Tuscaloosa's, Kenny Thomas, has been in the game since the age of 15. Since then, his conscious lyrics and his willingness to do something different with his music have earned him quite a bit of industry respect. And while he's kept himself out of the spotlight for a while, he hasn't gone anywhere. With the recent release of his mixtape, Back in the Dirt, and his second album, Down Here, currently in the works, he's setting out to prove that he's still on his "A" game. Read on to find out more about Kenny Thomas, his time in the industry, and why he feels like he's getting a second chance at his career.
TUSCALOOSA ALABAMA'S,KENNY THOMAS, grew up in what he calls "the average American family". “I always had my dad, [and] my mom was there.” And while his family wasn't poor, they weren’t exactly rolling in dough either.
What they did have was music, something that Kenny says has been a big influence on who he is today. “I always had music around me. My dad, he was in a couple of groups. My mom, she’s real artistic. They always had old records. Things that I would sample now...” he says. And that hasn’t changed a bit. “They’re always playing old records,” especially the stuff from the 70’s, and “right now, my dad’s singing in the choir. So, we always had music in the family.”
KENNY WAS INTRODUCED TO hip-hop culture in the '80's. He started off break-dancing, but at the age of 15, he moved to rapping and producing. "My brother had some equipment that I used to sneak and use," he tells me. "I started making beats and started rapping from there."
Parental Advisory
Kenny says his parents' attitudes toward his career seem to be slowly changing. It's hard for parents not to feel at least a little pride when people praise their children. And the Thomases are no exception. When people say things like, ’I [saw] your son at this show. I heard he did this. I heard he did that’,” says Kenny, “[then] they’ll want to talk about it...so they’re coming around a little bit.”
Although Kenny knew he had found his calling, his parents were not convinced. "This is something that my folks, earlier, they didn't want me to do," says Kenny. "I didn't really have a lot of encouragement....I had to encourage myself."
But of course, his parents' disapproval didn't stop him from pursuing his dream, and he soon became fully immersed in the game, participating in talent shows, making tapes (Yes. Cassette tapes. Remember those?) and performing at parties. From there, he began opening up shows for other artists. And somewhere in the midst of all that hullaballo, mom and dad "kinda just gave up on me stopping."
KENNY RELEASED HIS DEBUT album, Still Dirdy, in 2002 on his own label which, at the time, was called Dirdy World Entertainment. "It was really a compilation that I had with some more of my artists...basically I just put all the songs together and made an album." He chose the title, Still Dirdy, because "that's the life that we live in Alabama. It's dirty." He continues, "It goes way back to our ancestors...all the slave shit, the cotton, dirt, the racism, all that," he says. "All that's tied into it."
These southern experiences didn’t just influence the title of Still Dirdy, they also influenced the content of the album, which Kenny describes as "conscious". "I was talking about a lot of that on that album," he tells me. "I had a few party cuts, but it was something good for the mind too. [There] was some good soul food on there."
Production Credits
A few of the people who have produced for Kenny Thomas include Ty Cutta, DJ Stikuhbush and DJ Toomp.
While Kenny produces many of his own tracks, he says he actually prefers to rap over other producers' tracks. "I don't really like rapping over my own beats for some reason," he tells me.
This is an idea he got from his old friend, David Banner. "He [told me] he don't like rapping over his own beats. 'It's almost like looking at your sister, thinking your sister fine.' And I remembered when he said that.”
After Still Dirdy, came the mixtape, Unkut Volume 1. Released in 2003, Unkut was hosted by DJ Stikuhbush and included features by artists like Ty Cutta and Cool Breeze. Of all the tracks on the album, Kenny seems most proud of "Name Kalling", in which he uses the names of other artists to create a whole song. And believe it or not, the lyrics are actually cohesive and coherent. Example? "I Fiend to cause Havoc/on stage I'm live/my Black Thought will take Ghetto Boys to the Pharcyde/it's in The Roots/so never take this MC Lyte/I'll leave rapper's with a Scarface for touching the mic."
Next up was his, Tha Industry Threat. "It was a real big mixtape," he says, and it featured a whole slew of high-profile artists. Featured artists included Bun-B, Akon, Ludacris and Backwudz as well as David Banner, Paul Wall and Field Mob. At the time, Kenny was living in Atlanta where he’d moved to get closer to the center of things, so he had ready access to just about any and everybody.
