Meet New York native, RnB singer KJ Leak. If you haven’t heard of him yet, you will soon. At the young age of twelve years old he has already performed at the Apollo, Madison Square Gardens, Village Underground, Ashford and Simpson’s Sugar Bar and the Harlem Week Festival just to name a few— and KJ has opened on stage for Atlantic Starr!
RnB Magazine caught up with KJ in California, while he was here to close the deal on a huge project coming up for him in 2016. At this time KJ cannot discuss his big news due to contracts and legalities, so we kind of talked around it. Be on the lookout for a follow-up interview once KJ’s news is press released.
I know you are in California to finalize a big project coming up in 2016 that you are not allowed to talk about yet, without giving it away can you tell me what it feels like to get an opportunity like the one you have coming up?
Just being involved is crazy. I’ve taken one small step and then—boom! It’s a big thing. It’s really cool and I love it!
You’ve met a lot of people, you opened for Atlantic Starr, what was that like, to not just meet these people but be asked to join in and perform with them?
It was a great experience, just meeting them, but to open up for them—that was a great honor.
What is it like being so young and to already have these places behind you as places you have performed?
It’s a really great experience. I love it, I love being on stage. I love singing in front of everybody. I don’t really get nervous that often.
What drew you to RnB music?
I always listen to RnB music, that is my favorite genre, in total. So that is what I like to sing.
You’ve already played in some pretty amazing places—is there anywhere that you would like to play that you haven’t played at before?
I am liking California, this is my first time here. If I could think of a big live show to do I would love to open up or even do a half-time show for the LA Clippers or the LA Lakers—something at the Staples Center. It’s a huge venue and I would love to perform there.
You are really young and you manage to do all these shows and performances and practices and rehearsals– I am guessing you must have a lot of family support to accomplish all of this. Can you tell us a little about how your family helps guide and support you?
I mean, they push me to rehearse and do my best, although sometimes that can get annoying (laughs) to be honest, but I know they only want the best for me. And it does help me out a lot.
Who would you like to perform with if you had the opportunity to perform with another artist?
My favorite artist, well, RnB artist, is Chris Brown, so I would love to open up for or perform with him one day. Even though Drake is a rapper, I would love to perform with him. All those guys– Beiber, all of them really–those are the main people that come to mind, as far as people I would love to perform with one day.
Who do you listen to?
The people I just said, the people I want to perform with, and I like a lot of throwback artist too, like Bobby Brown, New Edition, Michael Jackson, all those guys. The Temptations…I love jamming to old RnB as well as the new.
I saw online you are an honor roll student—got an amazing report card. How do you keep all of that up?
To be honest, it’s pretty hard. I do play basketball and do karate too. So to balance all that out you have to make specific times to do stuff. So yeah, it’s pretty hard, but I think I can handle it all.
Do you have a lot of friends your age? Do you get to just hang out?
Usually on the weekends I get to hang out more often and days I don’t have school—days where I have the whole entire day. And everybody in the community, everybody knows me , so they know what all I have to do. It’s pretty cool, sometimes I get to hang out with them, play football with them.
Where do you see yourself in like five to ten years from now?
In five years I imagine myself being bigger than I am right now, and more people knowing me even more than now. Ten years—well this is pretty awkward (laughs) but I imagine myself with a record label deal and at least a couple of songs out of my own.
If anybody can handle the hard work and dedication it takes to get there, KJ can. We wish him the best and will be following up!
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