Kyle is just like you. 2020 threw off his plans but he is making the best of it. In July he released his new album See You When I am Famous!!!!!!!!!!!!, one that he admittedly is surprised to have gone forward with once COVID-19 changed life as we all know it. But for the rising star, music isn’t the only lane for his flourishing career. He has taken on acting in films and equally television shows and voice-over work, a big part of his role in season 2 of Sugar and Toys.
Sugar and Toys is a cartoon, however, not one that you let anyone who doesn’t have a driver’s license take in. This one is for you and all of your adult friends. The topics range from Drake to Donald Trump, who Kyle calls “Orange Guy.” This season will see Kyle in two roles as he will be the host and also in full-animation.
Speaking with The Source, Kyle highlights what to expect in the new season of the hit Fuse show, how he shifts his focus across his career, and more.
You are returning to Sugar and Toys for season two. Congratulations. For those who are new to you in this arena, how did you first get involved with the sugar and toys show?
Kyle: The funny thing is they actually reached out to me, Carl Jones and Brian Ash, reached out to me specifically to be like the host of the show. So at first, I was like, you know, so excited. And then they wanted more input on even like episode ideas and character voices, involving other rap friends of mine. So I got to take on like a bigger role, more of a producer role sort of, it was kind of crazy. So it just like sorta fell in my lap.
You mention coming in and being able to share some of your ideas, but this season we also get you as an animated character. So how has the preparation been into lending your voice?
I was doing auditions for like Cleveland Brown and stuff like that. I was just trying to get my feet wet and I think because me using my voice and applying it when you can actually see me on camera is so much easier than trying to use my voice in animation. I was just trying to prepare like with doing a bunch of auditions and stuff like that. That’s sort of how I got my headspace right.
How frequently will we see your onscreen character and does that remove you at all from your host row?
No, it’s the exact same vibe where I’m still a host, but now they’re transported to an animated world to really just fit, you know, the rest of the cartoon. So I’m still being in the house, but this time I sort of have a new cast of characters who are with one then, going on to a sort of like my robot, like that screen companion. And I say I’m pretty much in it. The exact same amount of time I was in season one.
Looking at this show, you tackle subjects in a funny way. We’ve seen stories on Drake and just telling funny stories for an adult audience. As an artist yourself, have you ever been concerned about how other artists, rappers, or anybody else would feel by the jokes?
You know what, man, I definitely haven’t thought about that before. That’s a good question. I’m somebody who doesn’t really take myself too seriously and I always down to take a job on myself and I feel like anyone of the rappers that I don’t know is offended by that. There’s like a bigger picture, you know? I don’t think we’re trying to personally attack everybody.
In the last season, did you happen to have a moment that you enjoyed working on or going back and watching the most?
Yeah. My favorite moment from the last season was the episode with Slim Johnson, the homeless guy who breaks into the crib and then ends up becoming a friend of mine that I don’t want to leave. Really just working with Slim Johnson a veteran comedian and actor and getting the opportunity to really play off of somebody who is really grounded in the comedy space was so fire. And that’s probably my favorite episode to watch.
So we have you on the show, you’re doing movies on Netflix, but you’re still creating music. How do you manage to switch all of those hats and zone in on your work at the moment?
I try to spend a little bit of time every day focusing on what is exciting me, you know what I mean? If Sugar and Toys is my current focus I’m just going to spend my time working on that and thinking about. And then sometimes I wake up in his music. I just tried to equally divide my energy to every one of those fields now instead of saying I’m going to work on music for this amount of money, then I’m going to work on the film. I try to really do it all simultaneously. So that way I’ll make a progress in all of them.
We recently got, See You When I am Famous!!!!!!!!!!!. How did you feel coming out of this album in comparison to some of the ones that you had in your past?
That’s a good question. I think you know, coming out of this one, it was just a different time. I think this album really taught me a lot about what I make music for. I think with the whole COVID thing and not really being able to tour or go and enjoy any of the like materialistic, little more of creating an album and dropping right. Which is what you wanna do. You want, like try it out and drop it, go to go do club performances, like really intake the actual reactions from real people. And I think not being able to do that with this album, but still deciding to like drop it and go through it has been like a really beautiful eye-opening realization of what it is I’m making music for. And you know, I’m making music in order to help somebody out there who’s feeling down have a better day. And I think after dropping this album and seeing how kids are reacting to it at home is really in their most dire time has sort of been the most like an inner rewarding album that I’ve dropped so far. And it’s not really crowded by like, you know what I mean? All the material materialistic excitement of just going on tour and making oodles of money or whatever. It’s more like, no, I did this for the people.
I know albums kind of like come in cycles, they come and you promote, you create, you release, you tour, but this whole thing is kind of like shifted things up. Would you still want to specifically go out and tour this album?
I have to do this album on tour. It’s like damn near my most hype and energetic album. I have to give this album a tour and I’ll probably mix it in with whatever I have going on then.
I also saw that you tweeted that you have a little bit of boom-bap rap and R&B Kyle poking through. When you feel those different styles coming out of you, how do you like alter your creative process?
It’s all about what you are at your core. You know what I’m saying? And the funny thing is more of like the trap rap kind of vibe is a new thing I’ve learned over the later years in my life. I’m always trying to be authentically me in the hope that I’m talented at that project that I’m attacking and that’s my process. It’s not like I’m going to be R&B Kyle today so I need to wake up and put on like a nice knitted sweater. I’m just trying to be authentically me.
This season of Sugar and Toys. Is there anything you want fans to specifically pay attention to or is there anything that you’re really excited for them to see?
Our Obama skit is hella funny. We have a funny interpretation of what it probably feels like for Obama now watching the world in turmoil because of the orange guy. I’m excited for fans to see that. I want them to make sure they pay attention to the actual point we make. If it seems like we’re making fun of an artist or some politicians, pay attention to the actual point we’re trying to make, you know, cause none of these jokes are just loosely thrown around. There’s always some sort of deeper message to it and really trying to educate you on a problem on a problem or a social climate that you might not know about. So just try to pay attention to that.