Christopher Jones, better known by his stage name Astro Tha Kidd, hails from Richmond, California and his music style/influences are heavily Yay Area based.

Astro has been crafting his art of music for a decade, while his music career was birthed out of a search for an outlet, to release his life tales onto paper and then curated into sound. Jones describes his jump-off point best in our interview, “I started making music for fun. In the beginning it was really an outlet for me to speak. Growing up I never really had that opportunity to really voice my opinion, so I started to write music to get it out and it just developed from there.”

[Above: Cover to Astro Tha Kidd's hit single "Counted Out". A song of resilience and perseverance, regardless of others perception.

As we have discovered, Bay Area artists are a different breed, they hone in on their craft and create something entirely unique. It’s the environment, the culture, the people, and the grind that comes from living in one of the most expensive places in the world.

Astro agrees, “Living the bay is different from any other place and you would only know if you spent time there”. The bay area also creatively inspires artists of all realms, art, music, and literary art. Jones’ influences range from Bay Area Rap/Hip-Hop classics such as E-40, Mac Dre, and Jacka. The best way to describe Astro Tha Kidd’s genre is thought-provoking lyrical rap. He infuses sounds based on his mood, he enjoys a great bass line, he says the bass is something that most people tune into and can move to. Jones gets into the zone of writing his lyrics by listening to the beats of his producers, his advice for those writing music is to not force anything, “I feel the best music comes naturally when you just let it flow out”. His endgame to creating his songs is crafting a story to tell and telling it the best he can.

I find the best artists are those who can convey their stories through their lyrics, breathing life into their narratives for others to listen to and connect to.

Some final words of advice by the artist is this to up and coming artists, “There’s ups and down, good and bad, but anything is possible. No matter what life throws at you, never give up, go after your dreams, don’t stop grinding, and keep going. Life is full of surprises.”

Keep yourself in the loop on the next moves of Astro Tha Kidd through his prime social media platform on Instagram: Astro_gbn