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Photography by Julian Burgueno and Chris Cadaver (Valentine)
An unassuming heavyweight in the US rap consensus, Houston’s Maxo Kream is a deft lyricist, towering presence and meticulous technician. A formidable presence in the American scene for over a decade, throughout the last 10 years he’s consistently impressed with statement projects like 2018’s Punken and 2021’s WEIGHT OF THE WORLD, and has collaborated with a coterie of the States’ finest names, from A$AP Rocky to Freddie Gibbs, Travis Scott to Tyler, the Creator.
The latter name makes an appearance on “Cracc Era”, a standout offering from Kream’s latest full-length album, Personification. The work, released mid November, also features That Mexican OT and Denzel Curry amongst others, and is a sprawling character study that moves through the different stages of Kream’s inward and outward disposition. The instrumentation is eclectic and effortless, full of creamy production and hard-hitting timbres alike, whilst the storytelling is visceral and captivating, revolving around the trio of personas that the rapper has developed across the years—Trigga Maxo, Punken and Emekwanem—to symbolise growth and positivity in self.
Wonderland catch up with the hip hop stalwart, talking essence, a reflection of his discography, and dissecting the brilliant new album.
Listen to Personification…
Read the exclusive interview…
Hey Maxo, how’s your year been?
It’s been good. I dropped the album. You know what I’m saying? Finally got my art out. It’s been good.
Talk us through your musical origins—when did you first begin rapping? What type of music were you around?
My first song I ever made was “Lace up My Nikes”. I was eight years old, and Lindon was six, and we was rapping about being wrestlers, football players, and gangster rappers. The second song I ever made was in 2005. It was a young jeezy. It was as simple as that last time I checked, I was the man on these streets: “They call me residue ali blowing these beats, blow, blowing these beats,” that shit And I wrote that shit. My composition after that, I wouldn’t write another song until 2010. From there, that’s when I took rap seriously.
How has your Houston background shaped your musicality and personal outlook?
A lot cause’ Houston got different sections. You got the north; they got their thing. The southside, they do one thing. We got Southwest n**ga, and within the South n**ga, you have kream klick n**ga, and I am a kream klick n**ga from the Southwest and everything you get from me from that side of Houston.
And that version is a Kream Klick from the Southwest.
Describe your essence as an artist in three words?
Persona, money, global.
How do you reflect on your career in discography to this point?
Some of my best shit be the shit that I didn’t know that I even liked shit that I even did. You know what I’m saying? Some of my favourite albums are retro. called QuiccStrikes, #Maxo187. I really like all my work. However, I’m feeling at the time of what I’m going through, that’s the piece of master that you’re getting to build through my life journey.
Congratulations on your new album, Personification! How does it feel to have it out in the world?
It feels like a [breathes in and out] deep breath. I’m just glad to get what I’ve been bottling up for the last three years out.
What was your creative process of making the record? What drove the album sonically?
The fact that I was my own executive producer and the fact that I hand-picked every beat and hand-crafted every beat to my liking. I went back and listened to all my old projects. So all my old projects they had went back. I really just went back and gave you all my percentage for my old projects and put them together and just drove them together like that. So y’all take what you want with that.
The album’s feature list is stacked. How did you go about deciding who should appear on the project?
I just hit up all my rapper friends, and whoever fucked with me hopped on that motherfucker, and how they was rocking like me and Denzel was overdue. So “Trigga Man” fit him [Denzel], you know, OT, Big X, Tyler, me, and Tyler got shit in the vault. This was something I pulled out of the vault.
Where did the idea for the three personas originate?
It originated from #Maxo187, Punken, and Weight of the World. Those three albums basically fit into my personas.
What do they all represent within the wider context of the album?
So, it’s ‘Trigga Maxo’ versus ‘Maxo 187.’ ‘Punken’ represent Maxo motherfucking see the fliest crip when I was on my fly crip shit, and ‘Weight of the World’ that’s more of like the more introspective giving you the pros and cons of the streets, Maxo, like the older Maxo father figure Maxo, Boss Maxo.
At what stage of your career do you feel the album finds you at?
I mean, shit. I can’t answer until the next album comes out. The very last track of the album, that’s where I’m at, “Trigga Man”.
What’s next for you? What does 2025 hold?
Whole lot of persona
Why do you make music?
