Cptn Kirk – Talks Biggest Musical Influence & Describes His Typical Fan

Netherlands-based rapper/producer Cptn Kirk presents the Mike Michaelides directed music video for “Needs”, the new single from T.R.I.P. (Trippin Responsibly In Pluto), his forthcoming EP produced entirely by Boi-Lee. Born on the Greek Island of Crete, Cptn Kirk was performing and battling regularly around Greece by the age of 16, creating the Monster Footprints collective. In 2011 he moved to Amsterdam and clicked up with Netherlands crew Elite Fleet. “The title of the song says it all,” Cptn Kirk says about the new single. “In this world we all just wanna get whatever we want, but it makes us forget what we actually need.

Being broke trying to make it, I wrote this track just to let people know and remind myself you should prioritize what you really need so you can get what you want. When you have a goal, chase it and never back down until you achieve what is needed so you can get what you really want.” T.R.I.P. drops on April 20.

SFHH: How do you think being Greek affects the sound of your music?

CK: I don’t really think it affects it that much to be honest. Most people actually think I’m from the States until I tell them I am not. And if you ask anyone close to me they’ll tell you I’m not the typical Greek. You know, I’m just being me, so I can’t really find in what ways it affects me. Maybe other people see it as it should, but I think I still need some time to understand how that affects me, haha! It does help me on a lot of things though! Greek culture and history is really rich and can really help you come up with a bunch of ideas and concepts. Also the language is really close to so many languages and you have a small advantage of having a really rich vocabulary! So I think these would be the only things that affect my sound from being Greek.

SFHH: What do you think the old school can learn from the new school and vice versa?

CK: That’s a nice question even though I see everyone as an evolving artist no matter the time frame they started making music. There are so many things that we can learn from each other! About the “old school”, I’d say the first thing they can learn from the “new school” is to try new things! Not to get stuck in some specific style and try more things that would evolve their craft. Because it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing this, you can always learn something new that you can do! From how to brand yourself the right way and having a bigger creativity space, making all kinds of quality things nobody would expect you to do. When it comes to the “new school”, there are way more things that should be learned from the “old school”. First of all, it’s the work ethic. Don’t expect anyone to hand anything to you. Do you and go for it! Don’t be a copycat! Stay an original and be a leader. Show people the drive for success you actually have and let nobody tell you otherwise. Second and really important for most people in the new school, Get your bars up! We have this crazy thing that everyone talks about the same thing in the same way. It needs to change. Get your own identity and bring something new out. Have an actual message in anything you say, because you have the blessing of people actually listening to you, and that’s a strong weapon. Use it wisely. Like it used to be back in the 90s. Most successful hip hop artists had their position because of something that separated them from the rest. Nowadays everybody wants to sound like the next person that is buzzin’. This needs to change.

[jwplayer player=”1″ mediaid=”87121″]SFHH: What was the biggest musical influence in your life, being from so many places with so many sounds surrounding you?

CK: My musical influences have always been surrounded by the hip hop culture, so most definitely hip hop is the biggest musical influence in my life.

I was lucky enough to get exposed to some of the best hip hop sounds from a really young age, and that’s a rare thing where I’m from. There is not really a certain name I can say was my biggest influence but definitely the sounds from ATCQ and KRS-One, to Eminem and 50 Cent, to 2Pac and Freestyle Fellowship, Rakim, Guru! I can keep going on and on! Haha! My taste for music is based on quality and honesty. If it’s good, I’ll follow it, no matter the genre or the artist. But I want to feel what is being said and played in order to get influenced by it. Being from a family that always had quality music of any genre playing around I can say it shaped me to understand what’s good and what’s not. It also helped me realize how different I was from other people.

SFHH: Describe the typical Cptn Kirk fan.

CK: The typical Cptn Kirk fan can be a person of any gender, age or color. From any kind of background! I got something in my pocket for everybody! But the most typical Cptn Kirk fan would be a guy who wakes up at night to go writing on some walls, has an ear and eye for quality and uniqueness, is comfortable with the truth and definitely smokes some quality green! and most probably likes psychedelics! haha!

SFHH: What track of yours do you think you should go down in history for and why?

CK: That’s one hard question! First off, I can’t really pick up one up because my hardest tracks are still unreleased! Haha! Plus, I still have so much to offer and create that I think I’ll have more than one tracks that will go down to history in some way. But from the tracks I already have out I think my latest single, “Needs” could be one. It talks about something we forget in our everyday lives. Our needs! We are so busy chasing things we think we want but it’s not actually what we need. It’s a materialistic world and there is not a lot we can do about it, but if we change our state of mind and actually understand what’s needed we can make huge changes! So that’s the reason it could go down to history… as a reminder! Do not destroy what you’ve built for a temporary fix.