Five Questions with Kranium

Recording superstar Kranium has a knack for piloting dancehall music and culture into the future on his own terms. In the industry, there are artistes who respect the craft and take the time to learn it. That’s Kranium. He respects the music so much that he has carefully and patiently navigated his recording career from the underground dancehall scene in New York where he was raised from his teenage years and lives to date — to being featured on US platforms and signed to Atlantic Records.

Since Kranium’s 2015 single Nobody Has To Know was certified gold in the US, it has been clear that he is more than just a talented Jamaican man who sings his own hooks. He even secured Ty Dolla $ign and Major Lazer for the official remix, bringing its cumulative stream count past the 200 million mark. His solo projects, such as No Odda, Last Night and Gal Policy, showcase an array of different styles, from stripped-down ballads to the nostalgic nineties dancehall bounce that crafts a creative quilt of musical culture, including Jamaica’s indigenous genres, Afrobeats, R&B, hip-hop, and soul.

In the past seven years, he’s been on songs with several other international R&B and hip hop hitmakers, as well as Afrobeats stars WizKid, Burna Boy and Yemi Alade. He has also collaborated with some of dancehall’s buzzing names, including Alkaline, Rytikal, Qyor and Dexta Daps.

In this week’s Five Questions, Kranium discussed how he strategically plans his releases and the latest collaboration with saucy R&B songbird Queen Naija where they both serve up some soulful music medicine. The single, titled Without You, shows a softer, smooth-talking side of Kranium, built on the idea of finding true love, losing it, going through a period of withdrawal and wanting to do anything to get back his lover. Though he does not reveal here if it’s a true story, he sings and acts passionately enough to make listeners believe it.

1. How long have you been sitting on ‘Without You’, just waiting to release it?

I did the track pre-COVID; if I’m not mistaken, it was recorded around October 2019. While in California, the producer [gave] me the beat in a session, and it had specific elements that inspired a vibe. It’s always the drum pattern first that captures me, and then I wanted to have something in the catalogue that was not too harsh or too raw, just something different from what I normally do. I don’t usually write songs. I go into the booth, and wherever the beat takes me, you might get a song like Gal Policy, or in this case, the beat gave me a subtle, love vibration, and I felt that it didn’t need something that was on the hardcore side.

2.When did you make the connection with Queen Naija for this collaboration? Any plans for the two of you to link up for an official music video?

Well, I never usually have a specific artiste that I want to work with. I always wait until the record is done to probably say, this is the artiste, but for some reason when I did that record, I knew Queen Naija was perfect for it. I love her tone and sound, plus R&B is something I love. Then internally, our teams made it happen so that four months after, she recorded her part. We couldn’t shoot the video at the time [of] its release as she is on tour with Mary J Blige, but the timing was right to get the ball kicking. Hopefully, we can do something for it soon.

3. By now, your fanbase will know that you have never been the type to drop tracks one after the other, but you are the type of artiste who continuously records new music. How do you go through all your recordings, fine-tune and make your selections?

This is one of the hardest tasks for the team. I create music so much, but when we sit and go through the catalogue, we don’t go off what’s trending. I feel like there’s a fine balance between quality and what can spark people’s interest, and I feel like I’ve found that perfect balance. That’s how we select records. I will select five; management will sift through and choose the top five, then the team at Atlantic Records and as a team, we [will] see which songs never made the top five on each person’s list to narrow it down to make the right selection.

4. You’ve produced many tracks women can be happy with, but we’re constantly hearing that there are not enough of these types of songs coming out of our dancehall community. What are your views on this?

I can’t say I have views per se on this. Except there’s a lot of music circulating within the dancehall and every vibe has a time. There is a time when there are a bunch of girl songs, then another time [when] gangsta music floods the dancehall. However, during the high time of the pandemic, a lot was going on, and I believe people were trying to figure out where to go or what sound to find. Now that people are accepting that the party scene is getting back to life from a time where there was no party settings — and most of these songs have to break in a party — more of a specific type of music is being released. That’s why people feel nuff gyal song nah play.

5. Getting a little more into Kranium, the person — Kemar Donaldson — where do you go and what do you do on your days off? Are you a movie or sports fanatic?

On my days off, I honestly chill out by listening to music. I remain in tuned and find new artistes to explore their music … my life is straight music. If not, you can find me shopping. My favourite place to shop is in Manhasset in Long Island, or I’ll run into the city. Sometimes, I’ll walk go to the beach because I live near the beach. I’m not a movie person, that’s why me and me woman dem always a argue. I’m a man who will watch American football or football. As a New York man, my team is the New York Giants, even though, as fans, dem hurt we heart sometimes and for football, I’m a Manchester United fan.

stephanie.lyew@gleanerjm.com