![\"Sango-3\"](\"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Sango-3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nSango, born Kai Wright, has built an impressive buzz off his experimental production style. The 22-year-old has garnered international recognition with his most recent release Da Rocinha 2, which infuses the baile funk sound from the favelas of Brazil with surprising hip hop and electronic elements.<\/p>\n We caught Sango before a show at Zanzibar in Santa Monica, the last stop on the \u201cFinally Tour,\u201d a mini-tour with longtime friend and collaborator, Waldo. They performed in Detroit, Chicago \u2013 which has the best food \u201cin life\u201d \u2013 and Vancouver, where they were held at the airport by customs.<\/font><\/p>\n ISM: So what kind of story were you telling with Da Rocinha?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: It\u2019s really not even a story. It\u2019s more like experimenting with different sounds that I\u2019m not used to. That I didn\u2019t grow up with. That I didn\u2019t have to my disposal. Because I grew up on soul music. I grew up on hip hop, R&B, you know, typical Black kid stuff. My family isn\u2019t from there. My grandfather played in a band that was Afro-Cuban, a Cuban Jazz band, but everyone else, originally, we\u2019re not from there. So pretty much it\u2019s experimenting with that sound [and] taking it further.<\/em> <\/p>\n The second installment happened because more people wanted to hear what I could do with it. It\u2019s kind of like when you find a new medium. Let\u2019s take paint. When you first start and you\u2019re using it. It\u2019s kind of hard to control because it\u2019s new to you, but once you start working with it, it gets better. The first one, the result wasn\u2019t really what I wanted, but I still released it because I wanted to see how people would react. Then the second time I was like OK, I know how to use this right. I know how to sample it right and mix it in better with what I know already.<\/em><\/p>\n ISM: Have you gotten a lot of responses from people from Brazil?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: Yeah a lot. More people that support music rather than musicians and producers. I don\u2019t hear a lot of producers from Brazil – well, some on SoundCloud, on the internet, stuff like that – shouting me out. Not something major like, \u201cHey we wanna fly you down here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n ISM: But the supporters really like what you\u2019re doing with the sound?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: Yeah it\u2019s freaking them out they\u2019re like, \u201cWhat is going on?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n ISM: Is it more like you paying homage to baile funk or taking it to a different level?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: Not even that. It was more like, wow, this is interesting. The only time I heard baile funk being used was like Diplo and MIA, but they were doing it kind of raw. Pretty much, they were doing their own version. They weren\u2019t taking it and making it new, they were just doing it. Like when Lil Wayne did his rock album he just did rock. It wasn\u2019t Lil Wayne infused rock. It was Lil Wayne\u2019s voice on top of rock. So that was the very first time I heard that so it wasn\u2019t really like an homage or anything it was just wow this is cool let me see what I can do with it rather. Now it\u2019s an homage because I love the country.<\/em><\/p>\n ISM: Do you know Portuguese?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: I\u2019ve learned Portuguese throughout the process of doing that music. Anyone that knows me really well knows that I study languages in my spare time, only because I get a kick out of it. It\u2019s something to do. I can definitely understand a lot of languages, but I can\u2019t speak them.<\/em><\/p>\n Waldo: He speaks Spanish pretty well. We were just at Paco\u2019s Tacos and he was ordering in Spanish.<\/em><\/p>\n Sango: That\u2019s because my fianc\u00e9 is from Mexico and she had a lot to do with my learning Spanish. Her mom and her father really helped. My father grew up around Spanish people as well so he knows Spanish. He spent time in Japan in the Navy. He learned Japanese so he taught us that when we were younger. My mom knows Tagalog. She was in the Navy as well. She spent time in the Philippines. So I\u2019m like a little kid speaking Tagalog. Languages are fun and I feel they\u2019re good to know.<\/em> <\/p>\n ISM: What\u2019s the proper way to pronounce Da Rocinha?<\/font><\/p>\n Dah Hah-see-nyuh-doyce. In Brazil, in Portuguese, they don\u2019t pronounce the Rs like how we do. It\u2019s more of an \u201cH\u201d sound.<\/em><\/p>\n ISM: How long have you been engaged?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: About three months.<\/em> <\/p>\n ISM: That was your inspiration for North right? The album was about her?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: Yeah pretty much. North is about people who find someone that helps you become a better person. This music will somewhat explain why things happen in your journey. For example the track \u201cShe Yells,\u201d that song is only and directly about women yelling at men, like, that always happens.<\/em><\/p>\n Waldo: It\u2019s inevitable.