montreal rapper kontos
Music

WATCH: The new video by Montreal rapper Kontos

by Darcy MacDonald

“This song is like walking into a spinning tornado that’s coming at you,” he says of the single “Giannis.”

The new single “Giannis” by Montreal rapper Kontos (dropping this Friday, May 24, on all streaming platforms) is an examination of family, values and finding peace in pain he’s suffered in his young life.

“I recorded it last year in Norway and the instrumental was bringing out these feelings I hadn’t been able to put into words,” Kontos explains.

“I think most times, it isn’t what we say. It’s how it sounds and how it’s conveyed.”

“The video was filmed on a beach in Melbourne, Florida. I wanted one continuous shot that would match the feeling of the one continuous verse.”

Over a whirling, uneasy but undeniably joyous beat produced by Norway heat-seeker benjesus and mastered by Martin Bjorå, Kontos’s rhymes speak truth to polluted behaviours and voice okay-ness with frustration and uncertainty, with time’s signature pulling the whole jawn together. A touching low-key tribute to Mac Miller ends the affair on an equally somber but hopeful note.

“This song is like walking into a spinning tornado that’s coming at you. But we’re gonna be alright, cuz damn, the beat is fire, and there’s a beach.”

His full length album drops very, very soon. Stay tuned and meanwhile, put your headphones on for this one.

Giannis by Montreal rapper Kontos

Kontos Soundcloud

For more music coverage, please visit our Music section.

Posted in Music

by Darcy MacDonald

Contributor
Darcy MacDonald has been with Cult MTL since day one, a decade ago. Which means today, he’s a middle-aged white guy (albeit one more interested in other people’s ideas than in his own). He was previously a columnist and reporter for Montreal Mirror, and has also created content (FKA “written”) for RBMA, Noisey, Montreal Gazette, The National Post and probably some other great places he’s forgotten about. Music, culture, community and miscellaneous questions in search of answers all come across his desk, sooner or later.