Imagine this: you take three guys from Queens, NY, tell them to make music, and in just under a year they're opening up a show for Lupe Fiasco, have two mixtapes, working on an album and still have time to interview, do shows, and be themselves. Sounds bogus huh?! No, that's just the day in the life of the K.I., D and Ony also known as the Oxymorrons.
elleELLEeye: How did you guys get started as Oxymorrons?
Oxys: K.I. - I met Ony while skateboarding. We would be freestyling - Ony has only been rapping for a year (since May 2009). We chilled, time went on and we agreed to start Oxymorrons.
elleELLEeye: How did you come up with the name Oxymorrons? … and the logo?
Oxys: Ony - K.I. and I were just chillin' walking down the street. First we came up with K.I. and the Maroons and then after thinking about we started to compare ourselves to Jumbo Shrimp. D - Ony actually brought up that it was catchy, but it didn't make sense...but it sounded good and it was an Oxymorron(s).
(elleELLEeye: And what about the logo?)
Oxys: Oh Teeth Man! D - Mr. Hernandez, our other Oxy actually does our artwork and when we were coming up with the logo. At first teeth man had arms and legs, but we didn’t like the arms so we got rid of them. (elleELLEeye: What's that coming out of its mouth?) Ony - That's the chico. K.I. - No, that's the cheesy fries goo. LOL.
elleELLEeye: Ony, with such a strong musical background – when was it when you really knew that you wanted to be a rapper?
Oxys: Ony - K.I. actually influenced me a lot. I started out singing and writing lyrics, doing cyphers and having fun. It's only been a year - I decided to take it serious and I've just been killing 'em.
elleELLEeye: When was it that you knew that you guys (K.I. & D) knew that you wanted to rap?
Oxys: D - I've been rapping since I was nine-years-old. I grew up in Queens around people like Onyx and the Lost Boys and I wanted to be like them. As time went on, sports started to take over, but later i started taking rapping serious.
elleELLEeye: What inspires you guys?
Oxys: Ony - Life. K.I - Anything we do is an extravaganza. D - Everywhere we go something is happening to us and we're like "Why is this happening?" Ony - Being an artist is a lifestyle within itself. If you're not inspired by life, you're not you! I remember K.I. was having a bad day and he came to me and I made the beat - just from that situation... But we're inspired by everything, life, fashion...
elleELLEeye: K.I. and D, does being biological brothers conflict with being group members?
Oxys: D - I avoided doing music with him, but it works. It's actually easy. We're brother. We hardly fight. We're not your typical brothers who fight over nonsense.
elleELLEeye: Now D, we know that you were formerly in the group Chemistry; which broke up due to musical differences…what would you say is the difference between the music you were doing then compared to what you’re doing now?
Oxys: D - Where I was then is different from where I am now. I wanted to go in one direction and Sif (of D's former group Chemistry) wanted to go another. A lot of times we had to meet in the middle. I had to compromise for him and he compromised for me. I was already used to the industry frm when I was younger so none of this was new to me. I wanted to explore different things and I thought of it like this - just being a rapper, what's the challenge in that? I don't want to be the best rapper.
K.I. - He's singing now. And when he joined Oxys he said he would not sing.
But honestly speaking when Sif is on his sh*t I can tell. He's one of the nicest dudes I've heard in a long time...he's golden.
elleELLEeye: What do the Oxys do when they’re not working on their music?
Oxys: We play video games, dominoes, skateboard, we go to the mall, shop, field doodling...We're regular people.
elleELLEeye: What do you guys do when you have creative differences?
Oxys: Ony - We don't usually have differences. We make our music conflicting. Our sounds reflect how we feel. If the instrumental sounds like rock, we'll mix it with Jazz.
elleELLEeye: How did you get your names?
Oxys: D - I love to tell this story. As a young man K.I. had a name, he was "Teddy Smooth". Then his tag name was Kid Dynomite. K.I. - I'm a kid at heart. D - Yea, he grew up without losing the kid in him. K.I. - Then I actually combined KidDynomite and people would always mess it up because of the two d's so I changed it to K.I. Double and then dropped the Double.elleELLEeye: Ony? Ony - It's a combination of my first and last name (Anthony Irvin), but we dropped the Irv and now it's just Ony. elleELLEeye: and D? D - That's easy, my name is Dave so I just left it as D. K.I. - If anymore letters come off of his name it's gonna be K.I., Ony ...the Oxymorrons. LOL
elleELLEeye: Love, Live, Inspire is what LLI stands for. So in the group, which word would you say represents each member?
