Before any of the shows started on my first full day at Canadian Music Week I got the chance to interview a creative musical duo, akidnamedpollo and Sammy Citrus. I remember emailing their manager Roland weeks before the festival even started. The second I pressed play on one of their songs I knew that I needed to talk to these guys. So after hitting up Tim Hortons to grab a smoothie and some timbits for the guys I venture off to find where they were staying. I finally reach a beautiful condo building; they even had a waterfall in the lobby! That’s how you know it’s a nice place! I text Roland letting him know I’m there. After about a few minutes he arrives with Sammy Citrus, they have the biggest smiles on their faces. We shake hands and greet each other as we instantly hit it off.  We get to the room where akidnamepollo and the rest of the crew are all sitting around the room. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met, after just meeting them it was like I was part of their crew. This was there first time in Canada and the farthest show they have ever played out of North Carolina. I could tell right away Sammy and Pollo are really close. Their friendship was forged over something they both love, music.

Pollo: It got around to the time like I had put out my first project; we needed someone to dj my set. So we were throwing together this last minute release party. Like a few days after, my friend Christian was like I know this kid Sam he’s like one of our friends at Northern Heights high school. I was like yeah let’s get him to dj that’d be awesome! That’s how we initially met.

At that time Sammy Citrus was still really new to the whole producing game.

Sammy: Yeah when we really started it was just like a few months. Like 4 -5 months of producing.

Sammy  was really new to making music but Pollo had been working on this for years. He had started writing when he was only 11 years old.

This chance meeting turned from playing one party to creating an incredibly talented hip hop duo. Just sitting with them for a few minutes I could already tell they love to have fun just like the sound of their music.

How would you guys describe your sound if no one has listened to you before? Because I know you have this really fun sound. 

Pollo: Fun is the best adjective for it!

Sammy: I love using that word, I love hearing people use that word.

Pollo: I mean we just go in always with the idea of creating music that is authentic first and that we mess with. First of all we have to love it and it’s usually been a good formula.

They have this electronic, bouncy, fun sound that really gets you dancing. No really I was jamming out so hard to their set at the Garrison. The awesome thing about being in a duo is that both people bring their own musical interests / tastes to make one amazing sound. They both grew up listening to totally different genres of music but eventually they both fell in love with hip hop. 

Pollo: I didn’t really get exposed into hip hop until maybe about 11. My mom is from Guyana and so I just lived with my mom she’d play lots of Shaggy, Shaun Paul and a bunch of other stuff. My mom also listened to a lot of R&B.  There was Luther Vandros in the house stuff like that.

Sammy Citrus: Metal and pop punk random stuff, classic rock. I wasn’t really a big hip hop fan. I mean I liked the hip hop classics. As a child like listening to the radio with my parents most radio music was like classic rock. I didn’t get a lot of hip hop. So I started listening to dub step and like electronic music and everything. That’s what really brought me into it and then I started too really respect hip hop.

While we sat in this beautiful condo with one of the best views of the lake in the city, I felt the excitement in the air. From Pollo to every single friend they brought with them, this is a big moment for them and it’s only the beginning. After the interview they started to play me some unreleased music that will be on their new project. And all I can say is “DAMMMMMMN”! They even have this Sean Paul remix which is FIRE! They are on the right path to stardom they just have to keep working and having fun.

What can people expect coming out soon?

Pollo: we got a project we’ve been working on for a while. Hopefully we can launch that by end of the summer maybe fall. We’re also working on collabs with people from North Carolina.

Sammy: So a lot of singles, then the project.

Pollo: It’s called happytobehere.  And it’s like all lower case all together.

Sammy Citrus and akidnamedpollo are two young kids trying to make their dreams come true from a city not known for hip hop stars. But they will not let anything get in their way of making their dreams come true.