When rapper/songwriter Kenny Mason launched his debut single, “Hit,” in 2019, he was deliberately magnifying a model of Atlanta that many individuals outdoors of it most likely didn’t suppose existed. The track and accompanying video have been odes to the vitality of the period, that includes voices of adolescent scammers plotting on their subsequent “hit,” adopted by Mason breathlessly rapping in double time about doing every thing in need of getting a job to safe his subsequent meal, whereas carrying an Atlanta Braves jersey and soiled sneakers and hanging out of the facet of a automobile driving by way of the working-class West Finish neighborhood within the video.
“Hit” was a stark distinction from the musings of different Atlanta rappers on the time who have been having fun with the spoils of town’s decades-long run of musical dominance, selecting to movie movies in luxurious landscapes, bragging concerning the issues that they, however not their followers, might afford. Though the track didn’t penetrate native radio, it racked up greater than 5 million performs on YouTube.
Extra from Spin:
- 2024’s Greatest Hip-Hop Albums by Girls
- The Black Crowes Soar Once more
- Tumbling Cube
“I carried out that track at two or three underground reveals, and by the point I did the fourth one, motherfuckers knew all of the phrases already, and it wasn’t even out,” says Kenny concerning the preliminary impression of the track and why he made it his introduction to the remainder of the world. “I’m grateful for that as a result of that’s what made me. I wished to have some shit that represented everyone.”
Since his 2020 debut album, Angelic Hoodrat, his fanbase, or “pups” as they prefer to name themselves, grew to like him for making music with everyone in thoughts. Every of his initiatives, together with March 2024’s 9, take listeners on musical temper swings the place they sing alongside to emo-styled tracks like “Slip” or rap alongside to the nimble “Jumpin In.” His performances function a number of pendulum swings. The result’s a present the place one part is targeted on reciting his lyrics, whereas the opposite is throwing their our bodies into one another in a mosh pit.
“I prefer to make the gang visualize what I’m saying, all whereas turning up,” says Mason, a film buff who talks about utilizing dialog in movies as inspiration for his storytelling. His catalog of narrative-driven movies helps that. “I make music in order that when it’s dwell, you’re experiencing that shit such as you on the theaters. However I would like it to be unconscious, so that you simply really feel it. You don’t gotta give it some thought.”
His early unconscious was formed by his father’s tastes, listening to 2Pac, T.I., and Lil Wayne driving at the back of the automobile. However as he got here into his personal, he found bands like Deftones, Smashing Pumpkins, and My Bloody Valentine by way of video video games and watching YouTube.
Regardless of coming of age within the rap capital of the world, Mason’s childhood pursuits initially leaned in direction of desirous to be a “fireplace ass Jimi Hendrix-type guitar participant simply making songs and shit.” He began on that path by taking guitar classes at 13, however after two classes his household instructed him it was too costly and that he’d have to search out one other pastime.
“At the very least they tried,” says Kenny, who was raised bouncing round gritty South and West Atlanta neighborhoods usually talked about in research highlighting financial alternative gaps for Black youngsters like himself. At the moment his dwelling studio has two guitars that he sometimes tinkers with. “Simply them two days opened my thoughts to there’s extra on the market as a result of the place I’m from I solely seen niggas do three issues: sports activities, rapping, or trapping.”
Kenny Mason, 29, was born the identical yr Outkast put Atlanta on the map with their debut Southernplayalisticaddilacmusic. So for his whole life, he’s seen rapping as an precise job occupation within the metropolis. Folks could transfer there for corporations like The House Depot and Delta, however rappers are taken simply as severely. Gucci Mane has spoken at center college profession days, Killer Mike was on former mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ transition group, and T.I. owns and operates a museum devoted to entice music and has taught a course on the style at Clark Atlanta College. And the extremely successes of stars like Migos and Future meant it didn’t appear far-fetched for Mason to deal with music.
Not like a lot of his friends who’ve targeted completely on interesting to a rap-centered crowd, Kenny began his journey wanting to the touch as many alternative teams as doable, acting at various Atlanta underground launching pads like 992 Gallery, Mammal Gallery, Music Room, Rowdy Dowdy, and Division Retailer. For a body of reference, reveals at these venues might appear to be The Shelter from Eminem’s 8 Mile one night time and First Avenue in Prince’s Purple Rain the subsequent.
“I used to be assured in my capacity to make songs, however I needed to discover ways to carry out for a crowd who’s you such as you ain’t shit and win them over,” he says.
That benefited him as he’s been capable of play Lollapalooza, be part of J.I.D. at Governor’s Ball, and be a gap act for Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA’s Scaring the Hoes tour.
However it has additionally made cracking the mainstream consciousness a sluggish course of, in comparison with hometown contemporaries like Lil Child, who is definitely identifiable for informal listeners. He says as a lot on “Information,” the place he raps: “My homie stated you bought a foot in two totally different worlds / you confuse ’em / At first, it’d trigger some confusion / That’s how you recognize that you simply startin’ a motion.”
“Kenny is constructing a catalog of music and rising with it. He’s not an artist who could have a giant track one yr after which disappear,” says “Information” producer and frequent collaborator Coupe, who produced platinum data for fellow Atlantans 21 Savage and Younger Nudy. He provides that Kenny’s sluggish rise is setting him as much as have an effect that mirrors J. Cole or Kendrick Lamar. “There’s lots of people who can rap, however can’t do drippy music. Then there’s individuals who can do drippy music however don’t have any bars. Kenny can do all of it.”
“All music has a DNA to it,” says Mason, who has collaborated with musicians from Memphis rap legend Challenge Pat to genre-fluid producer Toro y Moi. “You possibly can like a sure kind of music for no matter purpose, however that very same purpose may be embedded in a unique style.”
In 2023, Atlanta’s favourite son, Andre 3000, all however shut the door on his rap profession by releasing a flute album and insisting that rapping is a younger man’s sport. The earlier yr Atlanta’s troubled son Younger Thug was shut behind bars on RICO fees, bringing his output to a halt. With two of town’s oldest and youngest innovators absent, and town’s inhabitants rising in variety, it appears like there may be house for somebody new, mold-breaking to redefine town’s sound.
“Kenny personifies the attractive hybrid that Atlanta is. He’s the totality of a Black child that grows up within the metropolis limits,” says Killer Mike. “He can do every thing rap smart and do a Nirvana cowl of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ that can blow your high off. I’ve seen extra youngsters like him produced in Atlanta than I’ve the totally different extremes we’re identified for. Atlanta must embrace him the identical approach he embraces all of us for what we’re and who we’re.”
“I believe [Atlanta] is simply in a transition interval, bro, kinda like a renaissance,” Kenny tells me, not sounding satisfied it’s his flip to take the mantle or that town is able to absolutely help what he’s doing. “However a number of the listeners and folks in the neighborhood right here have to kinda change their ears a little bit bit and be extra open to new sounds.
“Persons are at all times evaluating me to some famous person or somebody who has been within the recreation for 10 or 15-plus years,” says Mason, who sees and hears feedback calling him “underrated” or “subsequent to blow.” “I take it as a praise. They’re viewing me as an artist who can have longevity and placing me in a hierarchy of artists who’ve been round for a very long time.”
To see our working record of the highest 100 best rock stars of all time, click on right here.
