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  • 2 hours ago
TKandz made his way from the UK to sit down with Genius and break down his hit single “NOW OR NEVER.” The motivational track has gone globally viral, racking up millions of impressions across social media. The young rapper gets introspective about treating his music like art, channeling his pain as therapy, his favorite moment in the song, and so much more!

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Transcript
00:00Now or Never, it's really a moment.
00:02It's not just my moment, it's everyone's moment.
00:04It's like, you either do it now or you never get to it.
00:07So when I made Now or Never, it was really like, damn, I really have to lock in.
00:10It's either I get this done now, or I never see where I could have been in the next couple
00:14of years, months, whatever it is.
00:26I wrote Now or Never in under two hours.
00:28So I was getting my hair done and I was really bored, I was getting tired.
00:31So I was just like, cool, take out my phone, started writing the lyrics.
00:35Before you know it, I had the hook, I had everything ready.
00:37This song wasn't recorded in a studio, I recorded it on BandLab at home.
00:41But Now or Never, the reception with that, the first ever video, actually took off in
00:45a day.
00:46It did like hundreds of thousands of views first day.
00:48I wasn't even used to it.
00:49I wasn't even used to numbers like that.
00:51I think it just resonated.
00:52You had the samples uplifting, the lyrics were uplifting.
00:54I felt like it was going to take off, but just not as quick as it did.
01:07I want it all.
01:09Just the drive and being able to tell myself that you can do it if you just put in the work.
01:14I've always been a firm believer that if you put a hundred percent into everything you
01:17want to do, you succeed a hundred percent of the time.
01:27Big fan of Roddy Ritz.
01:28My favorite song by Roddy Ritz is most definitely every season.
01:31I grew up listening to that.
01:33Down and Below, so many different songs by him.
01:35I listened to Roddy.
01:36How can I link this back to my lyrics and also make it mean something?
01:39So that's how I came up with that bar there.
01:45If you're an artist, you're giving someone something to really think about and take away
01:49from the music.
01:50I don't see music as just an audio form.
01:53It's kind of art.
01:54It's very subjective.
01:55People listen to different things.
01:57People appreciate different things.
01:58I want people to really appreciate me because I'm not just releasing music.
02:01I'm telling a story.
02:12I feel like I've got a lot more to offer and where I'm at right now, but it's only the
02:16start.
02:17So that's what I mean by I'm still charging.
02:19There's still a lot more that people haven't seen yet that's yet to come.
02:22There's been hundreds of sleepless nights.
02:32You can ask my mum this as well.
02:33Hundreds.
02:34My mum used to come in at four in the morning.
02:36She's like, why aren't you sleeping?
02:37I'm trying to record.
02:38I'm trying to write.
02:39Because one thing about me, I always write in the middle of the night when everyone's
02:43sleeping because that's when I get in my zone.
02:45No one's calling me to do the dishes.
02:47No one's hitting me up.
02:48You know what I mean?
02:49So it's like, I'd say hundreds of nights.
02:50Honestly.
02:51I can't even count on my fingers.
03:00The riskiest thing I did is taking a break.
03:02Taking my foot off the pedal when I felt like I could have really gone through the roof.
03:07Everyone needs breaks.
03:08Obviously, everyone needs it for your mental health and whatever.
03:10But at the position I was, it was just time to keep going.
03:14Consistency is always key.
03:22There's a lot of things that people rap about nowadays, but I always just want to keep it
03:27true to myself.
03:28So I put my pain into the music rather than doing things I shouldn't be doing.
03:31I put it into the art and I express myself through a different type of way.
03:42Funny enough, that lyric there actually came from one of my friends.
03:44So he said, ah, you're killing it.
03:46Next year, you're going to make it.
03:47And he told me this all the way back in, I don't even know, June or something.
03:50I said, hold on, bro.
03:51We're in June.
03:52The year is not over yet.
03:53What do you mean next year is my year?
03:54I held on to that and I said, you know what?
03:55I'm going to prove this guy.
03:56You know what I mean?
03:57That's my boy.
03:58But I said, you know what?
03:59I'm going to tell him that I can really do something this year.
04:03And it came to this.
04:06A lot of people have gotten this one part in the song completely wrong where I'm saying
04:11still came far because I put in the work.
04:13But a lot of people are getting it wrong and thinking I'm swearing.
04:16Maybe I'm saying the F word or anything like that.
04:18But now the song is fully clean.
04:20I'm going to say it on here now that I'm on Genius.
04:23Still came far because I put in the work.
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