Okay. I know what you’re thinking: “So?A lot of artists live in Atlanta. They don't get to work with such big talents. What made Kenny Thomas so special?” It's the music, he says. "A lot of [artists] will respect my music, being that I'm from Alabama. When I moved to Atlanta, they was like, 'You sound like the David Banner of Alabama'. They just like my music. I guess it's the talent. I ain't never really paid nobody to do nothing with me. I don't pay for features or nothing like that."
SINCE THA INDUSTRY THREAT, Kenny Thomas has mostly stuck to releasing singles. "I guess around that time, the MySpace thing had got real big." MySpace and similar services have been both a blessing and a curse for independent artists. "It's like a double-edged sword to me," Kenny tells me, explaining that while the internet is giving good artists more exposure, it's giving weak artists that same exposure. "Everybody can do it. [They] can do it from their home. Put it on the internet. Give it to the world. At the same time," he continues, "artists like me, I can reach people all over the world. I got fans in Japan, Germany, Africa - all over - so that's the good thing."
Kenny’s own two MySpace pages currently include a few of his current and past singles. On his main page is "On You" featuring Young L.A., a newer song that Thomas describes as a "real nice strip club song." However, it isn't quite finished. "I gotta put a third verse on there. We're waiting on Young L.A. to see if he's gon' put the third verse on there." There's also "So Hood" featuring Rich Boy and Paper Chase. “Actually, [Rich Boy] did me a favor on that song. I asked him can I get on it, [and] he put me on it. I always wanted to do something with Rich Boy, so he showed me love, and put me on the song.
On Kenny’s secondary MySpace Page, is probably one of his biggest singles ever, "Call Grady". Basically a headbustin’ song, "Call Grady" was originally released on So So Def's Unsigned Hype Volume 1 back in 2004. The DJ Stikuhbush-produced song was later featured on several other mixtapes and even received a shoutout on MTV.com's Mixtape Monday's as one of the standout songs from Unsigned Hype.
THE SINGLES-DRIVEN INTERNET CULTURE hasn't completely turned Kenny Thomas away from mixtapes and albums. Earlier this year, he released Back in tha Dirt, a 19-track mixtape hosted by DJ Dirdy. Currently sporting a 5-star rating on datpiff.com, Back in tha Dirt is a very solid mixtape with several standout songs.
Mini-Review
“Clap Ya Hands” and “Mercy” aren’t the only highlights from Back in the Dirt.
On "I Know", KT spits tight lyrics with a just as tight flow over a bluesy track that I've heard before but can't quite remember where.
The finger-snap on "Just Like Dat" featuring Kentrail almost made me turn it off, but I'm glad I didn't. The track is actually nice, and both artists are on point.
"Till I Die", which sounds very much like a freestyle, is another one with good lyrics and flows. And rapping over Jeezy's, "I Luv It", can never hurt.
Other songs you might like from Back In The Dirt include "Tuscaloosa", "Ain't I" and "No Radio Play".
One of those standouts, "Clap Ya Hands", featuring The Earliibirds, is also one of Thomas' biggest hits to date. As of right now, it has almost 360,000 MySpace plays. He originally produced the song for Outkast, but after listening to it, decided to use it for himself. The song has a very church-revival (and, of course, Outkast-ish) feel to it and is a complete rejection of - and warning against - the trappings of the current hip-hop industry. From the one-hit-wonders, to the copy-catters, to the bad label deals and the over-consumption of material things, Kenny addresses it all - no holds barred.
Just as honest, but also touching, is "Mercy". This is a heartfelt, heartwrenching, almost beautiful "letter to God" in which Kenny Thomas thanks God for His goodness and asks for His mercy. While I don't always like KT's flow on this song, the lyrics are touching and sometimes poetic. For example: "You gave me eyesight / At night I look at your stars / I love what you made / your earth, your moon, your Mars / Dazed & amazed with plenty of oohs & ahhs / Like Dorothy when she finally made it to Oz". Lyrics like these, combined with the track from Beanie Sigel's "Lord Have Mercy" make this one of the best songs on Back in the Dirt.
The subject matter in "Clap Ya Hands" and "Mercy" are indicative of the type of thing that Kenny likes to talk about in his music. The "conscious" thing is real big with him. He doesn't put too much stock into money and other worldly things. "I can talk about things no other artists would talk about," he tells me. "I don't really focus on 'I gotta make this sale' or 'I gotta do this type of song cause I want this to sell; I want this to go platinum; [or] I want to go on Billboard.' I'm just gon' sing what's in my heart [and] what's on my mind." He continues, "I don't do the material things a lot. You know what I'm saying? Talking about what I got or this, that and the other. I will." he says matter-of-factly. "I have. But I prefer not to. I'd rather give you something to talk about. That's my thing."
