“I’m tryna outwork everybody,” explains Bronx rhymer Kid Daytona when asked about his prolific output as of late. After releasing his impressive Summer Games project in August, the smooth-flowing MC is back already with a new EP and plans for much more in 2013. This week’s Lost Luggage EP is a light reminder to fans of the versatile rapper’s many talents. And with positive feedback already pouring in from the blogosphere to the streets, momentum is building for his upcoming collaboration with Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy, Gypsy Cab Confessions. BET.com caught up with the world traveler for a breakdown of the new EP and to talk about his future plans to take his brand global.

BET.com: What is the significance of the title Lost Luggage?

Kid Daytona: I went to Europe over the summer and we were going out there to finish recording things. We had this hard drive, and when you’re going over there, every airline had different ways to weigh (luggage). You could only have a certain number of kilograms. So we had to take out stuff, put back in, take out stuff, put back in. So in one of the joints we had a hard drive, computer and battery for a camera. And that bag had got lost on the way back into the States. I thought it was just a done deal and we had to just take an L on the joints. About a month after we got back, they called us and told us that they retrieved everything. And it was on some grace of God that nothing was stolen. It was like, we got these joints, we just put out Summer Games, and I was like I think people want to hear these joints, too. So we might as well. That’s why it’s called Lost Luggage.

How did you and Smoke DZA come together for the “Ice Man” record?

Me and Smoke DZA, we actually go back from all the way to high school days. That’s been my boy since back then. He came up with this thing like, we too cool. We don’t even trip over nothin’. We walk in and it is what it is, always that same demeanor. And I look at [NBA Hall of Famer] Iceman George Gervin, he had like the silky smooth game and was cool, so I’m like, People tryna block us? Oh, finger roll on ‘em! And that became the title for it. I think we’re gonna shoot a video for that when everybody comes back for the Christmas holidays… It’s just funny, a lot of us came up together. Me, French [Montana], Smoke, VADO, Cory Gunz — Bronx and Harlem, it’s like the same thing. Especially when you coming up as kids in high school, you always gonna see each other or run into each other. Me and Loaded Lux, we were in a group together. It’s just ill to see how everybody’s just doing their thing.

What inspired the vibe of “Sweetest Taboo?”

The beat, it made me feel like something Sade would sing over. So I just kind of like flipped that hook ‘cause it’s got some sexy light saxophones. I wrote that actually when I was in Barcelona. So you gon’ hear a lot of influences, Spanish tiles, heated floors, subtitles on TV shows. Because that’s what it was. And we were just out there living. That kind of set the setting for that whole record.

Most of this and the last project were inspired by international experiences but “Rice & Beans” feels close to home.

That’s basically some Uptown flow. I’m an African-American, I’m West Indian actually, and I always go to the Cuchifritos. So that just comes from being from Uptown and being of that culture. I got a lot of older heads, Dominican OG cats that I came up around. I was blessed and fortunate to come out of and see a lot of the things I saw just on the come up.

You’ve got to explain the title “Rape Me” and how that concept came together.

Me and Scram Jones did that. We did that in his lab and he has this Nirvana sample. I don’t know if you ever heard of the record. And it’s Kurt Cobain on the hook like, “Raaape Meeeee.” So we took that joint and flipped it and put some crazy club drums on it. And we basically turned the Nirvana song like a mash-up into a club record. A lot of people were talking about that, they were shocked that we took that sample and flipped it.

“The Hollands (I Made It)” is a powerful track. How did you and Raheem Devaughn hook up for that?

I wrote that in Amsterdam. It’s a beat that I had for a minute. I was just starting to reflect on life and just me ending up [here]. I’m from the South Bronx, I ain’t grow up privileged. And it’s like, "Yo, I’m out here doing something I love to do, which is make music and perform. And I’m all the way on the other side of the world doing so." So I was just kind of reflecting on that and my come up. I made it, I wasn’t really supposed to see this. I wasn’t supposed to be doing this. Nobody thought that I would be doing this and Raheem kind of felt the same way. Like, we all from the hood. If you from the hood, it’s all the same thing. Raheem just brought the whole record around. He took us to church on it. Especially on the bridge, he killed that right there. That’s one of the joints that I’m glad I got back because that record really means a lot to me.

How is this project different from Summer Games?

[They were] recorded at the same time, but they tell two different stories, which is weird. I recorded so many joints for the Summer Games project and it came up to like 20 tracks that we had put out for the whole thing. And even the transition now from then, this is five records but it takes you through like a visual journey. So we go from me and Smoke just being cool, then I end up on a beach somewhere with a bad joint in Barcelona just talking about fly shit. And then I get back Uptown and I’m eating some Spanish food. And then from there, I meet up with another joint and we get crazy and we in the club wilding. And then to take it back around, I wake up from that day and night like, “Damn, I really made it.” That’s the whole story.

You’ve already been around the world. What’s next after this?

This next album is gonna be my commercial effort. When I say commercial, I don’t mean sell-out or dumb it down, I just really mean going for radio and the masses. I’m coming off doing an album with Travie McCoy and it only makes sense to get bigger and better. I can’t stay the undergound darling forever. With this new music, I’m just taking the newer beats and applying whatever Daytona is. I’m bringing it to the table. Anything that’s going on now, it’s easy. It’s all a natural progression.

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