Kenny Beats releases his debut solo album, LOUIE. Though best known for producing seminal full-length albums for some of the world’s most exciting artists (including Vince Staples, IDLES, Rico Nasty and Denzel Curry), on LOUIE, Kenny subverts expectations with an almost entirely instrumental artist record that acts as a deeply personal tribute to his ailing father.
Set for release on XL Recordings next week, the first solo album from Kenny Beats is a spontaneous burst of creativity spurred by an avalanche of despair and imagination. Only after sharing it with a few close friends – who mentioned the elegiac pathos it evoked – did Kenny become convinced to release it for public consumption. Just 17 songs and 33 minutes, LOUIE is a hypnotic odyssey of wounded, teardrop soul. To build anticipation, Beats has been cryptically teasing the album over the last few weeks through a series of vignettes on social media.
LOUIE presents a side of Kenny that has not been seen by the world before. Charismatic, self-effacing and generous, the album reveals the duality of the artist – an enigmatic, introspective searcher who has experienced pain and duress, and alchemized it via looped samples and hypnotic drum patterns. LOUIE gives testament to our most personal thoughts, recollections and stories. It is an intimate and personal gift that achieves the rarest condition – a sense of the universal.
Stream / purchase LOUIE here.
