Early career While attending
York University, k-os gained his first exposure in the music industry in 1995 when he released the single "Musical Essence" with a music video financed by a
VideoFACT grant. He dropped out of the university shortly afterwards. The single was produced with friends Clarence Gruff and Kevin Risto; currently, Risto is one half of the production duo known as
Midi Mafia (produced the
50 Cent single "
21 Questions"). k-os returned to the music scene by performing at the
North by Northeast music festival in 1999. He took stage with the Vancouver band Namedropper. He recorded a demo tape and began looking for a record company to sign with, eventually settling on
Capitol Records. Later, the parent company
EMI transferred his record deal to another label,
Astralwerks, co-owned by
Virgin Records, after some management and scheduling issues. After the transfer k-os was added to the roster of the Toronto-based artist management firm
Chris Smith Management.
2002–2003 On 26 March 2002, k-os released his debut album
Exit in Canada to critical acclaim. The United States release followed the next year on January 28, 2003. The album incorporated several music styles, and was described as a "carefully blended pastiche of hip-hop, soul, rock, R&B, and a touch of reggae" by
Stylus Magazine.
Billboard Magazine called the album "One of the finest hip-hop records Canada has ever produced." The first single and promotional track for the album was "Heaven Only Knows". Like the "Musical Essence" single, the video for "Heaven Only Knows" was sponsored by a VideoFACT grant. The second single, "Superstarr Pt. Zero", was then released, which won "Best Music Video" award at the 2003
Urban X-Posure Awards. After the Canadian release of the album, k-os toured with
India Arie across United States to promote his album. Despite receiving positive reviews,
Exit sold only 40,000 albums in the U.S. and 27,000 in Canada according to
Nielsen SoundScan. k-os released his second album
Joyful Rebellion on August 24, 2004. The album was well received and became platinum in Canada in February 2005. The album and the second album single,
Crabbuckit, were rated the most downloaded "Hip Hop/Rap" album and track on the
iTunes Store in Canada upon their release. The album also earned the number two spot on
Rolling Stone critic Karen Bliss's top ten album list for 2004, where she described the artist as a "destined superstar." The album maintained the same formula as
Exit; k-os himself later described
Joyful Rebellion as, to quote the Canadian Press, "a rant against the state of hip hop".
Joyful Rebellion featured a total of six singles. The debut single, "B-Boy Stance", was followed by "Crabbuckit", "
Man I Used to Be", and "
The Love Song", each accompanied by a music video. The radio exclusive titles "Crucial" and "Dirty Water" were released shortly after. The single "Crabbuckit" went on to be nominated three times at the 2005 Canadian Radio Music Awards. k-os was nominated four times at the 2004
Canadian Urban Music Awards and won two awards for the single "B-Boy Stance". In 2005, k-os received three
Juno Awards for the album. In the same year, the single
Crabbuckit won the "Best Pop Video" award out of four nominations while
Man I Used to Be won "MuchVibe Best Rap Video", "Best Director" and "Best Cinematography" at the annual
MuchMusic Video Awards. He won the "Best Songwriter" and "Fan Choice Award" at the 2005 Canadian Urban Music Awards. On November 15, 2005, k-os released the
Publicity Stunt DVD. The DVD featured singles and concert footage dating back to 1998 According to the
Canadian Recording Industry Association, the DVD became platinum in February 2006 in Canada. In a relatively quiet dispute, some lyrics from the single "B-Boy Stance" were interpreted as an insult on the Toronto-based rapper
K'naan. In the single, k-os rapped "They took cameras to Africa for pictures to rhyme/Over; Oh, yes, the great pretenders", and "Religious entertainers who want to be life savers". K'naan interpreted the lyrics as being aimed at him filming the music video for the single
Soobax in
Kenya. Friends say that k-os was simply expressing ideas about the LoveMovement (his videproduction team) who shot the video in Kenya and ex manager Sol guy who was managing K'naan at the time. k-os has been said to believe that hip hop allows friends to express their ideas to each other via song. He was very puzzled by Knaan's personal 'public' angle on the lyrics of "B-Boy Stance" especially because his song Revolutionary Avocado came after Knaan's repeated efforts to collaborate with k-os. Later on k-os told younger brother Josh that he believed it was a way for K'naan to 'get attention' very close to the release date of his album and that Sol guy, who k-os left to be managed by
Chris Smith Management, pit the two against each other K'naan responded in the song "Revolutionary Avocado" with the lyrics: "You the all-knowing with a beer bottle/Wishing you was Plato and me Aristotle?/...Suburban negro turned hip-hop hero/Is there a reason he really hates me, though?" A documentary produced by new media pioneer McLean Greaves chronicling the production and performance of the song aired on Canadian national television on February 2, 2006, and was titled after the song. k-os then traveled across Canada recording his third album, stopping mainly in Toronto, Vancouver and
Halifax. In the proceeding summer, the first single from the upcoming album titled "ELEctrick Heat – the seekwiLL" was released. The single became the "#1 most downloaded Single of the Week" on
iTunes. as a "crossover pop artist disguised as a true-school b-boy". He was also disillusioned when he remembered he had granted an interview to Richards when he was a teenager, and that they had similar small town Trinidadian upbringings. Nervousness about the experimental nature of
Atlantis and the passive aggressiveness of Canadian media most likely led to his blow up. Part of the comment called Richards "a black man ... manipulated by his indie rock nerd bosses" and called on him to "eat a dick!" NOW says that k-os called Richards "a 'sambo' beholden to his 'white indie rock nerd bosses'" in October 2006. After receiving advice from a stress-management expert, k-os later removed the comments, stating in an interview that it was a "personal situation" between himself and Richards and he was angered because the two had previously "had many discussions on music". k-os' comments also received attention from the lead vocalist of the band
Danko Jones, who wrote to NOW magazine saying that k-os "had too much sunshine massaged up his ass". k-os responded to the letter, making sarcastic remarks discussing a band named "STANKO JONES", which referred to Danko Jones. Atlantis, written and produced by k-os, featured collaborations with artists including
Sam Roberts,
Buck 65,
Kevin Drew,
Justin Peroff,
Sebastien Grainger, and Kamau. The album debuted as number one and number five on the "Digital Albums" and "Current Albums" Canadian charts, respectively. While the album continued to merge several musical genres, k-os described the album as being more vocal due to him becoming more comfortable with his singing voice.
