Kalan.FrFr Is Letting You Know It’s Not Hard To Understand With New EP

Kalan.FrFr is a talented artist who has been making waves in the music industry with his unique style and captivating sound. Since signing with Roc Nation in 2011 Kalan.FrFr has been able to further develop his craft and reach new heights in his career. He has solidified his position as a rising star in the music industry with the release of his hit songs, including “Never Lose You,” “Right Wit It,” and “Scoring.” With his distinct blend of smooth melodies, introspective lyrics, and California energy he’s continuing to showcase his versatility as an artist.

Kalan.FrFr engages in a discussion with EBONY, exploring how football played a role in helping his music journey, the release of his latest EP and not being confined to a one music genre.

EBONY: Could you elaborate on the origin of your name “Kalan.Frfr”?

Kalan.FrFr: I mean, it’s the game like we just started off with for real for real. We had to put it short because nobody want a long instagram name “for real for real.” Just typing it we always be like man “for real for real,” like are you keeping it a G, you keeping it a buck? So that’s how it all started and the whole movement situation just started off keeping it G, like being real with who you are, being real with what you got going on. People be doing all kinds of fraudulent, fake stuff and we’re not standing for it. I don’t think that’s cool.

2024, we’re going to flourish, you’re gonna see everything we’re talking about.

Kalan.FrFr

How has your experience playing football at San Diego State-inspired your music?

Man, that was just a time coming up in high school. I played high school football and played Pop Warner Football. From there, I ended up going to San Diego State where I had a scholarship. I played for three seasons and before I ended up getting in trouble that’s when I started working on music just for time. That’s when I started taking inspiration from music when you play sports. The music you listen to before you play after you play is hella important. You know what I mean? Everybody’s playlists are rocking and you have to make sure you are in the right mood before you get ready to work out or anything. It’s always been serious to me, but more so I think playing football helped me deal with the business part of it more than the actual music part.

How did the opportunity to sign with Roc Nation in 2021 come about, and what advantages have experienced since signing with them?

I was performing on DJ Hed’s stage at the BET Experience and the president of Roc Nation saw me performing. After the show, my homie at the time, who ended up being my A&R was like ‘Yeah, I’m gonna take you to dinner tomorrow, we’re going to chop it up and Roc Nation wants to sign you.’ I’m like ‘You lying shut up.’ Little did you know it, maybe like a week later, I was on a plane on the way to New York. You know, it’s different strokes for different folks. Just in my position, I feel like they put me where I need to be. It made me open my mind up, it made me grow up a lot faster. Just making music and moving forward being at the Roc is just viral. I’m getting so many games kicked to me every day like people don’t even understand. It’s all about longevity and we’re gonna be here a long time.

What inspired the title for your new EP NOT HARD 2 UNDERSTAND compared to working on your album 222 that dropped last year?

It was pretty self-explanatory towards my fans and my audience. For too long I’ve been sitting back in the cut, just quiet like not popping my stuff. The music is hard so I’m like it’s not hard to understand what’s going on. I’m gonna let the music speak for itself. It’s going to go off and there hasn’t been any hard music out in a minute. So it’s time for it and it’s not hard to understand. I’m the one right now. It was more intentional making the music less personal. My last project 222 was personal. I was getting my thoughts off but I was more wrapped up in life rather than just having fun. I was rocked out, I was ready to go in and work on the music and it started to come out fire. The producers fire, taking my time versus just grabbing a bunch of songs that I worked on and slapping them together. It wasn’t one of those situations.

What inspired you to sample DaBrat’s “Funkdafied” on your new EP, and could you share a bit about the clearance process for using the sample?

Oh man, me and Mike were listening to “Funkdafied” in a car so we were vibing so I’m like we’re going to sample that come on. He cooked the beat up in 5 minutes. He was like I’m about to chop it up and cut it up. We put the drums on there and I’m like I’m going to knock it out so I just went in there and recorded it. We probably made the song in 20-30 minutes. My other A&R Ethan was like Yeah this one of them. So he was just like man, we’re going to get it done. I recorded it a while ago, so I recorded it and then we were going back over songs just listening through, breaking down the year of all the music we’ve been working on. We like “She So” — It’s time right now so we got on the whole clearance part, just reaching out to their people, making sure they’re solid with it, making sure they like the song and everything came in fast so it was good.

In discussions about genres, how would you categorize or define your musical style? 

We’re calling it R&Trapped because I’m doing everything everybody else is doing, not even everything that everybody else is doing because I don’t feel like people are keeping it as real as me. As far as the point of the lyricist, delivery, yeah it’s melodic but I’m rapping. When it’s melodic but I’m baring or when I’m singing it’s not fully R&B because I’m singing about street things all the time. It’s the sauce for real, it’s real music that’s what we like to call it. It’s just people categorizing folks but you can’t categorize artists by one song first off, I’m an artist. I’m not just a rapper or a singer, I’m an artist and I’m gonna do whatever. I’m like they’re gonna have to make me my own genre. You know? I mean, because people are biting sauce anyway.

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