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42K: 4200Kory uses hip hop to shine a light on a city he loves

4200Kory is never too far from home. The moniker comes from his former house on 42nd Street and Post Road, along with his middle name of Kory—so he’s deeply connected to his roots. His creative collective, Slum Baby Family, just released an album together, Family First Vol. 1, at the end of August (shortly after this interview was completed). On Instagram, his bio proclaims: “I rap good & show a lotta love, see 4 yourself”—and we did see for ourselves when we sat down with 4200Kory to talk Indy, the music scene, and community.

Polina Osherov: You've been making music in Indianapolis for a decade. What's changed in the city and in the music industry? 

4200Kory: There's just so many different things going on. And with there being such a heavy dose of artists dropping music every day, you got to work really hard to differentiate yourself. And consistency is usually what sets you apart from a lot of people. It’s been key for me over the past three years, being consistent and continuing to show up every day.

PO: What are you referring to when you talk about consistency, are you talking about engaging on social media or writing music every day or doing gigs every day? 

4200Kory: I think it’s showing up consistently at a high quality for everything. People often think just doing it is enough, but doing it is only the start. It’s showing up to studio sessions with the same intensity every time. It's allowing the right people around you every time–it pays off. Intention is everything. Some people are in music for the money, some people are in it for the fame, and others for the love and the passion of it. I’m in it for the passion. And for me, I think every project that we do, I want the intention to shine through. When it's something fun, I want to make sure the intention was to have fun, or if it's something serious, we've got to make sure that we stay on that path. 

PO: Tell us about your most recent song, “Static.”  

4200Kory: “Static” was produced by Cardo Got Wings, who is a legend. He's produced for the likes of Wiz Khalifa, he recently produced some of the records for Kendrick and Drake. Getting a cosign from him was very reassuring. I never thought I needed the validation, but to hear it from somebody of that stature was really dope. And with that record specifically, I think it just served as a reminder that I can do bigger things than I could have imagined, because I couldn't have imagined that Cardo Got Wings would have ever noticed me, let alone given me a record to rap over. 

PO: How did you meet Cardo? It can be a challenge, especially in Indiana, to access people that are far ahead and able to open doors in an industry.

4200Kory: It was the combination of a stroke of luck and the consistency paying off. He saw a record of mine, and he reached out and was like, “hey, you're dope.” And the rest was history. 

PO: So what you’re saying is that by working hard and being consistent, you make yourself a bigger target for luck?

4200Kory: Boom. I love that.

PO: You've been touring this year. Is this your first tour? 

4200Kory: Absolutely. We put together my first tour alongside my creative collective, Slum Baby Family. We just did Minneapolis, Minnesota, as well as Joliet, Illinois. We just came back from Louisville–the next spot is New York. So I'm really geeked about it, and I've been enjoying doing it alongside the people that I started off with. That just makes it even more fun. 

PO: You mentioned Slum Baby Family. Talk a little bit about that.

4200Kory: That’s my creative collective–we’re actually getting ready to drop a collaboration project. It’ll serve as a compilation of records that we've been working on for the past few months, setting the tone for the end of the year. We have all different types of artists that are going to create quality records in different ways than I would. We all sort of fit together and mesh really well–being able to do that on a ten-song project is going to be really dope.

PO: Okay, last question. Do you have any tips for success for up-and-coming musical artists?

4200Kory: They need to think about more than just the music and think about the community they want to build. I created this fan base through community, and that was beyond the music itself. Music isn't the end goal for me. I think that a lot of times artists use music as the end goal, and sometimes that can put you into a spiral when things aren't going right. I've used community to build leverage, and I’ve strengthened that community through things like basketball tournaments and doing food giveaways like turkey giveaways during the holidays. 

And through those things, we created a fan base that is more attached to the person than the music. And we're seeing that now at a higher rate than ever in the city because especially on the hip hop scene, there was more competition than collaboration. The collaboration is what's rocketed us to where we are now. I would love to see more of it. If there's anything that I would like to see, that would be it.

PO: Awesome. Thank you so much. 

4200Kory: Thank you so much for having me.

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This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our friends at Life in Indy.