YOUNG KENO (May 2010) | Interview By: Jose Ho-Guanipa

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Interview was conducted in April 2010
 

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Young Keno // Video Interview // Dubcnn
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Dubcnn: What's up dubcnn this is Jose, I'm here with Young Keno AKA Mr. 300. What's up man?

Young Keno: What's happening man?!

Dubcnn: Not much dude, we're at Pasedena right?

Keno: We in D town man.

Dubcnn: Exactly, and I guess there's a club back there? I see people wilin' out.

Keno: People willing' out man. We got the rockers man they drunk, they got real life big beers back there.

Dubcnn: So back to you man. You made a big splash with your first record "Let's Get Together" like I said it got a lot of radio play, a lot of national attention. Then you did some other big things, you did some stuff with Weezy, and Jim Jones and Lloyd. Tell us what you've been doing since, you kind of had a little break in between.

Keno: I had a big break last year after we dropped the "Fast Life" record with Jim Jones. We set the campaign up and everything, and got to pushing that record. I lost somebody dear to me, lost somebody on my management team, went through some major health issues at the launch of that record. So we didn't really get to do out full thing, our full campaign and run our full emotion with that record. But as you see, with what little momentum we had it did pop you know what i'm sayin'? It went away but like I said man I lost somebody dear to me, I had to take a little break really get myself together so I can come back and give people what they want.

Dubcnn: Alright so I'll ask about being a West Coast artist as somebody from L.A. right? Tell us about your upbringing, where you're from.

Keno: I'm form L.A. man, I grew up on Avalon & 118th. I went to Washington High School man. You know just L.A. South Central man that's where it started from.

Dubcnn: How did you get into music?

Keno: Well everybody knows the big story, I was around music for a few years. As an adolescent, hooked up with Kam. Shouts out to Kam. Kam is the one who took me around the music thing and really showed me how to get involved. I went to dude when I first started trying to get into this rap business. I'm telling dude like, put me on put me on, and he's like, man get it right first. So I got my craft right, I did a record with him, and we pushed. That was my way in the door, shouts out to Kam, Kam really gave me my start and everything.

Dubcnn: So a lot of people don't know but you actually started out not as a musician but you were playing ball right?

Keno: Yeah, man yeah. See I don't have the whole same exact story as most artists, you know they started out as a little tyke, with the emulating they favorite rappers, I was into hoopin' you know? High school I hooped, college I hooped. Filled with the music there and there and it wasn't till about '07, '07 '06 where I started going through trials and tribulations, you know things in my life that I started jotting it down on paper, and wanted people to hear it.

Dubcnn: Alright so tell us how you've achieved so much success as an independent artist and as a west coast dude. Cause I know a lot of people have trouble breakin' out of the west, it's almost like we have the curse of being the West Coast.

Keno: Honestly man, it wasn't really a format, I just got in the booth, created a good record, created good music and always pay attention to what kind of sound I'm doin'. If I'm going for a feature, I listen to my music and really attach it who who else I think can bring you know, bring more hype to this record. Obviously I did a lot of things outside of the West Coast. I did the like I said I did the "Let's Get Together" record with Roscoe Umali. But the remix was with Wiz Khalifa. You know Wiz Khalifa's from Pittsburgh. "Fast Life" you know Jim is from the East, and now I'm back with Jeezy from the South. I love the West Coast man, I love it here. But at the same time I'm trying to branch out and bring other colts back this way and involve them in what i'm doing this way in the West Coast.

Dubcnn: So who are some of the people on the West Coast that you really enjoyed working with or you think we should keep our eyes out for?

Keno: It's a lot of people on the West Coast that I respect that's doing their thing. Shouts out to Jay Rock, Topic. Even on the R&B level man I got a record common' out that's gonna follow this Jeezy record. It's called "Can I Get A Witness" with a cat out of Compton named Marleik. Shouts out to Marleik he's a singer too man. I respect dudes here. Don't get me wrong I respect cats here. I've done records with a lot of them too, but like I said at the same time, I'm trying to branch out and bring a different element this way. To show that global appeal you know what I mean? I still love my Coast here but I still wanna get out, be a global artist and get my own household name.

Dubcnn: So you mentioned the Jeezy record but I didn't bring it up yet. Tell us about this Jeezy record that you have.

Keno: Yeah man I got a record that's bananas. You know after being off, taken' my time out for a while. You know being on hiatus man, I picked up a pen in about January, end of December. Let's say New Years time, I actually got an email from the producer Buckwheat. Got an email from him, he hit me on my myspace like, "Yo I really support your movement as an independent artist, you're really doing your thing, and I think if me and you collab on something, we can make something great." So he shot me these records man, and I opened dude's files and it was just knocker and knockers and knockers, everything he made was heat. So we did this record man I got this record and I inked my 2 verses or whatever, so as I was listening back to it I could hear Jeezy. We had him in the hook as a sample initially, and we pitched to him as a sample to see if he would take the record. Well we sent it to Jeezy's people. They said Jeezy felt the record, he felt the concept, he liked how we sampled something for him to re flip. So Jeezy got on, blessed me with the verse sent that back to me, we got that record done in the meantime while I was waiting for him to send his verse through cause you know he's working on, well he's dropped his project by now. But he was working on his thing, and I was working on my next thing "Can I Get A Witness" with Marleik, so you know it just came to play, in my "Fast Life" record I gave a shout out to Jeezy that I didn't really even recall that i did so when I sent this record to him, they checked my background and they knew of the "Fast Life" record so it kinda intro'd me into him showin' me so love cause you know I gave him a shout out, showed him some respect in my "Fast Life" record with Jim Jones.

Dubcnn: Cool, good luck with the record man. Tell us about it, tell us about your social media, your website, and all that stuff, where we can check you out.

Keno: You can always catch me at myspace.com/keno, you can catch me on the Facebook, facebook.com Young Keno, and you can catch me on twitter@youngkeno.

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Young Keno // Video Interview // Dubcnn

Download The Video Interview Windows Media

Press Play to stream footage (Fast Connections Recommended)






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