Miami Gardens, Florida artist Keemo is up next. Fresh off the release of “I Hate U” on Soundcloud, Keemo is showing listeners why he’s one to watch.
Combined with his pugnacious flow and witty punchlines, Keemo offers a futuristic vibe to his music, offering a range of different sounds and tones that keeps people on their toes when listening to him. His debut project, Delayed, just serves as one example of that.
“I can rap like they need me to rap,” he says. “But I’m in love with the melodies in music and when you’re dealing with melodies you gotta sing.”
Growing up between South Florida and Jamaica, Keemo was first inspired by his mother’s love of soul (Freddie Jackson, Bobby Caldwell, et. al) and influenced by a life wanting more.
“I alway say, you have poverty, the ghetto and the struggle,” explains Keemo. “The struggle is mom trying to get by. You don’t lack a lot of things, but you don’t have what you want. And that’s how we came up. So, we always had to be tough. Especially in Miami. We might not have had gangs like Bloods and Crips, but you had to grow up tough and every man for themselves. That aggression, it’s just naturally me as a result.”
Soon after following in his older brother’s footsteps, Keemo pivoted from hoop dreams to hip-hop during high school. Soon, Keemo found himself studying his favorite artists online and searching YouTube for beats he could rap on. He’d try on styles from T-Pain, OutKast, Chris Brown and Drake, among others. He ditched his college plans after a couple semesters and explored his craft until he started finding his voice and penning original material.
Keemo says that he wants to make real music, feel good music, timeless music.
“Music that has a universal message,” he says.
Stream Keemo’s music below!
