5 On IT: SeriouslyK5ive

if you're going through it, the best thing to do is get through it.

Let us introduce you to the hitman that is making a serious impact on the music industry and a tag that leaves the listener asking: Seriously K5ive. 

So who is seriously SeriouslyK5ve? SerioulsyK5ive is an up-and-coming entrepreneur just trying to pave the way for my generation,(and) the generation above behind me.
​
You said for the paving the way for the up and coming, what would you would say to somebody that's trying to get into producing and is up-and-coming? The advice I would give them is to stay focused, never give up, and no matter what happens down your journey just keep pushing and going, man. If you, if you're going through it, the best thing to do is get through it. You know what I'm saying? And just be patient. Cause everything will get cover(ed), everything will fall into play.

How did you get your name? I got the K5 part from my government name, which is Kierre with a ‘K’. And then a five is (because) I'm 6 foot 5. And then it's like two stores. Two parts to it too. Like my partner back in high school. You know the movie Blankman? Johnny five [Laughing!] we used, to give each other nicknames. Shoutout to TC. He coaches for the youth. Yeah, we were just in class in high school just joking around, and that's how he gave me that (K5ive).

And then the Seriously came on when I started producing, cause I used to rap first. Then the Seriously came on when I started producing. I used to rap first. But I said let me drop the rapping and let me do this producing and, and I took it seriously. Then my oldest daughter she was just watching me make beats and she was singing and rapping and then she was like “Seriously K5ive! Seriously!”. I was like “Hold on! Hold on! Hold on!”. Come on baby. Come here and put your headphones on and say that in the mic (Laughing!). It took like three or four times. I just chopped it up and Boom! It was golden. It was gone and they received this stone. It’s been go ever since.

When some people think about producers they only think about the beat, what did you find out when you first really started getting into making music that it was really more than you thought? What I found out about music is the royalties. You can have one hit and just long as they spinnin it like, Boom! Boom! Boom! You get checks. Even if you ain't got that one hit as long as it's spinnin, And the way that streaming is nowadays, you ​can put it on YouTube and iTunes, wherever. As long as they listening to it and as long as you got your paperwork right. And you own your stuff. You good. You gonna see them royalties as long as you working.

What’s your musical background? My grandpa was a calypso. A Calypso is a genre and is like a mix between Reggae and Salsa I’ll take it back further. My great grandfather, he was a Star! [Proudly saying] over in the Virgin Islands and the British French Antigua. You know they have carnivals over there. He was a star. Like walked on stilts over there. And like, dressing up as a woman you wouldn't get bashed for that. It was just a costume. He ain't sell out. Paw Paw had three wives, I ain’t even gonna lie. Paw Paw had three wives!! But he was an entertainer. And then my grandpa when he was still alive. He was a sensation too! He wrote his own music and he collabed with a couple of known Reggae artists and Calypso artists over there. He toured the world! I come from like a little musical background.

I know a lot of producers now have tags in most of their tracks. How do think having tags in your track made you more marketable? Or has it opened up more opportunities? Yeah, most definitely. That's the whole thing about producing, That's the new wave now is the tag. Once you got that tag, that's basically the stamp. That’s your stamp on your butter, on your bread and butter.

Getting a little bit into your style. What was the first album you bought? The first album I bought to be honest was an R&B album, Genuine “Pony”. I think that was my first album I bought. Then the first rap album I bought is The Marshall Mathers LP or Chicken and Beer, one of the two, whichever came out first. Those was the staple in my life. Of my childhood.
​
What was the first beat that you just really studied? The first beat I really studied man was that Jay-Z joint “Shoulders”. [VOCALIZING KEYBOARD MUSIC] you gotta get ,get that dirt off your shoulders. Cause it was just some about that [VOCALIZING KEYBOARD MUSIC] TIMBERLAND!! It was just something about it, bro. I loved it. And then that, that was definitely one of the biggest. Have you found yourself trying to recreate it or use some of the sounds? I haven’t yet because that’s just a legendary song bro. But I’ll definitely try it. Anything is possible.

​This new era of electronic beats and drum kits has also produced many different titles. There’s beat makers, producers, mixers, engineers, executive engineers, and executive producers. What would you say is your official title? My official title is that I am a producer because I make songs when I make my beats, I literally can make a song to any of my beats. Which I don’t go through that lane. But I say I'm a producer.

