KVtheWriter

Kayla Thompson is not new to the stage. A talented poet and performer, she’s accustomed to sharing work in front of large crowds with years of experience under her belt. But as a musician? As a rapper? The stage is suddenly brand-new again.

Thompson, who goes by the stage name KVtheWriter, made her rap debut this past April with her EP, Love Sucks! and accompanying live show at the Monocle. The five-track collection offers surprisingly vulnerable snapshots into dating mishaps, failed relationships, and the challenges of young love. Reflective of diverse experiences in the real world of dating, the EP’s sounds range from moody and melodic to adventurous and full of bravado. The completed project is currently available on all streaming services.

Part of the magic of Love Sucks! was the extended buildup to both the EP and the live show as the finale to Thompson’s extensive rollout process. And to pull off the multi-pronged project with all its moving pieces intact, she worked with more than 10 different local artists—the newly minted rapper making it a point to work with other talented creative people to bring her vision to life.

“Working with a team really makes the whole process easier, especially when it happens organically—when you come together as a group and it’s not forced,” she says. “It works best when y’all have chemistry with each other, when y’all can joke with each other, laugh and eat with each other but also get business done.”

The rollout timeline for Love Sucks! was an ambitious one. There were three phases, beginning with a blog series launched the day after Valentine’s Day—a deliberately cheeky stab at the holiday. Each of the five blogs—posted once a week for five weeks—reflected on some unfortunate experience in Thompson’s dating life, and corresponded with one of the five songs that would be released as part of the Love Sucks! EP weeks later.

After the blog series, Thompson followed up with five video shorts released once per week over another five-week period. For these concept-heavy, scripted videos, she worked with local videographers Elijah Williams of Divinity Films, LLC, and Michael Anthony, who was a frequent friend in the recording studio and goes by the name, Qoncept. And to cast characters in each video, she simply relied on her friends. Thompson’s ability to forgo a formal casting call in favor of reaching out to friends—many of whom had no idea what they were getting into before arriving—is a testament to the community of artists and creative friends she’s surrounded by.

“It’s a great feeling for real, because it’s so hard to do things on your own,” Thompson says.

The same is often true for many artists in St. Louis, whether they’re building a career in the music industry or another creative field entirely. Working together to develop projects or complete a creative goal is part of what gives the city’s arts community its incubator-like feel. And unsurprisingly, many of them are multi-talented—photographers who are also writers, dancers who do graphic design and make logos, fashion designers who are also DJs who do event production on the side.

While Thompson largely worked with friends she has known for years, she had no problem finding or connecting with talented St. Louis artists she didn’t know. She just searched Instagram hashtags like #stlphotographer or #stlvideographer until she found work she liked.

For the final portion of the rollout, Thompson tapped some local photographer friends—some of whom have already shot the “who’s who” of St. Louis’s young creative scene. Jessica Page, John Scott, and Juan Haynes of Bino Photography all helped shape and expand on the visual aesthetic of Love Sucks!—a playful and quirky, slightly off-kilter representation of love gone wrong.

By the time the Love Sucks! show came around, so many friends had lovingly helped put the project together that the evening felt equal parts celebration and performance. The show opened with a beat set by Thompson’s producer, Blair the Machine, followed by music sets by Elijah Neely, Be.Be (Brianna Brown), and local rapper Asa, and was DJ'd by Thompson’s friend, Randal Herndon, also known as DJ Twinny Twin. Thompson’s own performance of the Love Sucks! EP was also backed by three background singers—Be.Be, Destiney Patriece, and a singer by the name of Snow—alongside The Neosouls band, featuring Neely on the bass, Jeremiah Long on the drums, and Aaron Brown on guitar. Thompson’s list of local collaborators is a long one, but she knows the project wouldn’t have been possible without them.

“I feel like most artists need to understand that you don’t have to do this by yourself and you shouldn’t,” Thompson says. “Because the quality is better when you have people that are able to critique you but also make you better.” - St. Louis Magazine

An ice cream break during a studio session changed the course of Kayla “KVtheWriter” Thompson’s latest artistic endeavor.

She talked about the experience on a recent edition of St. Louis On The Air with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jeremy Goodwin as she prepares for the release of her “Love Sucks” EP next week. The release will be celebrated with a live show on Tuesday, April 30 at The Monocle.

She’s been releasing pieces of “Love Sucks” through various mediums since February leading up to Tuesday’s show. “I started with the video. I released some pictures and I’ll end with the live music – and the project will be dropping the same day [as the show].

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In her chat with Goodwin, she discusses the actual moment that inspired the music.

“I was at the studio – I have a home studio and this guy I was dating at the time called and said he wanted to meet up,” Thompson said. “I was happy to see him.”

