Kyree Harris debuts brand new EP. Photo from Facebook.
Kyree Harris put on a show Thursday, Feb. 18, in promotion of his brand new EP, “S.A.M.M.E.” Harris approached Last Minute Productions (LMP) to ask if they would let him do a show to promote his new material.
According to his bandcamp website, Harris continues to make music that dives into the real issues. “Emotional music for emotional people,” he says. Born and raised in North Carolina, Harris has always chose music as a way to express the world as he sees it. Harris’s mix of danceable beats and real lyrics creates a realistic take on what is known as the “R&B genre”.
S.A.M.M.E. (Same Angry Mind Mending Everything) is the first EP released by Harris. This EP follows the different aspects of the young adult mind navigating in an adult world.
When asked about why he called his EP this title, he had this to say:
“I believe that even as young adults, we still have the mind of a child but we’re battling the adult world with our angry teenage minds. It can be a mess out there.”
The EP most certainly has some danceable beats. During the performance, Harris and the other performers encouraged the audience to get up and dance to the songs. The audience was all smiles and having a good time, bobbing heads with phones out on snapchat recording moments they liked. When a beat dropped that the crowd liked, the whole room seemed to move.
Even during the performance, Harris took time between songs to give inspirational messages.
“If you want to do something, don’t let anyone stop you. Just wanted y’all to know that,” Harris said.
Amongst other things said, one thing was clear about Harris and his fellow performers: they are passionately against police violence. Their track “King Kong,” as well as others samples of speakers at protests, included news station reports of the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Harris wanted to discuss in his music the difficulties of being black in America, and felt strongly about it.
“The issues I feel the most strongly about on this EP comes on the track King Kong. It’s all about police shootings, the rage that one might have behind that…and interestingly enough, right after I wrote [King Kong], the Ferguson riots happened. It was pretty eerie.”
Harris has been releasing mixtapes online since January 2013, entitled “Python” and “L.A.M.M.E.R.”.
“Music has been a passion of mine ever since I was a child. It was something I turned to when I went through hard times. I love working on music, and doing that is really something I want to do.”
“My favorite track of the EP would definitely have to be DeCember,” said Harris. “That song is a little heavier emotionally. (DeCember) is about a time when I was battling depression, and it challenges that.”
While Harris didn’t have most of the performers he had with him on his EP, he told WCJ that he wanted to make a show that was bigger than just him alone. One of the rappers Harris performed with actually helped him engineer the whole EP.
“Kyree is a pro. I’m absolutely serious,” said Lanzo Forcer. “During recording he was always on time, clearly ambitious, driven to work, and full of new ideas. Together, with his help, we did some of the quickest production work I’ve ever done and it still sounds good. Honestly, he taught me a few new things.”
“This is my last year here [at Western Carolina University], so I thought, ‘Why not?’ and wanted to go out on a strong note. Performing here because of them [LMP] has helped me get my music out there.”
You can find his music on his bandcamp profile.