Oxys: Ony - I would be Inspire, definitely. D would be Live and K.I.'s Love.
elleELLEeye: What has been the highlight in the career of the Oxymorrons thus far?
Oxys: K.I. - Opening for Lupe? Ony - I think it's the day we decided to be the Oxys. The first song we recorded together. I mean without that there's nothing else. D - That's true, I mean it's nice to be cool with celebrities and sh*t but like Ony said...
elleELLEeye: It’s 6:25am, what are the Oxys doing?
Oxys: K.I. - I'm probably sleep. If you see me on Twitter (@kiofoxymorrons) and I say "I'm off to dream land, hanging out with nights". Then I'm definitely sleep. Ony - I'm probably listening to a beat for the 2000th time. D - I'm either sleep or up thinking about our next business move.
elleELLEeye: If sky was the limit, what would be your dream performance?
Oxys: No limitations? elleELLEeye: No limitations lol. Oxys: It would be us, definitely Michael Jackson, Prince, The Beatles, Lenny Kravitz on guitar, Stevie Wonder on keys. Alicia Keys as a background singer and Kanye. He's an a**hole, but I love him. K.I. - That's because you're an a**hole. D - I'm real, I'm not an a**hole. I'm completely honest. Ony - Yea, we need to bring the power of the "booooo" back! We need to be hard on ourselves.
elleELLEeye: What’s next for the Oxymorrons?
Oxys: Leave here and go get some food. But forreal, we're working on the album. elleELLEeye: You have a name for it yet? Oxys: "N.I.N.E" (Never Imagine Negative Energy) or "Indigo Plateau". We're stuck between the two. Other than that, just doing shows and more music.
FREE OXYMORRONS MIXTAPES
(Click to download)
CONNECT WITH THE OXYS!
Spread LOVE. LIVE Life. Be INSPIREd.
Proud supporter of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
*This interview was paraphrased and edited to fit the questions asked.
elleELLEeye: How did you guys get started as Oxymorrons?
Oxys: K.I. - I met Ony while skateboarding. We would be freestyling - Ony has only been rapping for a year (since May 2009). We chilled, time went on and we agreed to start Oxymorrons.
elleELLEeye: How did you come up with the name Oxymorrons? … and the logo?
Oxys: Ony - K.I. and I were just chillin' walking down the street. First we came up with K.I. and the Maroons and then after thinking about we started to compare ourselves to Jumbo Shrimp. D - Ony actually brought up that it was catchy, but it didn't make sense...but it sounded good and it was an Oxymorron(s).
(elleELLEeye: And what about the logo?)Oxys: Oh Teeth Man! D - Mr. Hernandez, our other Oxy actually does our artwork and when we were coming up with the logo. At first teeth man had arms and legs, but we didn’t like the arms so we got rid of them. (elleELLEeye: What's that coming out of its mouth?) Ony - That's the chico. K.I. - No, that's the cheesy fries goo. LOL.
elleELLEeye: Ony, with such a strong musical background – when was it when you really knew that you wanted to be a rapper?
Oxys: Ony - K.I. actually influenced me a lot. I started out singing and writing lyrics, doing cyphers and having fun. It's only been a year - I decided to take it serious and I've just been killing 'em.
elleELLEeye: When was it that you knew that you guys (K.I. & D) knew that you wanted to rap?
Oxys: D - I've been rapping since I was nine-years-old. I grew up in Queens around people like Onyx and the Lost Boys and I wanted to be like them. As time went on, sports started to take over, but later i started taking rapping serious.
elleELLEeye: What inspires you guys?Oxys: Ony - Life. K.I - Anything we do is an extravaganza. D - Everywhere we go something is happening to us and we're like "Why is this happening?" Ony - Being an artist is a lifestyle within itself. If you're not inspired by life, you're not you! I remember K.I. was having a bad day and he came to me and I made the beat - just from that situation... But we're inspired by everything, life, fashion...
elleELLEeye: K.I. and D, does being biological brothers conflict with being group members?
