Exploring a New State of 'Yes!' Karma with k-os by Reg Seeton

What you hear and see of k-os from his music is your own perception. Some people look at the sky and see it for what it is, a blue sky. Others, however, will look at that blue sky and say it's green. Others would argue there is no sky at all. That's just the way life rolls. People are weird, and life is strange. Is k-os simply hip-hop, or is he strictly rap? If the sky doesn't exist, why does it matter?

Now on his experimental pay-by-donation Karma tour to promote his recently released album, Yes!, the first k-os studio album since the 2006 release of Atlantis: Hymns for Disco, the Toronto raised k-os has reached a significant fork at the road of his career as a passionate, outspoken, mature and evolving artist. Much in the same philosophical way that Marvin Gaye freed himself of certain restrictive boundaries in 1971 to chart a new course in his career to explore his soul, with the release of his fourth album, Yes!, k-os has shaken the constrictive forces of the media and the stereotypical sins of perception that have nailed many an artist to a musical cross.

After watching k-os perform a potent two-hour, 23 song set at The Commodore Ballroom on April 30, free to fans by way of pay-by-donation and his new touring belief in good Karma, it was clear that k-os is more at ease with his music and himself. In fact, at this stage of his career, k-os is a wiser, creatively free force of hip-hop, rap, rebellious acoustic reggae, rock and electronic synth, with slight shades of punk, all within a goldmine of soul. On stage, the 2009 k-os of Yes! is even more experimental in his artistic expression than in live years since his breakout 2002 debut, Exit, blending not only rap, hip-hop, and soul with old school samples and rhymes but also various cultural percussions, beats and strings that reflect a more diverse and mature evolution that pushes the boundaries of categorization, as you can hear in the Yes! tracks, "Astronaut" and “Mr. Telephone Man,” which, for those old schoolers who may be wondering about the title, isn’t a cover of New Edition. Interestingly, at the very end of the track is where you’ll find a sincere and candid k-os who briefly bears his acoustic soul.

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