She was so happy that she stopped in the middle of a recording session to spend time with him. He offered to go get ice cream. She felt his energy was off on the car ride over to the Snow Factory.

When they arrived, he asked if she wanted anything and placed his order. She didn’t. She sat there watching him eat ice cream. As he was eating, he started a conversation about them seeing other people.

“I went back to the studio and my producer, Blair the Machine, was like, ‘where have you been?’” Thompson said. “I was like, ‘I just got dumped.’”

She moped around the studio for a few days. Then her producer decided that she should let her life inspire the art. “He said, ‘I’m gonna make you a beat, so you can get over this,’” said Thompson.

It was the instrumental for “Snow Factory,” the song that lays out the details of her getting dumped over ice cream. “We kind of created the whole project around that theme of ‘Love Sucks,’” Thompson said. The chorus for “Snow Factory,” makes the experience plain. “We doing this over ice cream, you break up with me over ice cream.”

“I feel like I got very personal with the story,” Thompson said. “If you listen very closely to ‘Snow Factory,’ I chronicle every detail of the breakup. A lot of songs, you hear ‘oh, someone broke my heart,’ but they’re not really talking about the actual actions that the person did to actually break their heart.”

The whole project talks about different situations and scenarios. Thompson was the bad guy in some of them.

“Starting from track one, where I’m the trash person in the relationship – to the last song “Snow Factory,” which is where I get my karma back,” Thompson said.

She hasn’t eaten ice cream since the breakup. She hadn’t been back to the Snow Factory until she went there to shoot the video for the song that inspired the EP. She filmed in the same booth where the breakup took place.

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“I’m pretty used to being vulnerable in my writing and my music,” said Thompson.

The Monocle show will include a set of beats created by her production team Finesse The Sound, which includes Blair, Be.Be and Asa.

Be.Be will perform her own set as will Asa, who is a singer and musician.

Thompson’s portion is to serve as the culminating event. She will do music and poetry – and will be backed by a live band. As her name suggests, she is a writer and published author – and will have her books for sale at the show.

“We will have some special treats for those who are in the building,” said Thompson.

KVtheWriter Presents: Love Sucks will take place at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30 at The Monocle, 4510 Manchester. For more information about the show, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/love-sucks-tickets-58152773511

Published with permission of St. Louis Public Radio from https://news.stlpublicradio.org/. - St. Louis American

KVtheWriter hasn’t been on the St. Louis music scene for long, but her reputation is growing quickly.

She just dropped her debut hip-hop EP “Love Sucks!” on major streaming platforms and digital stores, and her April concert at the Monocle — her first — sold out.

She follows that show with a weekend concert tour, playing three venues Friday through Sunday.

The funniest part: It was never KVtheWriter’s goal to be an artist.

“This journey is about me getting in the door to be a songwriter and to write for other artists,” she says. “I consider myself a writer. But I don’t know how to get in the door and write for other artists.”

KVtheWriter (aka Kayla Thompson) lists Ne-Yo and The-Dream as two of her favorite songwriters.

Her dream would be to write for Rihanna — she has songs that would be perfect for the artist — as well as SZA.

But until then, she recognizes that she’s good at her “artist thing.”


She calls “Love Sucks!,” produced by Blair™ (Blair the Machine), a look at her journey of losing and finding love, spread over the EP’s tracks: “Seat Back,” “Time,” “Laid Up,” “Crazy” and “Snow Factory.”

She’s up-front and shows vulnerability on the EP, which she wrote, with material about how she was at fault in relationships. She says female artists often aren’t that honest.

“Sometimes it’s hard for us to talk about us being the bad guy,” KVtheWriter says. “I’m open as a woman about my sexual experiences, and I do it in a way that’s direct.”

She says writing comes easy for her because she relies on real stories based on real experiences — her own and of those around her.

“Snow Factory,” for instance, is about a boyfriend who took her out for ice cream — and to break up with her.

The EP is full of her brand of melodic rap, though she sings occasionally. But KVtheWriter doesn’t call herself a singer.

“A lot of people try to make me a singer,” she says. “My producer tries to make me a singer. My engineers try to make me a singer. I’m a rapper disguised as a singer.”

She finished “Love Sucks!” in November after recording in her home. “I like the convenience of waking up and going to the next room to record,” she says.

Her 32-week rollout began on Valentine’s Day. At the time, though, her fans didn’t know they were being set up for her debut.

She already had a following on her blog — which she had started after her father, Tyrone Thompson, a Pagedale police chief, was killed in a 2010 robbery — so she wrote blog posts that each connected directly to a song on the forthcoming EP.

“I didn’t tell anybody it was about my upcoming music, and it got attention. In the midst of that I announced I was having a show. Nobody knew I was making music. Nobody knew what to expect until I released the music,” she says.