NEXT UP FOR KENNY Thomas is his second album, entitled Down Here. Even without the word “dirdy” or “dirt” in the title, it’s obvious that Kenny’s still on his mission to let the world know what his state is all about. “That’s my big thing I wanna bring to the table,” he says. “I got a story that [nobody’s] told yet about the whole culture of Alabama." In fact, he feels that this story and the fact that it hasn't been heard before in the hip-hop world is what makes him so unique. "It's like a whole different culture that we got... Nobody’s talking about how we [don’t have a] NFL football team or how we don't have casino's, just a lot of stuff that goes on down here that people don't know about."
Set to be released sometime next year, Down Here will include two songs you’ve already heard: "Clap Ya Hands", from Back in the Dirt and Still Dirdy’s, "Name Kalling". "I been holding out for a long time; waiting on the right album to put that song on.” Also appearing on the album will be "That Good", a just-released club-song (which I love, by the way) that is geared towards the females ("but, a lotta the dudes [are] liking it too"). "That Good", which currently appears on Kenny's MySpace page, is slowly catching on around the Southeast, and he's already picked up a few shows off the strength of that one song.
But other than "That Good", Kenny Thomas is promising that there won't be any club or party songs on this album. "I don't even think I'ma have a feature on it," says Kenny, telling me that Down Here is going to be "real, real, real deep...It's gon' be real conscious. Real conscious," he repeats. "Real intellectual. It's gon be something to make you think. That's basically it. Nothing too fancy." he says. "I'ma bring it back to Bama. [To the way it was] before. Like when hip-hop was good-good."
"THE FANS, THEY LOVE the music. Everybody’s loving the music," says Kenny when I ask him how the people have received him and his music. "I don't get a lot of negative feedback to tell you the truth." One of the reasons for this - and the thing that Kenny feels makes him stand out above all - is his lyrics and the fact that his music is so lyrical. "First thing is the lyrics," he says, telling me that the first thing most people say to him after hearing his music is that he's very "lyrical".
He cites the hip-hop of his youth as one of the main reasons for his emphasis on lyrics. Like most hip-hop fans over the age of 25, he grew up on mostly East Coast music. "I came up off Nas, Run DMC, Wu-Tang and people like that. Until Outkast and Ghetto Boys came along, that's who I was listening to, the whole East Coast movement.
And it shows. Even people from outside the state (who are generally pretty skeptical of Alabama's rappers) are impressed when they hear him. "They can't believe it," he says. "It's been times that [I’ve] had to show people my license... Yeah," he says when I start laughing in disbelief. "Especially when I was staying in Atlanta. I had to pull out my license a couple of times cause they didn't believe me. They was like, 'We wouldn't know it if you didn't just say it a lot in your songs.'"
Kenny Thomas has opened for a lot of artists! TI, Gucci Mane, David Banner and Lil John as well as Eminem, Goodie M.O.B., Outkast and Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes. And these aren’t even all of them. “I could go on and on,” he tells me.
Best and Worst Performances Ever
“My Worst? I can think back to one [where] me and my partner did a talent show, and we got our tapes thrown back at us.” Ouch! Literally.
His best? “Montgomery. The Rose Club. I opened up for TI and David Banner. TI performed “24’s”. He wasn’t even signed to a major label then. I did a song called “Ghetto Girl”...All the artists [who are major now], I was there with ‘em. It kinda felt good. We were all on the same boat then.”
IF YOU COUNT YOURSELF among Kenny's many fans, you might have seen him onstage before. He’s performed all over the Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Georgia as well as Virginia, South Carolina and Mississippi which he describes as one of his major markets. "Mississippi shows me a lot of love. The whole Golden Triangle - West Point, Columbus, Starkville - they show a lot of love."
Of course, when you're cool with Mississippi's biggest star, it only makes sense that you'll get that type of love. "Me and David Banner, we was real close. I used to go to all his shows. He would call my mom’s house before he made it to Atlanta [as he left] Jackson, like, 'What's up. Wanna help me promote?' or whatever. [We were] just cool like that. You know, [he was] my country cousin."
More Recently, KT admits, he hasn't been doing shows as often as he used to, but he's about to ramp up his efforts in that department. And those who will have the privilege of seeing him perform in the near future should get ready for a blow-out.
Kenny Thomas promises "a lotta energy" from his shows, not to mention "a lotta shit talking [and] a lotta fun." He's a changed man once he gets up on that platform. "Once I hit the stage, I'ma be running around. I kick my shoes off. [ I ] be sweating. If you on the front row, I might take your drink. Pour it on my head." In other words, you'll be highly entertained. "It's wild," he says.