Can you kind of define what you feel is the difference between a beatmaker and a producer? A beat maker is just a person that can just come in and click, click it and click it in, and you can vibe to it. And Boom! That’s it. But a producer is somebody that actually takes time to put their soul into their melody. And arrange the beat like a story. That's what I feel like differentiates a producer from a beat maker. Cause you can even have a simple beat, like a simple melody but that still can tell a story. The way you break it down, it still can tell a story.

Some producers have a certain number of beats they wanna get done in a day. Do you have a music quota or a certain number that you try to get done per day? I don't at all. It's no limit to my creativity at all man. If you gonna push out a hundred beats in a day then that’s what you go do, if you go push out one banger, one hit, one something that’s gonna last. Then that's what you gonna do. You might have a hit in them hundred bangers. But at the end of the day you're pushing yourself to the limit. Yea, you want to have a lot of content. But at the same time you also want to limit yourself. Don't overload. Cause that's really unhealthy. It's really unhealthy (to overload).

​How do you feel technology has helped or hurt your craft? Technology helped me. Technology helped save my producer life to be honest. Cause it’s been times where my laptop has crashed and I ain't had nothing to make a beat on but my phone. And that's how 2U came about. I was depressed but I just remembered. Damn I have FL Studio Mobile! Let me download that. And I download it and updated it, and that's how that came about. It helped me a lot. A Lot, man. Shout out FL Studio and ImageLine. Without ya’ll I don’t know where I would be.

Speaking of free music and streaming, I recently seen a few times where artists have tried to leverage their popularity to get the producer, the backend money. How do you feel about getting paid up front versus getting paid on the backend? I feel like the only way you would be able to do something upfront is if you and the artist already got a relationship. Not if it's just who shot John, or even if it's a C List or B List artist like Da Baby. I would want to see some money up front because you never know. You never know. Cause anybody could say they'll pay you on the backend and keep them them royalties.

And that kind of brings us to the business side. What did you learn about the business side? I started on my own but I ain't even gonna lie. Keeng Cut my big brother, shootout, he put me on the right track. He put me on the right side. I wanted to learn the business side before I even got into producing. I wanted to, I didn't even know what a royalty was at first. I didn't even know register, registering, or to be registered. I was like register what? What do I need to be register. BMI what? Whatever! It sounds good. And then once I got into it, them royalty checks started coming in. That's what it is. The royalty checks started coming here and there and I would say, okay. It makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. You have to have that business side there.
​
Do you put any beats to the side? Or think to yourself this beat would be perfect for this person? All the time. All the time. I put up a whole tape for my guy A Dezzy when he got locked up. I got stuff for World Culture (World Culture Music) whenever they ready. All Day. Even Young Cutty (Cutty Forever) whenever he ready I got stuff for him. I got a catalog bro. I never knew what a catalog was until somebody told me “Bro you gotta catalog!” [Laughing!] Yeah, that's right. I also want to go back up. One more question. When you asked me who inspired me as a producer. My cousin too. Man, my cousin taught me everything I know. my cousin Darryl Singleton a.k.a DWade. We came up together. What did he teach you? Man, he taught me how to use FL Studio. He taught me about melodies. He used to teach me chords and keys.

Do you notice how you listen to music is different from other people listen to music? Like do you notice certain melodies or when a tempo changes opposed to just the versus? Yeah I just kind of listen to the versus second. I listen to the beat first and listen to the words second, probably halfway through the song, now I'm listening to the verse. [Laughing!] Like Oh shit! This is a song. I don’t know what gift I've developed. I just developed (a gift) to blank out the words. I do do that. I ain’t gonna lie, but it’s just the nature of being a producer.

What song do people not know that you produced? Man I got some stuff with Steph Simon.  I did Dickie Ro Season. It’s an EP, 4 tracks. I did 3 of them. I did a track on Keezy’s (Keezy Kuts) 4-track EP. I did one on a project called “Movies”. I got something with ChasingRyann, TheGrae, and Keeng Cut. Look out for that, it’s about to drop soon. It’s called “Think About Me”. I got music with Mello Key. She a T-Town R&B vet.

​I see a lot of your posts that recently you've been talking about dropping an album. Can you explain that a little bit? Yeah. I'm trying to drop a compilation album, man. I've been working over the last year, really two and a half years I've been working with a lot of local talent. I just feel like it's time to drop something different, a compilation album. I drop beat tapes, like beat albums, just flow straight instrumentals. But I ain't never dropped a compilation album and I got a lot of music to my beats. So I’m like let’s gone head and throw this together. And let’s give Oklahoma and the world something to vibe to forreal.

