Kenny Beats Is Showing Us The Power of Chance and Circumstance
By: Danny Desatnik
Tags: Music, Content, Community, Twitch, Music Production

The 10,000-hour journey

Like any story arch, the protagonist is faced with an ordeal and it is overcoming this ordeal that leads to character development. In Kenny’s case, this initial ordeal occurred during his first two years at the Berklee School of Music. After landing placements with artist’s such as SchoolboyQ and Ab-Soul, he found himself surrounded by requests for beat packs. Some might describe this as a fortunate position; however since he hadn’t created enough material to fulfill these requests, it backfired. Enter the ordeal. Feeling ill-prepared and somewhat embarrassed, our protagonist vowed never to find himself in a similar position again.

Time for the second ordeal. During his later years (2012) at Berklee, he formed the E.D.M. duo LOUDPVCK with a friend of his. LOUDPVCK came with its fair share of success. Success came with more exposure to the industry, and Kenny soon realized how many extremely talented producers work on projects they aren’t passionate about to pay the bills. Experiencing this reality brought Kenny clarity to what his mission would be: working with music that he loves while bringing more people context as to what is happening around an artist in that moment. By defining a clear mission it made for an easy decision when sacrificing money in the short term to work with up and coming artists he loved.

At this point in the story, you have a protagonist who used a period of enlightenment to develop his work ethic and clarify his mission. While the foundations were built, the journey doesn’t stop. We are currently experiencing the next enlightenment period for Kenny Beats.

Building a legacy is more important to him than creating a project under his name featuring the hottest rappers. Rather, it involves an aspiration to build a brand that is bigger than his work as a producer. Using Cole Bennett and Lyrical Lemonade as an example, Kenny aspires to build something that “…is its own thing that people can respect and go to and care about without worrying about… his personal sentiment.” In 2018, Kenny and his manager, Mike Powers, started to lay the groundwork for his company. Partnering with YouTube through the Music Foundry program gave his team the resources and expertise to create a YouTube series introducing the public to his company D.O.T.S. (Don’t Over Think S**t). While the company was gaining awareness, Kenny stayed true to his mission of bringing people context to new music and sounds through a wide range of artists featured on the show.

Freddie Gibbs (left) was the fourth guest on The Cave

The show, titled The Cave, helped to define D.O.T.S. as a brand by communicating to viewers the value of organic collaboration to capture a moment in time. Many episodes created cultural moments and saw fans creating memes and other content, none more famous than the “Kenny Beats is the police” phrase. In addition to the show, Kenny nurtured his community by regularly using Instagram Live to give fans insight into his production process. By February 2020, more than ~1,000 concurrent viewers would regularly join his live stream sessions. Kenny has recognized many of the viewers who actively participate in these sessions as D.O.T.S. community leaders by hiring them as interns. He recognizes the benefit of rewarding fans who align with his mission and, as a result, leads the community in the right direction.