So, I don’t sell drugs no more. I just make music like to feed my income.
in HTML format, including tags, to make it appealing and easy to read for Japanese-speaking readers aged 20 to 40 interested in fashion. Organize the content with appropriate headings and subheadings (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6), translating all text, including headings, into Japanese. Retain any existing
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Photography by Julian Burgueno and Chris Cadaver (Valentine)
An unassuming heavyweight in the US rap consensus, Houston’s Maxo Kream is a deft lyricist, towering presence and meticulous technician. A formidable presence in the American scene for over a decade, throughout the last 10 years he’s consistently impressed with statement projects like 2018’s Punken and 2021’s WEIGHT OF THE WORLD, and has collaborated with a coterie of the States’ finest names, from A$AP Rocky to Freddie Gibbs, Travis Scott to Tyler, the Creator.
The latter name makes an appearance on “Cracc Era”, a standout offering from Kream’s latest full-length album, Personification. The work, released mid November, also features That Mexican OT and Denzel Curry amongst others, and is a sprawling character study that moves through the different stages of Kream’s inward and outward disposition. The instrumentation is eclectic and effortless, full of creamy production and hard-hitting timbres alike, whilst the storytelling is visceral and captivating, revolving around the trio of personas that the rapper has developed across the years—Trigga Maxo, Punken and Emekwanem—to symbolise growth and positivity in self.
Wonderland catch up with the hip hop stalwart, talking essence, a reflection of his discography, and dissecting the brilliant new album.
Listen to Personification…
Read the exclusive interview…
Hey Maxo, how’s your year been?
It’s been good. I dropped the album. You know what I’m saying? Finally got my art out. It’s been good.
Talk us through your musical origins—when did you first begin rapping? What type of music were you around?
My first song I ever made was “Lace up My Nikes”. I was eight years old, and Lindon was six, and we was rapping about being wrestlers, football players, and gangster rappers. The second song I ever made was in 2005. It was a young jeezy. It was as simple as that last time I checked, I was the man on these streets: “They call me residue ali blowing these beats, blow, blowing these beats,” that shit And I wrote that shit. My composition after that, I wouldn’t write another song until 2010. From there, that’s when I took rap seriously.
How has your Houston background shaped your musicality and personal outlook?
A lot cause’ Houston got different sections. You got the north; they got their thing. The southside, they do one thing. We got Southwest n**ga, and within the South n**ga, you have kream klick n**ga, and I am a kream klick n**ga from the Southwest and everything you get from me from that side of Houston.
And that version is a Kream Klick from the Southwest.
Describe your essence as an artist in three words?
Persona, money, global.
How do you reflect on your career in discography to this point?
Some of my best shit be the shit that I didn’t know that I even liked shit that I even did. You know what I’m saying? Some of my favourite albums are retro. called QuiccStrikes, #Maxo187. I really like all my work. However, I’m feeling at the time of what I’m going through, that’s the piece of master that you’re getting to build through my life journey.
Congratulations on your new album, Personification! How does it feel to have it out in the world?
It feels like a [breathes in and out] deep breath. I’m just glad to get what I’ve been bottling up for the last three years out.
What was your creative process of making the record? What drove the album sonically?
The fact that I was my own executive producer and the fact that I hand-picked every beat and hand-crafted every beat to my liking. I went back and listened to all my old projects. So all my old projects they had went back. I really just went back and gave you all my percentage for my old projects and put them together and just drove them together like that. So y’all take what you want with that.
The album’s feature list is stacked. How did you go about deciding who should appear on the project?
I just hit up all my rapper friends, and whoever fucked with me hopped on that motherfucker, and how they was rocking like me and Denzel was overdue. So “Trigga Man” fit him [Denzel], you know, OT, Big X, Tyler, me, and Tyler got shit in the vault. This was something I pulled out of the vault.
Where did the idea for the three personas originate?
It originated from #Maxo187, Punken, and Weight of the World. Those three albums basically fit into my personas.
What do they all represent within the wider context of the album?
So, it’s ‘Trigga Maxo’ versus ‘Maxo 187.’ ‘Punken’ represent Maxo motherfucking see the fliest crip when I was on my fly crip shit, and ‘Weight of the World’ that’s more of like the more introspective giving you the pros and cons of the streets, Maxo, like the older Maxo father figure Maxo, Boss Maxo.
At what stage of your career do you feel the album finds you at?
I mean, shit. I can’t answer until the next album comes out. The very last track of the album, that’s where I’m at, “Trigga Man”.
What’s next for you? What does 2025 hold?
Whole lot of persona
Why do you make music?
So, I don’t sell drugs no more. I just make music like to feed my income.
and integrate them seamlessly into the new content without adding new tags. Ensure the new content is fashion-related, written entirely in Japanese, and approximately 1500 words. Conclude with a “結論” section and a well-formatted “よくある質問” section. Avoid including an introduction or a note explaining the process.
