[MP3] R.I.P. Kunle Thomas aka King Reign: 1975-2016

The news that Kunle Thomas better known to the world as King Reign, Toronto rapper and former member of celebrated underground T.dot rap group, Brassmunk is no longer with us just rips me apart.

I am humbled that I got to know him a little since my return to Toronto in ’09 and honored that he thought enough of this blog to share a track featuring Saukrates, “The Books” for the compilation project I did for it two years ago. His song, “Guilty Party” also featuring Bigg Soxx still remains one of my favorite hip-hop songs of all time, true story.

And even after all these years, his career was still evolving and growing: just this week he had a featured role performing on the new Jason Priestly Global TV show, Private Eyes. It’s never good when anyone passes, especially so young, but this… this is a rough one. Prayers out to his entire family and friends. 2016 absolutely just f-cking sucks!

Related reading:

– Official announcement of Reign’s passing on FB

– Throwback to Different Kitchen‘s interview with King Reign for the #DK11 comp project

– Del Cowie on Why King Reign mattered to Canadian hip-hop (CBC Music)

– When My Eyes Closed: King Reign – 1975 to 2016 a previously unpublished Q&A with Reign conduced by Luke Fox (Exclaim!)

And please support the GoFundMe to help cover Reign’s funeral expenses if you can by going HERE.

Finally, a few musical reminders of why the T.dot hip-hop community’s heart is so heavy from this loss:

King Reign – Fades Away (feat. Saukrates & Drake) (Prod. Saukrates)


King Reign – Soaring To Heaven (feat. Saukrates, Tona, & Rich Kidd) (Prod. Rich Kidd)


King Reign – Money ft Saukrates & Kardinal Offishall (Prod. Boi1da)

“If I die now would anybody know my name?” – King Reign

Yes they would, Reign. Yes they would….

[Exclusive Different Kitchen Premiere] Audego – Glaciers (Album)

Long-time readers know we are super fans of Australian electronic soul duo, Audego here at The Kitchen. Aroly Tariq‘s plaintive, emotion-filled vocals over Pasobionic‘s edgy & dark but funky beats have made for some amazing music to date.

We’ve told the story multiple times about first discovering their music while screening submissions for NXNE and subsequently corralling them into sharing a track for our 11th anniversary This One Goes To Eleven… compilation back in 2014. That track “Gone” ended up becoming the hit of the comp and, lo and behold, two years here it is as part of Audego’s latest album, Glaciers which we have an exclusive preview listening copy of right here on the Kitchen.

As described by Audego vocalist, Aroly: “Glaciers is a culmination of our experiences in the last two years that we haven’t been able to process through conversation. We aren’t talkative people, so dropping “Glaciers” is our way of breaking the ice between us and everybody else.”

Glaciers has 4 unreleased tracks and will feature all the scattered singles Audego have dropped through the past 2 years.