Anderson.Paak), and “Levitate” by Kendrick Lamar or I guess the correct title would be “Untitled 07.” I have been listening to those three songs non-stop.
How She Came up With her Album Title: I was having a conversation with my manager, Fam. It was just a mini-freakout session because I am crazy or neurotic or whatever, and I said, “I feel lost. I just feel like I am lost in Los Angeles.” Then we said, “You know what, that would be a great title for an album!” It would be a great title for a movie too. Maybe I should make a movie next but as of right now it’s just the title of my album.
Which Pop Song She’d Most Like to Cover: I have to think about that one for a sec. Oh! You know what, I would cover, “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” by Britney Spears! Yes! I would definitely cover that song because it is so accurate to how I feel right now.
Kari Faux will be opening for AlunaGeorge at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, and at SOB’s on April 28. Buy tickets here.
Photo courtesy of Ibra Ake