PureVolume

Hiphop music has gone through a tremendous amount of transition till today... Once a temple to unite and uplift the people, it is now fused with many different recipes to spice up its popularity factor and even stooping down onto lower social thinking standards to accommodate to the easy listening mainstream pop market feeding the worlds’ listeners of today.

Numerous questions have been asked on his choice of remaining relevant in the conscious hiphop genre of the music since his start and whether or not he should make a switch into tapping into the big bucks of radio friendly music,light hearted ringtone raps and lighten his lyrical content delivery.Quotes K.I.N.G. :

"It's not that i'm a full blooded "underground" rap artiste and everything, i still need money to support my family and save up for my future lass and all. It still plays in my mind, what if i emulated my friends who've made it big in the media through their little songs of love,clubs and hedonism.I mean, thats ideally easy for a rapper who's approach a decade of experience coming 2009.And when i think about my relatiosnhip in the hiphop business, the only win-win situation for hiphop and me wouldn't be the idea of making light weight radio hits thus adding to the shallow side of this art, it's too simple too satisfy my hunger for life, positive songs would be the right direction but still too small, i need to inspire others, therefore in 2008, i declare my music "The music that inspire armies to make armies". And i hope that's uplifting enough.

Muhammad Sufian (born May 27, 1984), better known by his stage name K-I-N-G (knight in neverending glory"), is an overdue Hip-hop artist. He has been rocking the Singaporean and Malaysian stages since the earlier times of 1999 but has never had a serious thought of officiating his artistehood into the mainstream and internet market.

He always thought to himself “No way will I get mass appreciation if I stick to my lyricist priciples of profound thought processes, socio-geo politics and the addressing of social consciosness” At the start of 2008, he then thought,
“You know, it’s not about taking a few days or weeks ensuring that writing a verse or a songs becomes tight, after almost 9years of lyrical experience it would be more than enough to just be present in the song and show your presence in its most honest form. From the heart”

But after observing the many cycles of rappers and hiphop artistes expire their careers a generation after another, he realized the animal in him couldn’t stand it any longer, it had to satisfy its hunger. Hunger for acquiring vast knowledge and spreading it across as many people as possible in his unique rap form.
And that animal seems to have a huge appetite.

The passion for social conscious hiphop started brewing in K.I.N.G after listening to “You got me” by The Roots feat. Erykah Badu. That song later on provided avenues into listening to other social conscious rappers like Talib Kweli, Mos Def, small doses of Kanye West and Jay-Z, Krs-One, Common, Jill Scott, Amel Lerrieux, Leela James, Jaguar Wright, Damian Marley, F2, Lauryn Hill and Nas.
Rapping Style
K.I.N.G fuses social conscious rhymes structured in random sentences to simulate a visual thought process in a light hearted flow he tries to describe as “Reggae Dubbing-Rap-Singing kinda way”.

Born and raised into a well to do family of business leaders, K.I.N.G was hiphopically schooled from listening to old school sets like Naughty By Nature, 4U2C and Kriss Kross during his primary school days, it then advanced to the likes of Bob Marley, Nas, Jay-Z, F2, KRS, Biggie, The Roots,Mos Def and Kanye West. And he usually got his beat producing ideas from sampling orchestral sounds from Kitaro and Spanish Symphonies.

The obsession for hiphop music grew drastically during his secondary school days where he was kown to be making beats and performing within the Singaporean-Malaysian bordrs at the expense of his major secondary school exams and the obsession continued till his Polytechnic days which resulted in his dismissal from school.

Armed with a basic O level cert, disappointed family members, sudden turn of fate into his family’s bankruptcy and a Café job, he ventured into life with the guilt of hiphop haunting him as the days passed.

K.I.N.G went through most of his rapping career under the guidance of then prominent rap band Avantgarde and Asone Family now renamed as The.XS Collective.

1999-2001 years – Majestik Legacy
2001-2002 years – Bravura Knights (MC Battle 2002 Final Champion, MC Battle 2002 Runner Up Grand Final)
2002-2003 years – Lion Hearts (Short stint in one of SG’s All star Rap Group)
2004- ? years – Xscapists
2007–present - K.i.n.G (solo projects)

K.i.n.G went through many stages during his hiphop journey which he owes great respect for his self development to. From the early secondary school stages of music production experimenting from a various selection of softwares, being a recording and performing artiste, contributing articles to local hiphop magazines, to mentoring aspiring rap groups and lyricists, creative direction, marketing, design and artiste management entrepreneurism, spearheading local hiphop movements, promoting of social consciousness through hiphop currently , K.I.N.G is back in the lab concentrating on his album release and performances.

One of his prominent hiphop journey checkpoints throught circa 1999-2008 was the contribution as a featured artiste in bravura knights which won the Hiphop Fest MC battle 2003, the spearheading of the Xscapist project which naturally later evolved into The.XS Collective and not to forget a short-stint in Hiphop artiste management organization as Marketing Director in Beats Society which proved into a redundant unhealthy experience.

“That dizzy array of hiphop experiences, beefs and education was an enlightening experience for me, it was like an accelerated life program into manhood that God replaced with my Polytechnic Diploma’s dropping out. With all these adversaries, allies and experience which lead me into a stronger man in the real world , I would sum up my giving back to society and hiphop through an album fused with the English and Mother Tongue language to feed the spirit and mindset of our people, aspiring society mind-setters and especially to our dear children.”