Oxys: D - I avoided doing music with him, but it works. It's actually easy. We're brother. We hardly fight. We're not your typical brothers who fight over nonsense.
elleELLEeye: Now D, we know that you were formerly in the group Chemistry; which broke up due to musical differences…what would you say is the difference between the music you were doing then compared to what you’re doing now?
Oxys: D - Where I was then is different from where I am now. I wanted to go in one direction and Sif (of D's former group Chemistry) wanted to go another. A lot of times we had to meet in the middle. I had to compromise for him and he compromised for me. I was already used to the industry frm when I was younger so none of this was new to me. I wanted to explore different things and I thought of it like this - just being a rapper, what's the challenge in that? I don't want to be the best rapper.
K.I. - He's singing now. And when he joined Oxys he said he would not sing.
But honestly speaking when Sif is on his sh*t I can tell. He's one of the nicest dudes I've heard in a long time...he's golden.
elleELLEeye: What do the Oxys do when they’re not working on their music?
Oxys: We play video games, dominoes, skateboard, we go to the mall, shop, field doodling...We're regular people.
elleELLEeye: What do you guys do when you have creative differences?
Oxys: Ony - We don't usually have differences. We make our music conflicting. Our sounds reflect how we feel. If the instrumental sounds like rock, we'll mix it with Jazz.
elleELLEeye: How did you get your names?
Oxys: D - I love to tell this story. As a young man K.I. had a name, he was "Teddy Smooth". Then his tag name was Kid Dynomite. K.I. - I'm a kid at heart. D - Yea, he grew up without losing the kid in him. K.I. - Then I actually combined KidDynomite and people would always mess it up because of the two d's so I changed it to K.I. Double and then dropped the Double.elleELLEeye: Ony? Ony - It's a combination of my first and last name (Anthony Irvin), but we dropped the Irv and now it's just Ony. elleELLEeye: and D? D - That's easy, my name is Dave so I just left it as D. K.I. - If anymore letters come off of his name it's gonna be K.I., Ony ...the Oxymorrons. LOL
elleELLEeye: Love, Live, Inspire is what LLI stands for. So in the group, which word would you say represents each member?
Oxys: Ony - I would be Inspire, definitely. D would be Live and K.I.'s Love.
elleELLEeye: What has been the highlight in the career of the Oxymorrons thus far?
Oxys: K.I. - Opening for Lupe? Ony - I think it's the day we decided to be the Oxys. The first song we recorded together. I mean without that there's nothing else. D - That's true, I mean it's nice to be cool with celebrities and sh*t but like Ony said...
elleELLEeye: It’s 6:25am, what are the Oxys doing?
Oxys: K.I. - I'm probably sleep. If you see me on Twitter (@kiofoxymorrons) and I say "I'm off to dream land, hanging out with nights". Then I'm definitely sleep. Ony - I'm probably listening to a beat for the 2000th time. D - I'm either sleep or up thinking about our next business move.
elleELLEeye: If sky was the limit, what would be your dream performance?
Oxys: No limitations? elleELLEeye: No limitations lol. Oxys: It would be us, definitely Michael Jackson, Prince, The Beatles, Lenny Kravitz on guitar, Stevie Wonder on keys. Alicia Keys as a background singer and Kanye. He's an a**hole, but I love him. K.I. - That's because you're an a**hole. D - I'm real, I'm not an a**hole. I'm completely honest. Ony - Yea, we need to bring the power of the "booooo" back! We need to be hard on ourselves.
elleELLEeye: What’s next for the Oxymorrons?
Oxys: Leave here and go get some food. But forreal, we're working on the album. elleELLEeye: You have a name for it yet? Oxys: "N.I.N.E" (Never Imagine Negative Energy) or "Indigo Plateau". We're stuck between the two. Other than that, just doing shows and more music.
(Click to download)
CONNECT WITH THE OXYS!
Spread LOVE. LIVE Life. Be INSPIREd.
Proud supporter of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
*This interview was paraphrased and edited to fit the questions asked.
Good detailed interview. They seems like some cool dudes