SO HAVE THOSE WILD shows resulted in a label deal? Not yet. And to be perfectly honest, while Kenny wouldn’t mind being signed to a major label, he's not specifically looking to sign with one. "If they came with the right amount of money, of course, yes." But he feels like independents are having a good go of it right now. "The independent thing is the thing right now. The independent game is real good right now," he says, mentioning that at the moment, a lot of major-label artists are wishing they were independent. "If a major label came with the right amount of money, promotion, the right plan, the right marketing, you know, I would run with it. [Otherwise], I would stay independent."
So has he ever been approached by a major? Yes. But I'm not going to tell you who. Why not? Because I don’t know. He wouldn't tell me. What he would say is that for the longest time, many labels would not approach him because they assumed that he was already spoken for. "A lot of companies - a lot of A&R's, a lot of managers - [were] thinking that I was already signed," he says. In actuality, it was Kenny's own managing, marketing and promotions savvy that made him stand out from the rest of the crowd. "I really been self-managing myself. I been promoting myself for a long, long time, but people don't know that. People are just now starting to realize that."
Regardless of whether or not he gets signed, Kenny's ultimate goal is to head and grow his own label, Still Dirdy Entertainment. Kenny started the label, along with his brother and cousin, back in the early 2000's under the name Dirdy World Entertainment. About ten years and one name-change later, it's still a small operation. "Nothing big right now," says KT, currently the only artist on the label, "Just something that I'm holding onto for when things come around."
Hopefully that'll be soon because being a full-time artist is not really included in his long-term plans. I ask him what he hopes to be doing in the next five years or so, and he tells me he wants to be making the transition from big-time artist to big boss-man. "To tell you the truth, I really don't want to be onstage," he says. "I really don't want to be an artist as far as performing and rapping in five years. I would want to be producing, have my company going, have a couple of young artists I can groom. Things like that. I don't want to be jumping around onstage. I can tell you that."
BUT THAT'S ALL IN the future. For now, Kenny feels good about where he is in his life and career. "It's like I'm getting a second chance, to tell you the truth. I didn't really take advantage of the first time that I was really, really out there. Right now, it's kind of like, I gotta remind everybody. Everybody's [asking], 'Where you been?'"
A Good Kick in the Pants
"Over the years, OZONE has been the first to introduce the "unknown" artists who go on to become superstars. Sometimes we miss on rappers like Apollo Kreed, Big Mook, Kenny Thomas, who are never heard from again..."
Excerpt from the Ozone Magazine article, "May 2009 7 Best Ozone Patiently Waitings" by Julia Beverly and Randy Roper. Posted 7/25/09 at www.ozonemag.com. See full article
For example, not long ago, a friend of Kenny's informed him that he'd recently run across Kenny's name in Ozone Magazine. Kenny initially dismissed this as a mistake. "Nah. I ain't been in Ozone Magazine in some years," he told his friend.
But it wasn't a mistake. And the fact that Ozone hadn't had anything to write about him in so long, was the whole point. "They was saying they haven't heard from me since [they last featured me]. So it wasn't a bad thing," he says.
What it was was a wake-up call. Ozone may not have known it when they published it, but that article was just what Kenny needed to put a little fire under his ass and get him going and focused again. "It was kind of [ a ], 'you-gotta-get-up-off-your-ass-cause-they-ain't-forgot-about-you' type of thing."
And that's just what Kenny's done. He's currently working on the new album, Down Here, which will be released next year. In the meantime, he's working on getting his fans reaquainted with him by releasing new single's like "That Good", while at the same time, upping his performance game.
Besides "doing a whole lotta shows," Kenny's short-term plans include "turning down a whole lotta labels and making a whole lotta my own money. For real." With all this going on, Kenny’s going to have his hands full. But that's okay. He's more than willing to get down and "dirdy" again in order to make his dreams come true.
ONE THING'S FOR SURE, no matter what "dirdy" work Kenny Thomas ends up doing in five, ten or even twenty years—be it on the stage or in the boardroom - he’ll definitely be doing it to the fullest. In fact, he doesn’t believe in doing it any other way. “It ain’t no shortcuts,” he tells me. “None. What so ever.” Especially when you're from Alabama. Being an artist from Alabama makes things harder, he says, but it also makes you “hungrier.” And of course, everyone knows that the hungrier you are, the harder you grind to fill your belly. And according to Kenny Thomas, “We hungry over here in Bama.”
