Kenzo
Don’t get it confused. Kentucky native rapper Kenzo is not your typical dance-craze creator. His single “Do the Shizz” has already captured the masses in and around his hometown of Louisville, and with a new official video based upon the dance his friend Shizz created, Kenzo has set his sights on a full-length project in conjunction with Gracie Productions later this year.
Though the groundswell of support for Kenzo’s budding smash single has people throwing up their own versions online by the hundreds, his core fans will tell you the dance was an unexpected switch in the program – something that Kenzo himself can admit to. “All of my music surrounded the negative things I did,” he says with his trademark honesty. “This was the first song in my two and a half years of making music that had something to do with putting a smile on a person’s face. This was a change and it wasn’t what the streets expected coming from me, I made them feel like it was okay to do it.”
Change has been the only constant in Kenzo’s hard-knock life. With he and his two brothers growing up in a single-parent house hold a young Kenzo began gravitating to artist like E-40, Mac Mall, Master P, Too Short and Scarface, seeing the world outside his window reflected in their lyrics. He moved out of his mother’s house at 13 and eventually dropping out in the 9th grade. “Wasn’t nobody telling me I had to go to school,” he confesses. ”I went because I wanted to see the girls, make people laugh, tell jokes and act silly.”
The future star began his lifetime on the grind, learning quickly that fast money comes with a high price. “I used to rob n***as and sell dope, I done did it all. I been in the penitentiary and in these streets all of my life.” he says with all seriousness. In the end, the constant trips to jail and continuous violence of the block finally convinced Kenzo to look for a different way make his mark in the streets while bringing a different kind of attention to his name.
“I was tired of hurting people,” he says with a hint of regret. “I done hurt a lot of people and helped tear the city up, now I want to try to build it up.” With his freestyle fame growing seemingly out of the blue around him, Kenzo had finally found his path – or rather, his path found him. “I was getting my money and not thinking about the studio or nothing, then I just seen people feeling good off of what I’m saying and mimicking my words! I was like, ‘Damn I finally found something good that I could do besides some ignorant s**t.’”
In Hip Hop philosophy, fresher is better. It’s good to pay homage to the past, the ones who succeed are those with the foresight to see what’s on the way. While most are happy to clown on their homies dancing skills, Kenzo was smart enough to see the movement bubbling on the dance floor before his eyes.
“My buddy had been doing this dance in the clubs. His name is Sean but we call him Sugar Shizz,” remembers Kenzo. “He’d come in the club and start dancing, and he’d get a whole crowd of people around him hollering his name. I saw the crowd going crazy and said “Man, we got us a hit” I jotted down everything he did move for move, and that was The Shizz.”
His gamble would pay off almost overnight as the song caught on in a flash, setting the local scene on fire, and it aired on the local radio station only two days after debuting in a club. The strip club also gave the stamp of approval, with the dancers going off at the first listen but the real test was yet to come. “I took it to this hot spot where everybody is on a Sunday, DJ E-Feezy from the radio station 96.5 was on the ones and twos,” he says reminissing on the fateful day. “I gave him the CD he said, ‘I don’t know you, it ain’t been mixed and mastered. I don’t play people’s s**t coming in off of the streets.’”
Knowing he had heat, Kenzo decided to up the stakes. “I bet him $500 that if he played it the crowd that just left the dance floor would go crazy,” he says with a grin. “He played it, I won $500 and the next morning I was on the radio station. After that he was like, ‘Man I aint never had nobody bet me $500 that if I play a song that nobody in this club ever heard that the club would go crazy. Man you got dedication, you a trip!’”
With the city in his corner and an entire movement in his grasp, the sky is the only limit for Kenzo. “I’m in the beginning stages, I aint got 10 years under my belt in the music game or in the studio. I’m just now learning how to count bars, this is all new to me and I’m loving every minute of me.”
Along with plans to run a label, expand his real estate holdings and continue to provide for his children, Kenzo intends to stand up for the city that made him the man that he is. “Louisville is underrated, aint no dirt roads down here. I’ve never seen a cow, the only time I see a horse is the Kentucky Derby,” he says with a laugh. “People think we country and ain’t nothing popping here. I got the whole city behind me and on my back and I can’t let them down. Everyone sees that I’m on some positive s**t and kids are running up asking for autographs and a n***a aint on no disrespectful wild s**t, that’s a move and an accomplishment.”
Though he’s feeling the love for “Do the Shizz,” he careful to remind people not to write him off as a one hit wonder. “Don’t put me in a small box. The dancing records are for when I wanna go to the club and have fun. On my day-to-day you don’t know what I go through and where my mind takes me, but if you listen to my music you’ll know what kind of person I am.”
And who is Kenzo? A rapper who has lived through the worst the streets have to offer. And that life has left him with a need to be heard and no fear of saying what he has to. “I want them to hear a real young n***a who’s gonna speak his mind and aint scared. When you listen to my music you know what I’ve been through and what I did. My logo is CMC, Chances Make Champions. You gotta take a chance to become a champion, if you don’t take a chance you’re a sore loser. I’m willing to take a chance, that’s what I believe in.”
For interviews and press information, contact dove@tygereye.net
