Los Angeles-based beatmaker KUREI has become one of our underground favourites at FUXWITHIT. He first wow’d us with the Vince Staples sampling ‘Late Night’ last year. Most recently he dropped an incredible collab with yojas. & bd hbt on Below The Surface. His sound is the embodiment of what FUXWITHIT is about, expertly blending trap and bass music with a hip-hop undercurrent. He’s currently sitting on his best work yet so we decided it was time to connect for a guest mix and interview. The mix features a ton of IDs, his own originals and music from Cozway x Jon Casey, Pigeon Hole, Elex, Eazybaked, sumthin sumthin and more. As for the interview, we discuss how sumthin sumthin pushed him to become a producer, playing Space Yacht, his secret to writing slappers and more.
Who is KUREI?
KUREI is my trap and bass music project I started about 3 years ago, it’s also my name in Japanese without the last two letters (the full name is kureigu). I’m a quarter Japanese, so that’s where I got the idea for the name, I dropped the last two letters cause it just looked cooler to me.
What made you want to start producing music?
I was always super into digging for new music on SoundCloud and finding shit no one had ever heard, that led me to start DJing and I started developing my own taste and style. By that time I was itching to make something original. In 2015, my homie Conrad (sumthin sumthin) pushed me to get Logic and that’s when it all started. Since then I’ve switched to Ableton and put everything into writing the best music I can.
Practice practice and more fuckin practice! Literally just doing it every single day…
How have your skills evolved over time?
Practice practice and more fuckin practice! Literally just doing it every single day, learning any and every way possible and always being open to new techniques or ideas. If you don’t try it, you’ll never know how it sounds.
What are your favorite things to do outside of music?
Outside of music I love to surf and skate, I grew up in San Clemente so both are super big down there. I also love to draw, I’ve even used a few of my own drawings as cover art for my tracks
he basically just hit me up day of saying “yo we’re playing space yacht tonight,” so of course I’m not gonna pass that up!
You just had the chance to play Space Yacht with bd hbt. What was that like? How did it happen?
That shit was so dope, Sam (bd hbt) is a good homie, so our b2b’s are always super fun. And he basically just hit me up day of saying “yo we’re playing space yacht tonight,” so of course I’m not gonna pass that up!
Your recently dropped two collabs with yojas. How did you guys link up? Should we expect more from you two?
David (Yojas) is another good homie out here in LA, and he writes some crazy shit too! We had been talking about getting a collab going for a while and we ended up writing two haha, definitely plan on seeing more in the near future!
the more bad ideas you force out the more often the good ones come up!
What’s your secret to making slappers?
I feel like for me it’s about writing without being afraid to try new shit, I don’t feel like there’s really any one secret though, I just write a ton of beats, like a literal fuckton! I feel like that helps a lot, like the more bad ideas you force out the more often the good ones come up!
You tweeted, “The love and support I’ve been receiving for my music recently nearly has me in tears rn.” Can you expand upon this? What inspired this?
Yeah so that day I had been getting tons of messages from people I’ve never met telling me how my music inspires them. This tweet was mainly about that, and just the over all support from my friends and people I’ve met on this journey so far! Was just feelin hella grateful.
What do you have in store for 2019?
Tons of shows! Tons of collabs! And a lot of new music that’s gonna be pretty different than what I’ve been putting out! Also maybe a few projects outside of bass music! Keep your eyes and ears peeled!
Tell us about this mix. What should we expect?
I made this mix to feel a lot like my sets, high energy, quick but smooth transitions and heaps of that KUREI swag. I’ve included all my favorite songs to play out as well as a ton of new originals that you’ll be hearing real soon.
Tracklist
Lil Baby – My Drip
Kurei – Gettin Sktch
Kurei x Yojas – Off The Chain
Kurei – ID
Sktchy Ppl – ID
Kurei – ID
Player Dave x Jawnza – Wakanda
ID – ID
Kurei x AJ Euro – ID
Sadkeys – Ought (Moore Kismet Remix)
Elex – Diamond
Eazybaked – Lurk
Gunna – Order
Kurei – ID
Sumthin Sumthin – Lotus
Dr. Derg x Holly – No Calls
bd hbt x Kurei x Yojas – Hood
Kurei x episcool – fuct
Cray – Btfu (Kurei Remix)
Pigeon Hole – Dodgeball
Carlo Frick – Echo Forrest
Kurei – Wedding Ring
Dabow x Quix – Like That
Rvkit – Procompsognathu
Valee – Womp Womp (ft. Jeremih)
Kurei – Scatterbrained
Kurei – Never Been
Kurei – ID
Quickly Quickly – Maserati
Kurei x Lua – Late Night
