Self-made in every aspect, Natural Born Killas is made up of two brothers, Yung Hannibal and WolfKnox. Yung Hannibal, aka Juice Box began as a producer and studio engineer where he spent years honing his craft and defining his talent as a creative making sure every song is as professional as can be. WolfKnox started as a graphic artist and photographer making art and logos for other artists and bands, although after several years of the brothers doing freelance work for others they became dissatisfied with the music scene surrounding them. The two would come together to collaborate on making the music they wanted to listen to.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Natural Born Killas, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
JB: I’ve always messed around with music growing up but I remember when I was really young, I found out Daft Punk made most of their music through sampling. I thought to myself “damn I could totally do this” so I started by making remixes of other songs in middle school. Throughout high school and little after I had tried forming a bunch of different metal bands but I’d always end up being the one writing and recording everything which really sucked. Eventually I taught myself how to make beats, and I started releasing mixtapes and albums. People really liked them but nobody local to us was making the music I really wanted to listen to and then one day a friend of ours convinced me to just go and do it all myself and now we’re here.
WOLF: I’ve always been around music especially since JB and I are brothers and it's just in our family. I’ve always played more of a background role doing the behind the scenes work with other people so eventually, when I knew I had more in me I just wanted to push myself to do something bigger and see what I’m really capable of. I’ve always done the art or helped JB with his releases in some way, so when he started hopping on the mic for real and his music got more serious I felt like I could relate to what he was doing. The music started to feel deeper. We felt like together we could do things no one else around us has or is willing to do. Growing up it was always just the two of us so it only made sense with music too.
What is your creative process like?
JB: I never stop working. I always have 10 songs in my head, and I make like 5 beats a day. We record in our basement at night and we live in a small town in the middle of nowhere which for a lot of people that either drives you to work for something bigger or it’s straight soul crushing. As far as how I come up with music, I think I’m generally a depressive person so I find music to be like therapy. I just put into my art a raw version of myself, which can be scary but honestly I think it creates a better and more real piece of art.
WOLF: About 4 or 5 shots of whatever we got in the house, maybe 15 minutes of arguing and then just stepping up to the mic. Seriously though, I know what we’re doing is something different and so every time we work on a song or have something creative in mind we chase it. We definitely take inspiration from other artists but we don’t really have a set process. We try to experiment a lot and take a different approach to everything we do. If anything becomes repetitive, then that means we’re doing it wrong. There’s definitely a bit of anger in our music, and you can tell we’re hungry for something more so that energy is usually the start for everything.
Your latest song is 'I Courtney Love You'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
JB: The song is about a couple of things really but I think it’s mostly about our frustration with other artists and our anger towards the music around us. There’s some lines in the song where I’m talking about friends or maybe another artist that sees us and has been disrespectful to what we’re doing as artists. I made the beat and had my first few bars recorded months back though and just kinda left it alone but one night we sat down and really finished it in maybe an hour or two. Then I just spent the next week or so mixing and mastering.
WOLF: Going into the song we didn’t really have anything particular in mind when it came to lyrics or meaning, I think it came out the way it did mostly due to the mindset we’re in. I also came up with the title and the art.
What was the most difficult challenge you faced?
JB: I want to say marketing since neither of us are very active on social media but more so I would say the lack of community around us. Like I mentioned before, we’re from a small town in the middle of nowhere and with that comes a total lack of community in music. There is a small scene here but what we’re doing couldn’t be farther from what anyone else is doing, especially what other rappers are doing.
WOLF: We really don’t feel like we belong anywhere. When we try to reach out to other artists to collab they tend to not be receptive to our style or they just hold out their hands for cash. That sorta attitude makes it difficult as an artist not just to grow but to work with others.
What is the biggest mistake you have made within your career to this point?
JB: I wish we had more of a social media presence. We both focus more on our off-line lives, which keeps us real, but we are working on connecting with more fans online.
WOLF: Not making enough songs or releasing on a schedule. We are great at making music spontaneously but we need more discipline to finish all the stuff we started and meet our own deadlines.
Are there people who help you with the production of the songs?
JB: We’re very independent. I make every beat, we record in our little home setup and then I mix and master everything. Our friends give us emotional support and that’s about it.
WOLF: Everything really is us. I do the art, photography and then show up to record. We’re really proud to make everything by ourselves and have total creative control and we plan to keep it that way for the most part.
What are your long-term goals?
WOLF: Make more music, go on tour, make money. Someday we are gonna get out of our little town in the middle of nowhere, and music is how we will do it. I want our music to speak to more people and take us to bigger places.
JB: Make art, touch hearts. We would love to go on tour eventually as well. It would be awesome to know that our music has an impact on people. I know everybody says they wanna blow up from music but I think for us, we just wanna be able to provide for ourselves and family through our art. That’s the ultimate validation. As long as our music means something to our loved ones, that’s enough.
What do your fans mean to you? What do you value most in them?
JB: They mean everything to me. They’re the ones telling me that what we’re doing is bigger than ourselves. I hope they stick around for us. We have a long journey ahead and a lot more exciting work to come, and they are the ones that keep me going.
WOLF: The few, the proud. They’re awesome and it's wild to think about anyone caring about what we do. Our fans are the real ones. Their support makes it all worth it.
What memorable responses have you had to your work?
JB: I’ve been told that we’re making something entirely new, like they’ve never heard anyone like us before. That’s pretty cool.
WOLF: I’m always surprised when our friends gas us up with every new track we make. People around us are always super impressed by us and that means the world to me.
Where is the best place in the world you’ve ever been to?
WOLF: Probably LA. Or at least California since we grew up on the east coast, totally different world.
JB: California is pretty wicked. LA kinda sucks but there’s some other places I’d love to be back in a little more towards the countryside. New York is one of my favorite cities too. I’m up there pretty often.