Magnum K.I. is anything but your average hip hop group. Known for its intelligent lyrics and unusual beats, the group refuses to be confined to the traditional definitions of hip hop.

“We have never done anything the same as mainstream hip hop, ever,” stresses vocalist Ismaila Alfa.

Alfa, who was born in Nigeria and grew up in St. Vital, first found notoriety with the influential Winnipeg hip hop group Frek Sho. Magnum K.I. came together when DJ Grasshopper left Frek Sho and was replaced by Michael Arnone (better known as DJ Kutdown), who took on the role of beat maker and producer. Since then, Alfa and Kutdown have released over 10 CDs and two vinyl EPs between them.

“I realized that I worked with a lot of producers (but) the beats I felt most comfortable on were the ones we had done together,” Alfa says.

Songwriter and producer Rob Crooks became an official member of the group between the release of Magnum K.I.’s debut EP Gunshy in August 2009 and the release of its first full-length album, Magnum K.I., in January 2010.

The biggest change that occurred between the two recordings was the way the group viewed itself.

“We’re restricting ourselves less,” Alfa says. “It was a big fear of not being rap all the time. It was like, we’re rappers and we have to rap. And then we realized, you know what? We’re musicians and we can do whatever the heck we want. If it sounds good we can do it! That’s one of biggest things I think we need people to start understanding. We’re not a rap group anymore. We do music. General music with a hip hop mentality.”

You won’t find Magnum K.I. rapping about the usual hip hop topics (see: hanging out in da club, living the thug life). Ol Skool, for example, references the band’s desire to get back to the golden age of hip hop, while Tired addresses social issues such as poverty, mental illness and starvation.

“The truth is that we’re all over 30. We’re not 21-year-old kids in a club, getting drunk and living that kind of lifestyle,” says Alfa, 34. “We take pride in sounding semi-intelligent.”

“We like that music that sticks with you and that connects with you, and we don’t want to make music that you just put in the background and don’t think of,” Crooks adds.

“The key is it’s all built on what we see and what we experience,” Alfa says. “You’re not going to hear us ever sounding like a Brooklyn rapper or a Toronto rapper or an L.A. rapper. We live in Winnipeg.”

MAGNUM K.I.
March 27, 8 p.m., The Academy