Atlantis was also described as leaving behind the "social commentaries" and hip hop critique present on his last two albums. Subsequent singles are "Sunday Morning" and "Flypaper".
ESPN's
Sunday NFL Countdown has used the chorus of "Sunday Morning" as an intro returning from commercial break the past two seasons. k-os was one of the top 3 nominees for the
Juno Awards of 2007 with five nominations, but failed to win any.
2007–2010 , July 2007 In 2007,
EMI Music Canada partnered with game developer Digital Chocolate to create
Club K-OS, a custom mobile game that promoted k-os, his single "Sunday Morning" and links to purchase the song as a ringtone. The game was designed to boost k-os' profile beyond Canada with a planned rollout across Canadian U.S. and European carriers. His fourth studio album, entitled
Yes!, was released on April 14, 2009. Four singles were released from the album. They were "
4, 3, 2, 1", "Burning Bridges", "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman" and "Zambony". k-os also held an online contest from 2008 to 2009 at
Indaba Music in which he provided the public with 11 tracks from the album
Yes! to be remixed. At the end of the contest, the most voted remixes of each song were selected to be on a remix album of
Yes! entitled ''Yes It's Yours (Fan Remix Album)'', which is set to be released in the spring of 2009. The 11 contest winners were also awarded $1,000 each. In April 2009, k-os began the Karma Tour across Canada. For this tour, no advance tickets were sold. Fans were simply asked to donate what they think the show was worth as they leave the venue. In October 2009, k-os paired up with the
Stephen Lewis Foundation and their campaign A Dare to Remember to raise money for
HIV/AIDS affected families in Africa. The musician will return to his old job at
The Bay and will help customers select toys in the store's toy department. In November 2009,
Need for Speed Nitro was released. k-os's song "Fun" was featured on the soundtrack, along with the likes of
Taking Back Sunday,
Rye Rye,
Major Lazer, and others. On 28 February 2010, k-os performed at the
2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony in Vancouver. On 9 August 2010, k-os released a follow-up
mixtape to
Yes!, entitled
The Anchorman Mixtape. Mainly recorded on his tour bus, it featured leftover tracks from
Yes!, as well as new tracks.
2011–2013 On 4 October 2011, in Canada, Much Music released his 30 March 2011
MTV Unplugged concert recordings at the Masonic Temple in Toronto as "MuchMusic presents K-OS LIVE", that also includes a DVD of all the live performances. The CD portion of the release additionally included "Catch 22", "Faith Part 2" featuring
Drake, and two versions of "Holy Cow". On 30 October 2012, k-os announced via Facebook that the album release date would have to be pushed back due to "sample clearance issues". He went on to mention that a sample from
Neil Young was taking longer than expected to clear. On 5 November 2012, k-os announced the release date for his double LP entitled,
Black on Blonde via Twitter and Facebook. A 13 November 2012 pre-order via iTunes was also announced. The first single off the album "The Dog Is Mine" was released on iTunes on 18 September 2012. The follow-up single "Nyce 2 Know Ya" was released on iTunes on 9 October 2012, and peaked at number 47 on the Canadian Hot 100. On 29 January 2013,
Black on Blonde was released and charted at number 16 on the Canadian Albums Chart.
2014–present k-os' latest album, ''
Can't Fly Without Gravity,'' was released in September 2015. He followed it up with mixtape
Views From the Stix which was a surprise released on 20 May 2016, ahead of the Victoria Day holiday in Canada. The mixtape was produced when k-os visited his family's countryside home near
Whitby, Ontario, about thirty minutes outside Toronto. The title is a direct reference to
Views from the Six, the original title of Drake's album
Views (2016). In 2018, k-os released a new single titled "No Bucks" along with the music video. On 29 May 2020, k-os released an EP called
Boshido, a collaboration effort with producer
Kaytranada. It contains a remix to "Crucial", previously released on Kaytranada's
SoundCloud in 2013. ==Activism==