Hot 21 Radio

Ken Carson

In the Summer of 2021, Ken Car$on released his full-length debut Project X, which marked the start of new era in the artist’s career. For years, the Atlanta native sharpened his skills in melodic rap, culminating in a deal with Playboi Carti’s OPIUM Records/Interscope in 2019. However, Ken has evolved rapidly in the past year and is testing new waters as he readies his next project. He’s forging a new path while still bringing the melodies that he’s known for. Growing up on the Southside of Atlanta, Ken was the youngest in his crew. He was exposed to the music industry early on, through a childhood friend whose uncle is Atlanta super producer TM88. "That was damn near a cheat code for me," he reflects. "I was a young person getting to experience music so early on and I met a lot of people, like TM88 and Southside." At twelve years old, Ken started making his own beats and rapping with a friend. "We used to take this hanger with a mic and put a sock over it," he says with a laugh, though at 13 he set foot in TM88’s studio for the first time and he was hooked.. "I just kept going every day." He eventually cut his first track "Geeked Up," which has only now circulated throughout the internet, but showed his promise as the next out of Atlanta. His ability to meld styles while keeping things melodic was his strong suit, and one he naturally adhered to from the start. Ken kept recording more tracks, yet he didn’t release them. "There was years of nothing touching the internet," he continues. "I didn’t even have Instagram." Ken kept his music a secret from even his family, with plans to share it once he was successful. "I would be taking trips to L.A. and tell my mom I was heading out there, but never telling her it was for my music," he says. The hope was to have his mother hear his music for the first time on the radio. "And that’s what happened," he continues. "We were listening to the radio when she first heard my music." The year 2018 marked a turning point in his career, as Ken began his talks with Playboi Carti, who urged him to be more aggressive with sharing his music on the internet. "He was like, 'Man you’ve gotta make an Instagram,’" Ken remembers of Carti’s advice. "So I made an Instagram. After that I just kept pushing my music more and more." It wasn’t long before his music started gaining traction, which prompted Ken to work even harder. By 2019, he inked a deal with Carti’s OPIUM Records, and as the pandemic raged into 2020, Ken took it as an opportunity to up the ante. "I just felt like nobody was working," he says, "so I was like I might as well take advantage of having that time and get to work." Ken made the most of quarantine, spending nearly every day in Carti’s studio, working on music. He released a series of EP’s that year, including Boy Barbie and Teen X, the latter of which featured the colossal "Yale," which cracked 13.5 million streams on Spotify alone. He even dropped an EP of rarities called Lost Files. Ken kept the momentum going into 2021, re-upping Teen X with Teen X: Relapsed, Lost Files 2, and his critically acclaimed debut album Project X. "On Teen X I was just recording songs, but with Project X it felt like I was making a full project," Ken adds about the transition from EP to LP. Project X also marked a gradual shift in Ken’s sound, tempering his signature melodic rap delivery with more lyrically driven songs that centered around storytelling. The album’s lead single "Rock N Roll" continues to make its rounds, as the music video is an electrifying psychedelic trip, complete with vivid animations and out of body experiences. Ken is already hard at work on his follow-up project, where he’s keeping the experimentation going. "I’m leaning over into new things," he explains. "I’m just focusing on some things that I haven’t focused on, not just the melodic thing." As Ken Car$on enters the next stage in his career, he keeps one goal in mind. "I just want to keep growing with my fans," he explains, "so they can keep growing with me."