Let's start out local. Is there anybody local that you haven't worked with that you want to work with? Locally? I haven't worked with Cutty (Cutty Forever). Like I said, I got something for him whenever, and that ain't even just because he just signed, I reached out and you can literally ask him to check it his DMs. This is probably like 2 years ago bro. I’ve been trying to reach out to him and to get get beats to him. OG. Man. Co2 (Co2 Da Great). I’m tryna get something with Co2 done. Look out for the shit me and Villin (Mr. Villin) got. It's crazy that I've just been working with some of the people that I'm wanting to work with. So it's now kind of hard to say because I've been working with them.

Let's talk about a bigger market. The more national known artists. What nationally known artists do you want to work with now? I recently tried to get up with Da Baby, but I reached out to his artists tho. I want to work with A Boogie (A Boogie With The Hoodie). A Boogie nice. I want to do something with Ookay Noah Cyrus. He nice. Obviously any A list. Future holla at ya boy. Ya boy got that song! Really Lil Baby too. He hard. Lil Baby and Gunna. Some of that younger crowd. They know the wave.

The role of producer has morphed from just making music to being a full blown rock star. Like Zaythoven or Metro Boomin even it's a brand ambassador like Dj Khaled. Outside of making music what are you planning to do? I plan on giving y'all this. I'm planning on giving to people my idea of fashion. I'm giving y'all my eye fashion, my fashion role, my fashion sense. and I'm gonna try to bring it out of everybody in the town. Some of the most notable, notable people in the culture of fashion. Whether it’s hip hop, country, and whether, I'm just going to dig deep into the fashion. I got a little videography, I like joking around. So you're going to see a lot of parody stuff. I got a track where I'm rapping. So you got to see a lot of funny stuff coming within my raps. It’s nothing serious. With the raps it's nothing serious. It's all fun. You have a great time with the raps. And then the visuals thats gonna come with the raps you gonna be like. Come on man. Let’s go with him. Let’s go with K5ive. It’s gonna be all fun tho.​

​So on August 10, 2018 you tweeted new bag, new ventures, new equipment, new prices. What does that mean? That’s when that deal from South Africa popped off. I got a great bag and then I got a Puma deal off of that and a Puma sponsorship. New ventures, I had set my mind on doing fashion. I got new equipment. I got a new laptop. I got a new keyboard. I got a camera. So I was starting new ventures. Just tryna stay on top of my game.

What do you think about the power of investing in yourself? And how has that helped you get further? Man, you have to invest in yourself. Because yeah, you cant get all the free stuff. But that's only gonna come with people asking for free stuff. I feel like what you put in, and whatever you put in, you get out. So invest that money, invest that little extra money and sacrifice. Sometimes you got to sacrifice. Sometimes you got to go hungry for a day or to. Maybe not go hungry. But just cut out the big meals or something. Don't smoke for a week or two or a month. So you can invest in yourself. So you can get better equipment. So your sound can sound a lot better. Cause I feel like equipment with equipment. Yeah, these laptops can do a lot, but they can only do so much. So I feel like if you invest in yourself you'll see the results.
​
Who are your Top 5 Producers?

1. Zaytoven
2. Mannie Fresh
3. 2Peece
4. Metro Boomin
5. Jetsonmade

Do you do any collaborations with other producers? I have. I’ve collabed with CWITIT. My young guy man, I love that guy. Like I said my cousin Darryl. (Also) buddy gonna kill me for forgetting his name. I just know his name is Dre and he sent me some beats. He was from Florida but he ended up moving out here. He would send me some beats and when they would come they would be fire. They was fire! I was like, Bro, this don't mean nothing. He was like no throw a little something on it. But I ain't really did too many collabs but those are the most notable collabs so far.

Who are your top five rappers?

1. Tone (Dial Tone)
2. J. Cole
3. Da Baby
4. Lil Baby
5. Roddy Rich

Honorable Mention: Nipsey Hussle

• He wanted to not seem biased by mentioning Keeng Cut so we left it in the list.
  
  
  

Do you see yourself making music forever? I do. I do cause I was making music before I was making music to be honest. Like in high school before the games we used to freestyle. I used to make beats off the locker room while rappers was rappin. It was crazy. I been making music. Like I said. I grew up on music.

How you want people to remember you? I want people to remember me as, I go hard at everything I do. Like K5ive put his all into everything. And then that he had his hand in a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Thanks again to SeriouslyK5ive for the opportunity to talk about his life,  experiences, and his musical career. Make sure to check out his new compilation album coming out soon. Also make sure you check out the video "Don't Trip" that he produced for Bic TheCashFlame where he makes an appearance.