kenna – break from the status quo

kenna – break from the status quo

photo by steed media service

Recording Artist

Kenna is one of music’s great enigmas. Born in Ethiopia and raised in Virginia Beach, Va., the musical maverick has been lauded as a sonic chameleon, able to bounce from genre to genre on one song without breaking a sweat.

After much major label drama surrounding his 2003 debut, The New Sacred Cow (the album was set to be released on Columbia, but eventually dropped on Sony), Kenna was able to find a home with his high school buddies, the Neptunes and their Star Trak/Interscope imprint. Kenna says it’s his responsibility to make good music.

“I decided I’d make music when I started feeling like people stopped being creative,” Kenna says. “I needed to start attempting to inspire, if I felt like I wasn’t being inspired.”

Part of Kenna’s disdain for the status quo stems from both his African heritage and his being in touch with the global community, of which we are all a part. “When it comes down to the truth and why music and the culture will shift in the next 10 years, it’s because people in America are going to start realizing there’s [another] world out there,” he says.

After a slight delay, the world has been treated to Kenna’s second album, Make Sure They See My Face, which is also co-produced by Hugo. Released in October and peaking at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Heatseeker’s, the album is an exceptional exploration of dance-pop.

“Don’t do everything that you’ve always done and hope that somehow, someway, [in] some shape or some form, you’re going to be a different human being,” he says. “It’s the stretches that make you longer and powerful. Don’t be limited, de-limit yourself.” –gavin philip godfrey