K Camp Talks “Pretty Ones,” Why He Doesn’t Perform “Lottery,” and Reaching Out to Ludacris
K Camp’s work ethic is unmatched, having locked himself in the studio for the past decade. In fact, on his way over to our interview, he DMed Ludacris to see if there were any film opportunities for him. It’s time to expand!
Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, the 32-year-old boasts an impressive catalog of hit records, including “Money Baby,” “Comfortable,” and “Cut Her Off,” and even “Lottery (Renegade)” which took a course of its own over the pandemic. The song immediately became a viral sensation on TikTok, as millions of users made dance videos to the uptempo record.
But Camp doesn’t feel any type of way about the numbers. In fact, he chose not to perform it at his recent sold-out show at The Roxy in Los Angeles — mostly because the song became something he didn’t envision for himself initially.
The show itself was a movie, though, with even The Shade Room reposting the video we posted on The Source. One thing about K Camp, he will always have the ladies supporting him and going crazy.
Most recently, K Camp released his new single titled “Pretty Ones,” featuring B-Lovee.
The Source spoke with K Camp in downtown Los Angeles to discuss his recent show, collaborating with B-Lovee, TikTok, his clothing line, what Hip Hop means to him, and more!
How’s it feel to be here in Los Angeles? Sold-out show, congrats!
It feels good. I was on stage, I told the crowd I had came out here a couple years ago and did a show. It was a janky promoter who really didn’t promote. I had did the show, it was probably 50 to 100 people in the crowd and it pissed me off. I was mad at everybody that night. I got into it with my manager, I got into it with my DJ. The girl I was talking to at the time, I almost made her walk home.
On God I was pissed off, because no artist wants to go to a show and ain’t nobody there for them. So it’s a full circle moment going to the Roxy and selling it out, and the promoter telling us “we left tickets on the table because we could have sold out more. We could have did a bigger venue.” It was a surreal moment.
What was the best moment?
[laughs] It was two moments. It was a dude I brought on stage that was doing some weird ass dance moves. I brought him up when I was doing “Woozie,” he was doing some shit with his legs. It was too damn funny.
That girl jumped up. I put my hands up, because she jumped on me and I didn’t want to drop her. I didn’t want to catch no charge. It was funny. Shout out to her man, she shot a shot.
Did you not perform “Lottery”?
Nah, I don’t be performing “Lottery” like that. I don’t know why. I did it in Hawaii, but only because my DJ played it on some humbug shit. Because the way that song turned into a song that it wasn’t supposed to be. They turned it into a dance, like KIDZ BOP. So when I perform it, it feels childish to me. If they request it, I’ll do it.
I was going to ask, do they be requesting it?
Yeah they request it. If I hear someone saying it in the crowd, I’ll do it. But if I don’t hear it, I’ll just keep going. I got a lot of songs, I can keep going. If they don’t want it, they ain’t gon’ get it.
Let’s talk about “Pretty Ones” featuring B-Lovee, fire collab.
For sure, shout out B-Lovee. He came through Atlanta and did that verse, so we really had an interaction and vibe in the studio. I already had the record ready. I just had to figure out who I wanted to put on it. He got motion up top. In my mind, I gotta turn my buzz up a little more on top. I get love in New York and up top, don’t get me wrong. But me personally, I need to make a presence more in New York and in Philly.
I reached out to him, an artist that has some motion. He did what he had to do. It’s so crazy, I did that song last year in September. The song old. It’s not old, but I had it in the cut on my iTunes forever. Then when I heard Uzi come out with “I Just Wanna Rock Out,” I’m like damn. He beat me to it! It was just perfect timing. We did the deal with TikTok, the distribution deal. They wanted that record, and it’s out.
How does that work? When they distribute it.
They got a distribution platform called SoundOn. They got the platform with the marketing and they send it through their own distro. You know, a direct deal.
You be on TikTok like that?
I ain’t gonna lie, I didn’t at first. You probably bring back clips when I was not fucking with TikTok. But these days, I can catch myself just scrolling for an hour and a half. Til’ my head hurts. That shit be addicting though, it be some funny shit on there. I don’t watch TV, so I’m just scrolling. But I fuck with TikTok now. I fuck with it.
So you didn’t love it when “Lottery” was going crazy?
Nah, because I didn’t know what it was. Of course, it’s a social media app. But it seemed too gimmicky for me. It was too much weird funny shit going on. I don’t be doing weird funny shit, so let me just stay off the app. But the song started blowing up on the app, I’m like alright. I was rolling out an album, they kept saying “you gotta get on TikTok.” Let me just fuck around with TikTok. It’s cool. There’s methods to go viral, you gotta figure out how to go viral. It’s very detailed.
Talk about your own clothing line, Shop4Float.
Shop4Float, that’s the apparel. We just did a brand name change, so it’s called ONMÌ now.
It’s on me. Until you put it on, you gotta feel like it’s on me. We’ve been doing good. Right now, I’m tapping into the cosmetics lane. Got a product called Bae Essentials that I’m putting out soon. When I get back to Atlanta, we’re gonna do the rollout. The marketing for it.
We got the Dickies shirt, the I Can’t Love No Bitch That Love Me shirt. They sold out. That was the biggest drop I did, it made almost $20K in two days. But I reinvest everything back into the business. All that shit goes hand in hand. I love fashion. I’ve been doing music so long, I just had to expand my brand and to do other shit I love. I decided to do clothes.
I just DMed Ludacris when I was on the way today. I told him put me in some films man. [laughs] I said I want to get my Denzel on, I just DMed his ass.
Did he respond?
I just did it, so we gon’ see. He’ll prob hit me back later, but I did it. I just want to do some different shit. I’ve been in the studio for damn 10 plus years straight, I gotta do some other shit. It’s fun though.
Hip Hop celebrates 50 years this year. What does Hip Hop mean to you?
Hip Hop means everything to me, it made me who I am. Grew up learning and studying this shit. Studying the people that came before me, inspired by the people who came before me. Wanting to be like the people that came before me. The fact that we’re still here, carrying a torch. It’s a lot of artists doing a good job, there’s artists burning the shit out. That’s every year, every decade.
I just want to say salute to us. Salute to all the OGs that paved the way. Some of the OGs need to, I’m not gon’ say do a better job, but guide the youth. Our generation, nobody really gave us the game. We had to learn it on our own. It’s our job to inspire the next generation, but give them the game. Put them on, show them how it’s supposed to be done. We were out here just scrambling, trying to figure it out. It took a little longer.
Especially for me, I got an interesting story. An interesting journey with my career. I had to figure that shit out. Shout out to 50 years of Hip Hop. Pretty sure we’ll have another 50 more, 150 more. When I’m gone, that shit will probably still be going. Salute to the legacy.
Anything else you want to let us know?
“Pretty Ones”out right now. Tour starts March 23rd. Shop4Float, go get your merch. Shout out to the fans out, I love y’all.
The post K Camp Talks “Pretty Ones,” Why He Doesn’t Perform “Lottery,” and Reaching Out to Ludacris appeared first on The Source.
