New beats: KC’s hip-hop scene boasts four up-and-coming producers

Rory Fresco is Kansas City’s most recent hip-hop success story. In a city known for its independent titans — namely Tech N9ne and his Strange Music label — Fresco is the first rapper in recent memory to achieve major-label status for the first time in recent memory. The teenager signed to Epic Records in 2016, after years of writing raps and making beats in his father’s basement.

Because most rappers aren’t skilled producers, the next Fresco might need some help. That’s where four other emerging local talents come in: Bam Keith, J-Tone, Alexander Preston and 1Bounce are ready to make the beats for the next headline-making KC rapper. Fresco already knows their work, so we should, too.

Bam Keith

Born Brandon Keith Thomas, Bam Keith has been making noise of one kind or another for a majority of his 23 years. The nickname comes from a grandmother who noted — as grandparents will — the child’s tendency to percussively slam anything in his immediate vicinity. Predictably, then, Thomas learned drums as a kid and created his first beats at age 10.

Less predictably: He picked up another dozen-plus instruments.

“My granddad played 10 instruments before he died,” Thomas says. “I always hear about how great he is all the time … so I made sure I played 10 instruments by the time I graduated.”

The arts coordinator at the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts shot videos of Thomas performing during his senior year and got him accepted to a program with the Grammy Museum — all while Thomas was homeless and couch surfing. The skills he learned in the museum’s workshops, and the connections he made there, have helped to ignite his career.

Today, Thomas works at 825 Studios in Westport, fields production and engineering work from clients around the country and is in the process of writing music for a collaborative album with Kansas City rapper Kuttybear. (Listen here.)

J-Tone

Jacob Walton, at just 19 years old, is one of Kansas City’s finest beatmakers. Early in 2016, he proved himself as rapper-producer capable of making trap-style party tracks on [Explicit Content] — an EP made with A’Sean and WontoN. Two days before the year ended, he showed that he wasn’t a one-trick pony by releasing another EP, Take This Ride, on which he and A’Sean revisited their lyrical roots over some of Walton’s most dynamic instrumentals yet.

“I wanna be somebody’s Kanye West,” Walton says. “Somebody that people can study and look up to and emulate and really sit there for hours and hours on end playing all of his songs and watching him in the studio and dying trying to get in the studio with him.”

Even though some of his MC work has outshined many of his peers, Walton has recently been placing most of his focus on production. He’s had a hand in the music for Gee Watts’ highly anticipated Caviart, due out this spring. But even if Walton’s work on that album doesn’t land him a national gig, his solo work seems destined to draw a big spotlight. (Listen here.)

Alexander Preston

Hemar Randall’s alias is a brand in the making, with music to match. The 24-year-old’s sleek yet chaotic modern hip-hop is informed by punk rock as much as it is by electronic music, making for a potent calling card.

“I wanna be worldwide,” Randall says. “With Zarin [Micheal], I want the both of us to just create this ill sound that transcends anything anybody else has done before.”

Zarin Micheal is an 18-year-old rapper from Kansas City whom Randall has been working with for more than a year. Randall played a large role in the production of Michael’s Fuck You EP and will do the same on his upcoming Sinner of Attention.

“It’s been a fun process,” Randall says. “We’ve started and restarted the project, I wanna say, four or five times, simply because we both know we can do more — we can do better. Direction is always changing, but it’s a good thing.”

One of Randall’s most high-profile pieces so far is a co-production with pal Ryan Jacob on a song for Indica and Lil West, “Don’t Even Know.” The track has accumulated some 132,000 listens since its release last December — a number and a pace that could be the start of worldwide.

1Bounce

Malcolm Asberry was born to compete. Now known among Kansas City hip-hop heads as 1Bounce, he spent many of his high school and college years running track. And the drive that once pushed his athletic career forward now propels him to create hit records.

“I won state in high school in long jump, broke my school record,” he says. “I really thought track was gonna be that thing, and it was a real eye-opener that I didn’t have it anymore. I just lost the passion for it. That’s when the music just swept me off my feet. And I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Since his college days, Asberry, 24, has produced tracks for several KC artists. In 2015 he released “Thoughts Hinder Every1” — an album made up of his beats that featured appearances from DEV3N, Aaron Alexander and other local talents.

Asberry has also made a name for himself as a DJ, working numerous shows at local bars and clubs, backing up Gee Watts and SuperShaqGonzoe at concerts, and landing a slot on a national tour with Atlanta’s OG Maco.

So he’s already winning. But Asberry isn’t one to stay still for very long. 

“I took a break from producing for a while, when I got back from tour,” he says. “I was quiet, just peeping game and regaining that love for the music and really revamping the brand. Now I’m back on cue. I’m really ready to make a push for it and do it the right way.”