<\/em><\/p>\n Sango: And the only time women yell at men is because they love them and they care about them. It\u2019s just explanations. That whole album was explaining simple situations when you\u2019re in a relationship with a man or a woman. It\u2019s a soundtrack to normal situations. So basic. Like waking up and being tired. OK well I\u2019m really tired today I\u2019m going to make a song about being tired.<\/em><\/p>\n ISM: Is that how you approach every song?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: Yeah I\u2019m not into being super creative forcefully. Like make a song like\u2026 \u201cSpaceship Cupcakes.\u201d You know what I mean? Just spacey stuff. I\u2019m all about realistic art, sonically, if that makes sense. Stuff about life. Simple things. Not to the point where I\u2019m making a beat about a pair of socks. Just normal, comfortable, simple things.<\/em><\/p>\n ISM: Your mom, Tracey, played keys on the track \u201cUntil Saturday\u201d on North. Was that a long awaited collaboration or do you work with her a lot anyway?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: I work with my mom all the time. It was at that point where I was like, mom, you should get on this. She was like, \u201cWhat? OK I will.\u201d She\u2019s kind of honored, like wow, my son<\/em>.<\/p>\n ISM: So both of you have really good relationships with your parents?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: First of all, we\u2019re just lucky and blessed to have both parents to begin with.<\/em><\/p>\n Waldo: That are alive.<\/em><\/p>\n Sango: Because I know a lot of people who don\u2019t have a father or a mother. And especially in the Black community you know, even my cousins, I have family members who don\u2019t have their whole [family]. I don\u2019t want to go against it, but I think having both parents does make a difference. I\u2019ve definitely seen people succeed with one parent or no parents, but both parents really instill it. Like OK, be successful.<\/em><\/p>\n ISM: How does your creative process differ when producing your own album and working with an artist like Waldo?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: Particularly with Waldo it\u2019s like I\u2019m making another album for myself with just vocals on it because I know his style so well and I know his vocals so well it just became a part of me. Sometimes when I produce some stuff I make for my album I can definitely hear him on it, but working with other artists other than him is kind of different. Mainly I work over the internet, far away, when I\u2019m working with artists I don\u2019t know. Typically you send like five or four beats. They pick one. It\u2019s kind of hit or miss and then hopefully you follow up with a studio visit, because I like to get to know people. I don\u2019t know how people just send beats to people and they get a hit and it\u2019s like, you never met them. Those people are special. They know how to tune into somebody\u2019s sound without even meeting them, not me, I need to. I\u2019m not good at reading people anyway.<\/em> <\/p>\n ISM: What is the craziest thing you\u2019ve seen on tour?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: In Europe, in Germany specifically. They were trying to figure out what kind of Black person I was. They were just astonished I didn\u2019t know where I was from. When you\u2019re in England most of the Black people are from Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica. When I tell them I\u2019m just African-American from the South they\u2019re like, \u201cWell I mean yeah, tell me more.\u201d So over there they see Black Americans as like, \u201cmystery black.\u201d That literally came out their mouth. This cab driver asked me where I was from. I said I\u2019m from Michigan. They find Black Americans fascinating.<\/em><\/p>\n ISM: What are you working on next?<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: It\u2019s done, it\u2019s being mastered. I don\u2019t know if you know the artist SPZRKT, he was on my album. He\u2019s from San Antonio moved to Austin and spent time in Houston. He and I are working on a joint EP together. It\u2019s called Hours Spent Loving You. I don\u2019t know how we came up with that name, but I love it. It\u2019s pretty much about this dual, double entendre, thought [of] God and woman. A lot of emotions you have for a woman you have for God. When you love a woman you are so infatuated with that woman like how could I love someone as much? Same with God, how could I love God this much? It\u2019s more of [SPZRKT] writing, I\u2019m just presenting a stage for him to sing, but pretty much he\u2019s singing about a relationship with a woman and a relationship with God and how it can be joined together. I\u2019m really just touching the surface.<\/em> <\/p>\n ISM: It sounds really conceptual.<\/font><\/p>\n Sango: When I get involved with other people it gets that way. Just to narrow it down it\u2019s pretty much about relationships with a woman and a relationship with God and how they relate. How they\u2019re similar and different. It\u2019s a really spiritual album. There\u2019s no release date. Definitely this year.<\/em><\/p>\n – Kelly Hawkins<\/a> <\/p>\n Photo shot by Tatsu<\/a><\/p>\n Also check out our recap of Sango’s “Finally Tour” Los Angeles stop here<\/a>. <\/p>\n