Thick: Where are you from?
Miami Kaos: I grew up in Manhattan and Miami both. I always had family on both coasts. So, I always just bounced back and forth.

T: Where did you get the name?
MK: Well the Miami thing came from New York, 'cause you know when you're young and nicknames...I had a smooth style like I always drove sports cars. When everybody was still in like the jeans and Nikes, I was always wearing like silk shirts and stuff like that. So, one of my friends one day was joking and was like, "You like Miami Vice," and the fact that I was from Miami too. It just kind of stuck. Then the KAOS part actually was a graffiti crew I was down with. It was actually an acronym like you know when cats tag? KAOS was Kick Ass On Site. So, after awhile people started to look at it, and I think that they thought that was my name. So, I used to try to explain at first but one of my friends said: "You know what, that actually sounds hot, you should just stick with it." So, I said, okay, and it's been that since.

T: Are you a graffiti artist to start with?
MK: Well, I'm an artist first, then graffiti artist, then graphic artist, like all my earliest memories I can remember drawing. I was always into anime, like I was into anime when people just thought they were funny cartoons with big eyes. I always was drawing, then I got into graffiti, and then I guess the natural progression was to learn computers and stuff like that. Take it to the next level.

T: What was the first mixtape cover you did?
MK: The first one was Big Tigger and he did World Domination, and I did that (cover). You know from there a couple DJs would get me here and there but I definitely got to give props to DJ Lex. He got in touch with me and we was doing some stuff. He's a blend DJ, so actually he doesn't drop as often because his projects take a little bit more time to put together. So, I did a couple for him. Then DJ Radio he saw my stuff and then he hooked up with me. So, somewhere between me talking, it's gonna come out that even though I'm Hip-Hop, the art is very violent. I'm very spiritual like I believe in the hand of God and how he work. So, I was doing stuff for Tigger and I was doing work for the Source at the same time. So, actually the money I was making outside of the mixtape field was already enough that I could live on. The mixtape covers at first most cats were paying like a $100. For me at that point like a $100 was kind of like, what am I gonna do with this? But like I said, I was doing Lex because I met Lex and me and him vibed, and I was like, okay I'll do your covers. So, Radio, when he called me, I was back down here (Miami) before I really moved back down here. I was down here for the Source Awards and he called me and was like, "Yo, I saw your stuff, could you to do a cover for me." First off I was like, naw, because I didn't have anything with me, no lap-top, nothing. So, I think God said, "Go do it." So, first I sketched it and then I got to a Kinkos. Now he paid me a $100. For me to sit and rent the space at Kinkos, you know for the scanner and computer with Photoshop, it cost about $60 to do that but you know I put it out there. I did that and within two days of doing that one cover for him like about four DJs called me. 'Cause I guess he was marketed more than Lex was and it got out more, and so these four DJs called me and I did a couple of them, and one of them was DJ L. So, between everybody else, DJ L and Radio, I stayed doing stuff with them and it was just consecutive, like from that point on every cover that they did, I did for them. You know it's been a grind ever since like October 2003, but from there it just spiralled out like, we all just started building from each other. Like Radio got known for being the dude with the cartoon covers. What I was doing with his covers too is I was signing them and everybody was like, who's dude signing his name on the covers. It all built from there.

T: I was just about to ask you about Radio...
MK: We're like the Batman and Robin or what they call the next generation of Whoo Kid and Nojo. Because like those two are kind of synonymous like I think Nojo got his fame from doing Whoo Kid covers and stuff like that. The same way me and Radio built up our fame.

T: What the biggest project you've done?
MK: I did the poster for the Source, you might remember this, it was a two sided joint and one side it was Benzino holding Eminem's head like Mortal Kombat. Then the other side was this big thug character and he was breaking the editor from XXL over his knee. MTV said something about it 'cause Elliot Wilson was on there talking about it, and it was in the New York Times, and it was so big that to this day it got me banned from XXL. They actually wanted to do a story on me and they sent the reporter and everything down to interview me, and then last minute when Elliot Wilson realized who I was, he killed the story.