Jack M. SilversteinIn this conversation with RapReviews.com contributor Jack M Silverstein, New Jersey MC Kosha Dillz talks about the emotion and fun behind his new album, and his persistence in the rap game.
Jack M Silverstein: So, tell me about your new album.
Kosha Dillz: This album is produced by Shuko, a German producer. It’s bringing back some hard hip-hop, hard rap. It’s gonna be a five-song EP that’s free, and then an eight-song LP. The album is *Gina & The Garage Sale*. *Gina*’s going to be the free one*. *She passed away from an overdose, so the thing covers relationships, death, love, ways to get through pain, dancing. ‘Garage sale’ for me is cleaning out the entire house and selling everything. Putting it out there. Everything has some value, but it takes a lot for me. I keep everything in my house, so we’re taking everything out. My neighborhood in Jersey is really big in garage sales.
We wanted to give it away because we want people to hear it. The *Gina *part especially. She passed away while I was recording the album. The irony was that the last time I was recording an album, another friend passed away, a suicide, and with the same engineer who was doing the project. It was really far out. I made a couple songs for her. That’s how the album formed. It was just *The Garage Sale*, but then it became *Gina & The Garage Sale*.
I think it’s going to be a moving project. It’s deeper, you know? It’s going to cross over. There’s a lot of fun dance stuff on it. And a lot of lyrical stuff. We’re going to have fun with it. Most importantly, we’re going to get it to everybody we can. We’re going to sell the shit out of it. And we hope everyone buys it, becomes famous rich, and we’ll talk about this another day.
No one gave me a chance ever, you know? When I first showed up, I’d bum rush shows, I’d bum rush festivals. I got kicked out of a country and within three days I was in RZA’s studio recording a song with Kool G Rap. I snuck into Rock the Bells, played there, sold half a grand worth of merch after getting kicked out of a country, and then flew back – you know what I mean? That’s where my hustle is at. If people can match that, they’ll be working with me.
We’re really gonna push this album out. We want three videos on MTV, four videos on MTV, and we’re going to keep putting them on until the next person knows. It’s all about the next person. Everybody counts. Team Kosha. Everybody plays, brotha. Everybody plays. Take nothing for granted. I’m not in jail, my parents are happy. Try to make some money now, you know? Trying to make some music that resonates with people for years, and they’ll look back on it and say, “We’re still giving it out.”
My show is completely different from others. It’s very entertaining. It’s very interactive. I’m pushing myself a lot to be doing it. This is it. I’m trying to rock. I’ll rock for ten people or one hundred people or one thousand people.