When fans showed up at the Monocle, they naturally assumed it was for a poetry event; “Of Magic and Madness,” her 2017 book of poetry, won first place in the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.

What fans got instead was KVtheWriter’s first concert.

Selling out the Monocle — especially considering it was a stormy Tuesday night — was a real wow moment. “People came out heavy. I really had people curious just based on my rollout.”

This weekend, KVtheWriter keeps the momentum going as she embarks on her “Every Little Bit of Love Tour,” three shows over three days at three secret St. Louis locations. She will announce the unorthodox venues on the day of the shows, which sold out immediately.

She has already finished two more albums, with the next one coming this summer.

KVtheWriter’s grandmother Betty Thompson served six years in the Missouri House of Representatives. Her uncle Tony Thompson is president and founder of TBeats Studios and CEO of Kwame Building Group. A brother, visual artist Tyrell Thompson, was a shot to death in a 2016 robbery.

She wrote a song about her brother titled “Last Words”; it’s not on her new EP.

“The song is written from the perspective of him, what he would say if he had his last words,” she says. “I opened with that at my show.” - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Aye I’m here to review shit.

Don’t act brand new.

Anyway. Love, Sucks.

SEAT BACK
I heard “Seat Back” about a month ago…. Yes that’s a exclusive “I’m a connected nigga” flex. When I heard it I started to think about how I leave the seat back in every shorty car I’m in. Especially if I’m not in a relationship with them. I guess I subconsciously wanna irk their whole roster. A real SelfCareBoy mark their territory by leaving seats back. If she has to be Evette and argue with the “Jody” in their life that’s not your concern. I leave cool shit in women cars like frooties, the smell of my cologne and liquor so they never upset about me leaving their seat back. This my favorite song on the EP.


TIME FEAT ASA
All I know is that there was NO Scorpio slander thus proving we’re the coolest sign in the universe. This song reminds me of the fact that 90% of human population cannot have sex without strings attached. This song just reminded me that I plan to suck shorties toes this summer and just leave without saying anything.


LAID UP
If there was ever a soundtrack to laying your head on titties it’s “Laid Up.” I’m currently sitting on top of my refrigerator caking to this song right now. Let’s see how I can stretch this out until she finds out I ain’t shit, I have no plans of being with her and that I enjoy watching “Cheers.” I think watching Cheers would piss anybody off but fuck yall that’s my shit. Sam the homie.


CRAZY FEAT SIR EDDIE C
Crazy women hella funny. They could literally pop up at my crib and walk in on me fucking a shorty and say “Boy you funny. You hungry?” I don’t deal with crazy shit at this stage of my life but when I was young that shit was fun. Back then the pussy just hit different if she was crazy. Plus crazy women really hate you and when she hate you the sex is super lit like having 4 untouched Thanksgiving plates saved for you and 3 blunts. Sir Eddie got off on this by the way. I didn’t share a handshake with anybody but bitch I made you a playlist and it was flame. You can’t do me like this. I put Anita Baker and Project Pat on there. Show me some respect.


SNOW FACTORY
Aye bruh I got broke up with while watching “The Wire” and it’s kinda hard to give a fuck when you’re watching the greatest tv show of all time. I don’t care what she thinks at a time like this. Omar coming nigga. Don’t feel bad KV. Ice cream overrated. Only Ice Cream we respect is the song where the philosopher Method Man said “Ice cold bitches melt down when they in the clutch and want they titties sucked.” Like this the most non playa shit I’ve ever heard. You took somebody out for ice cream to break up with them? You spent money instead of making a phone call and saving 15% by switching to geico. You new niggas hella weird man.

Very solid first project. Dope production from Blair. I like projects that are easy to listen to and Love Sucks provides that.

I had the amazing honor of seeing KV perform this project and it was one of the coolest show experiences ever. Very intimate. Fun. I was drinking on some top shelf cognac and being annoyingly arrogant at The Monocle. Meeting new people. Shoutout to all the openers of the show yall all was raw. My favorite moments of the night were Uncle representing and bringing KV out. When you got Unk in your corner business getting done on bluetooth headsets and you never going hungry cause Unk a real one. I liked the “Seat Back” performance and The B.A.N performance. I can see thick real bitches singing B.A.N across the world. It was KV first time performing and you would’ve never known it if she hadn’t mentioned it. The confidence. The crowd control. The connection. The energy. Definitely looked like a natural and a veteran performer. I definitely went home on a high after the Love Sucks show.

From the best rollout I’ve ever seen for a project to the actual show everything was just very innovative and felt really original. The blogging, the photo shoots, the one minute videos, the magazine, the turn out of the show. I think a trend and bar was set. It didn’t feel like she was copying anybody. KV has her own lane.


Thank You KV. None of this surprises me. You’ve always inspired me and others and you’re just going to keep getting better and better.


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