“When he [my brother] died I was so hurt but also felt like I had a lot to say. That’s when I knew I was gonna rap.”

If you live anywhere but Spokane Washington, chances are you haven’t heard King Dre’s hot new single, “This Ain’t a Swisher”. But if you do so happen to live in the 509, it has been impossible to escape the infectious cut since the track’s music video dropped earlier this May. The local hit has blessed every joyride, smoke sesh, and game of basketball this month and is showing no signs of slowing down.

King Dre, or KD for short, was born in Sacramento California. At the age of three he was moved to Long Beach where he stayed for 12 years. Here he attended Long Beach Poly Tech High School which boasts impressive alumni such as Snoop Dogg and Cameron Diaz. In April of 2014, Dre moved up to Spokane where he went to Rogers High School for two months before starting Job Corps to finish his education and learn specific trade skills.

While KD has music on his SoundCloud dating back to over three years ago, he really began to drop music consistently eight months ago with his debut project, an EP titled Phase 1. Four months later on New Year's Day, Dre dropped his first mixtape ‘98’ on SoundCloud. Dre made his streaming services debut earlier this month when Phase 2 was released on Apple Music and Spotify. The mixtape’s drop also included a music video for the projects lead single “This Ain’t a Swisher”. The song features 02Hauncho and and is currently receiving lots of playtime in Eastern Washington in large part thanks to the entertaining video cooked up by TheGreatBambi42. The video showcases the two rappers flexing around Spokane as they go in on top of a hard hitting instrumental created by local producer PeeJay.

While KD has been on my radar for about a year, no project of his has grabbed me and refused to let go like Phase 2 has this month. Upon hearing “This Ain’t a Swisher” I instantly ran the rest of the mixtape and was blown away when the rest of the tape sounded just as good. The tape is solely produced and engineered by PeeJay adding to the cohesion of the project. Dre comes correct on every track as he constantly switches his flow and adds unique vocal inflections to keep every song interesting. After one listen through Phase 2 I knew the Spokane artist had something worth talking about so I immediately reached out. Last week I picked Dre up and we headed to a local park to light a backwood and discuss his early life, the creation of Phase 2, the Spokane hip-hop scene, and much more. My conversation with King Dre, lightly edited for content and clarity, follows below:

Scuba, a song by King Dre KD on Spotify

Spencer: Thanks to Job Core, at 16 you were completely done with school. What did you spend all your time doing?

King Dre: Smoking and writing music. Back then I wasn’t even recording on anything yet I was just writing in a book.

Spencer: What was the first song you wrote and how did it come about?

King Dre: The first song I wrote was a song called Tarped. I recorded that on an Android phone, you can hear the TV in the back and everything. I had been writing hella shit in my book and then one day I picked my hardest verse and said fuck it, let’s record it. I figured out if I played a beat and turned it down halfway I could record directly into my SoundCloud and that was that.

Spencer: Was that first song you recorded the moment when you realized you wanted to do rap?

King Dre: Fuck no. I didn’t think about really rapping until 2017. That’s when my brother died. He was a super talented rapper living down in Sacramento he just got caught up in gangbanging. September 24th 2017 he got shot three times by some niggas from shootergang who were on some retaliation shit. When he died I was so hurt but also felt like I had a lot to say. That’s when I knew I was gonna rap.

Spencer: Who are you listening to right now?

King Dre: Me hahaha. I promise to God I know my friends get annoyed, I’m that guy that plays my own music in the whip but the truth is, I make what I like. It’s crazy though because since that’s all I’m listening to, that’s my motivation to make new music. When I get tired of whatever I got out, I know it’s time to get back to work so I can have something new to listen to. That’s why Phase 2 came out. I dropped ‘98’ on New Years Day and freestyled over half of that tape so I just got tired of it fast. I don’t see myself getting tired of Phase 2 anytime soon though.

Spencer: I noticed that Phase 2 is the first project you’ve made that you put on the major streaming services. Does something about this tape that feels different from the rest of your music?

King Dre: That’s so crazy you ask that cause hell ya bro. That plus the fact that PeeJay produced the entire tape and my homie Bambi cooked up the video so we don’t have to worry about any kind of Copyright issues or nothing. That’s all out money.

Spencer: Everything about “This Ain’t a Swisher” sounds like a hit. How did that song come about?

King Dre: One day I was just rolling some weed and that first part of the hook came to me. I knew it was hard off top so I wrote it down and finished the hook the next day. The next day was 02Hauncho’s birthday who I met three and a half years ago just partying out here in Spokane. He lives right underneath me and was kicking it at my place and I wasn’t trying to leave him at my house so I brought him to the studio with me. When we showed up to the stu the first beat that PeeJay played for us was the one we ended up using. Hauncho wrote his verse there, I helped bring his swag out in the booth, and that was that.

Antics, a song by King Dre KD on Spotify

Spencer: Let’s talk about PeeJay because the production on Phase 2 is definitely one of its strengths. How did you two initially link up?

King Dre: Man I met PeeJay through my homie Chauncy (PoohBenji) who’s making dope music out here. We would rap together and one day he told me to come through to PeeJay’s. That day we made “Getting Old” and the way he mixed my vocals was so hard. My dude is certified in ProTools, he be making the beats, recording the vocals, and mixing the track all in-house. PeeJay is so dope the way he goes back into the beat after the vocals are recorded to make everything hit like crazy.

Spencer: The urban music scene in Spokane seems to be the hottest it’s ever been right now with you, Pooh, Icy Ike, and PeeJay all building fan bases. Do you feel any kind of pressure or responsibility to be the first rapper to make it out of Spokane?

King Dre: Honestly, I don’t feel a lot of pressure because I promise to God I’m not breaking a sweat. This is just me focusing and doing something I like. I get bored real fast and rap is the one thing that I haven’t gotten bored of. All I’m saying though is that when one of us makes it, we’re all gonna make it because people are gonna start tapping in to what’s going on out here.

Spencer: Talk to me about Lost Future. What is it right now and what do you see it becoming?

King Dre: Lost Future is the personal label. That’s me and everybody that’s working behind me. I got a bunch of clothes being made right now for me and my homies to rock at shows and sell on the side. It’s also a label that I can add artists to that want to rap. I’ve got an appointment to get that shit trademarked here in six days.