Kenneth La'ron, a.k.a. KennyHoopla is an American lyricist and vocalist who's starting to get some serious traction. Even though he's apparently also a rapper, but judging from the music I've heard, his direction seems to be more towards post-punk and pop-punk rather than hip-hop.
The first track I heard from Kenny was "how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//", which has a haunting guitar line reminiscent of Joy Division accompanied by a dance-rock beat that brings Bloc Party to mind. I feel Kenny's singing draws a bit of inspiration from Bloc Party's Kele Okereke as well. Kenny takes a more aggressive approach on this song, though, and has no issues switching gears to full-throated distorted vocals. Plastic Door, off the same EP, has a similar sound to it but is a bit more mellow. In this song he also incorporates a singing style that is somewhat closer to rapping.
The whole EP, which is also entitled "how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//" is quite atmospheric and ethereal, in contrast to his latest offerings that are made with a well-known punk drummer behind the kit.
Collab with blink-182 Drummer
Apart from the dance-punk and post-punk vibes of the debut EP, Kenny has recently started collaborating with blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, resulting in more of a pop-punk type of sound that is also quite similar to the likes of...you guessed it; blink-182.
Barker is doing a lot of collaborations with young artists these days, including Machine Gun Kelly, Yungblud and Willow. This KennyHoopla collab is probably the one sitting closest to the original blink-182 sound, however. The tune is fast and energetic and almost sounds like something you would find on Enema of the State. The lyrics even have the juvenile banter you'd typically hear Tom DeLonge sing back in the day. Just imagine Tom's voice on it and you'll see what I mean.
Releases So Far
KennyHoopla has a new mini-album made in collaboration with Travis Barker called Survivor's Guilt that was just released. That album features the singles Hollywood Sucks, Estella and Smoke Break.
His previous 6-track EP "how will i rest in peace..." includes the title track and "Plastic Door". He also has a handful of earlier singles under his belt that vary quite a bit stylistically. Will be very interesting to see where he goes next!
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Videos
how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//
From the 2020 EP how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//
hollywood sucks//
From the upcoming album Survivor's Guilt: The Mixtape
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