Kenny Aaron, father of the late hip-hop artist Doe B (Glenn Thomas), carries a weight that no parent should bear. As a producer, songwriter, and content creator with years of industry experience, Aaron has channeled his grief into “Jealousy, Envy, & Greed: The Rise and Tragedy of Doe B,” a memoir that serves as both a cautionary tale and a tribute to his son’s legacy. In an intimate conversation, Aaron shares the raw reality of losing a child to violence and offers guidance to young artists navigating the music industry’s treacherous waters.
[Editor’s note: This is a truncated transcribe of a longer video interview. Please see the video for the extended version. Some errors may occur.]
Tell us about the moment you first recognized your son’s talent.
We were in the same home, actually studio home. It came across him just stepping up to the plate one day when I didn’t want him to go outside to play football. I wanted him to stay in and spend time with me. He went in and did it, and I was shocked. It was just that simple.
What role do jealousy, envy, and greed play in the music business, particularly in relation to your son’s passing?
Jealousy, envy, and greed have something to do with more or less life, period. This book was dedicated to him on me thinking about our path and time together. It’s speaking about life lessons. People around you may not be equipped with the knowledge to understand that they are in the presence of growth. Sometimes we don’t accept our human nature, don’t accept people that are around us that we might think is doing other things or going to go other places that we might not go.
What advice do you have for young artists trying to navigate today’s music industry?
Now it’s coming up, we didn’t have access to so much information hitting your mind. We could settle down and focus in on some things and pretty much master that. But nowadays, it’s kind of hard. The book is actually hope that it would touch someone from the point of view of them realizing the importance of knowing what you’re asking for, what you’re trying to do. And to pay attention to your environment because your environment plays a very important role. If you’re trying to accomplish something and you don’t have the actual facts of what it takes to get there, and hard work and dedication pays off in a lot of things. At the same time, social media is a good thing, but also is a bad thing if you don’t have someone around you to help build your knowledge of self so you understand how to pick out, eat the fish, and pick out the bones.
What qualities did you see in Doe B that sparked jealousy in others?
Human nature. And it’s happening every day. It’s happening in politics, it’s happening on the Coca-Cola jobs, it’s happening in the grocery stores, whatever job or whatever you may be doing. And it always seems to be within your circle, your immediate circle. It can even be within your own family. Like I said, it’s a program. We don’t even understand, unless yourself, that energy that we put out and how to receive something. It was kind of hard for a person to face reality of themselves, look themselves in the mirror, and accept what it is, is what it is. I mean, you got a brand-new Lexus. I’m happy for you. Truly, I am. I’m walking and catching the bus. I’m content, but most people can’t accept that. And not all. And there’s a percentage. I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is, but that jealousy, envy, and greed is an everyday thing.
Can you take us back to the day you lost your son?
I was producing television shows and stuff for Independent D3 College, and we took that Christmas holidays, and I went on the road with him for the first time to Arkansas under the top part of Tennessee, and things seemed to be going very well. And the record label, we already knew that next coming up year, 2014, was going to be the first studio album drop. We had all the material done, everything pretty much in the can, so kind of pretty content.
He’s just going along and flowing and just trying to keep ten toes down, well, keeping ten toes down and staying humble and continuing trying to make himself work and get out in front, but you can’t see something like that when it’s about to happen when you’re in it at that time and at that moment.
Because of the way I raised him and the type of person he was, I knew that he wasn’t about any of the negative energy towards anybody. He loved kids, he loved giving back, he had a natural heart for wanting to see someone grow. But even myself, I knew, and he was hearing certain things, but because I knew and, in my race, way of growing up at that time, putting God in front of everything was our motto.
We just didn’t think that it would come to that situation where I would get a call and have to rush to the hospital. In the moment I get there, to try to get inside there, I mean, the moment I stepped my foot when the sliding door opened, put my foot down, I hear them say he’s gone. And I’m like, whoa, my whole world changed right then.
What advice do you have for fathers whose sons want to pursue rap careers?
I would say get involved with your kids at an early age as much as you possibly can, and if it’s their passion, and if it’s their heart, if it’s something naturally for them to do, then you try to help them with everything that they want to do because it’s your child, and you want them to be better and bigger and stronger.
I embrace change, and I embrace the music personally, and I could feel the energy where these young kids are coming from, but I just say the lack of parenting and getting involved with them so they know the value of their words, how much power their words have, so they know themselves and don’t be followers but be leaders from who they are, from their environment, from their internship of their parents, of their leader.
You gotta give them something to believe and understand, to work with them, talk with them. It’s about really spending time more so than anything. But majority, everybody wants to rap because it’s in our nature to come out. And with our talents, everybody got some sort of talent, and you gotta be real with them if they have what it takes to be commercial or if they have what it takes just to do it around the house.
For example, if my son weighs 240 pounds and he’s trying to be a quarterback and he’s real slow, you probably want to have a real conversation with him. Say, “Son, listen, I think you probably want to be a tight end or a running back or a lineman.” The same thing with the music. “My son, you’re wanting to rap, but what do you want to talk about? What do you want to change the world about? What do you want to speak on?”
What would you share with those in the streets who don’t understand the permanent wound of losing a child?
Yeah, you’re right. It never heals. You just learn how to live with it. There’s so much going on in the world, and when you have so much going on, the smoke screens, you can’t really see what really matters at the moment the most. So, when you find yourself putting yourself out there in harm’s way without knowing what you’re doing because you’re following and you didn’t do your research and you didn’t put any work into it.
Most people think you can just wake up and become successful because you have a nice voice. Seems like to me, the industry works with a lot of talented people that are hungry enough to sell their souls to do anything. At the same time, it is open, especially with the way social media and technology is today, that you could take your brand and build your brand now from your own home.
I don’t like to tell people what they can’t do. I like to encourage people that they can accomplish anything. Words have power, and power comes from words. So, to the young men and young talented artists, especially our young Black men, find yourself on what really makes you happy on building your inner self. Get involved with reading more, get involved with researching more. Stop listening to what people just say and running with it because you now become a robot.
Money, the love of money, is the root of all evil from the Bible perspective. I’m not trying to get religious here, but it’s just a tool. So, you can have all that in the world, but at the end of the day, when you go from your young hood and you come to get to elderly like I am, then you gotta think about your children, what your legacy is going to be, or what their life’s going to be when we’re not here.
The reality of it all is you have to research, you have to read, you have to know yourself, and you have to put something inside of you to give you something to be authentic to work with, to give back.
