KYLE's acting debut in Netflix's The After Party is now available for streaming everywhere. The movie follows an upcoming rapper who makes it big after a video goes viral of him puking on Wiz Khalifa. The "Playinwitme" rapper previously stated how important he thinks meshing hip-hop and movies together can be, and recently he talked with Billboard about his moves to pursue acting even more.
KYLE admits to the publication that bridging the gap between acting and music has always been a plan of his and explains who he looked up to in the field. "Will Smith is one of my biggest inspirations, if not my biggest one. That’s somebody I highlight the most," he said. "Obviously, I found out about Fresh Prince of Bel-Air first, but I also found out about Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff. For me, when I was 12 or 13 and I really started looking at that stuff, it was the first time I saw a blimp in hip-hop that really connected to me."
He adds how he could never relate to rappers who had "hella tats or be shootin’ somebody," but Will, Kid n Play, Salt n Pepa, MC Lyte, Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff were people he could relate to.
"It was fun and it was colorful. It was about dancing and it was about fully entertaining. Once I really got hooked on that, I really got hooked on Will Smith and I got hooked on really wanting to be an actor anyways," he adds. "It’s funny because growing up I was hella shy. My personality was always hella caged for so long because I would just get roasted for everything. I’m very roast-able."
Peep his full interview here.