Kino Beats Interview: Secret to Making Hits | Yacht Party Gone Wild

Send a deposit. It's not about the money, but it really is about the money. Every day you want me to fucking listen to your song. Everybody sends your song, sends a song. Oh, let's listen to my song. All right, cool. Then what are we doing? You hit me up. I didn't hit you up. It's almost just a way to weed out the bullshit. One more time. Spin a rock, spin it. One more time. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the One More Time Podcast. I'm Playback Ben, who is my co-host. Henry with a three, aka the Trap Jack Black. Trap Jack Black, who do we have in the hot seat today? I go by the name of Keno Beats. Whoa, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa. Whoa. This is my job. I get to introduce the guest. Oh. He only has like a couple jobs here, bro. Let me don't listen. Damn, and I already came in taking the job. Came in hot. Fuck. And you were doing a good job, which makes it even worse. So let me just welcome again on episode 92 of the One More Time podcast. Legendary cornerback. He's a free agent right now, but we can't wait to see what he does next.

Richard Sherman in the building. Oh shit. That's fire. Now you see why we like to let Henry introduce the guest. I see why I'm definitely taking his uh his job. No, in all seriousness, he already alluded to it. We got Keno Beats in the motherfucking house. Keno. super producer, international touring DJ, engineer, much more. Thanks. Appreciate you coming on, man. Man, appreciate y'all having me. We appreciate it. This is one of them ones where like we don't get I mean, I was pushing you to get it. Like when you were in the pipeline, I was pushing you to get this one. through. He was like, yo, Yo, when's Keno Pono? Keno, bro, Keno, Keno. So yeah. Definitely, you know, and once I did my research, bro, like huge fan of what you've done. This dude's produced for artists like currency, ASAP Rocky, Larry June, GloRilla, Juelz Santana. Too many to name to be honest. Our boys Narn Germ. Let's not leave them out. Narn Germ. Excuse me, we were talking about them off camera. So, 12 years ago in change, you did an interview. Shit.

Twelve years ago? How old are you? He's like two now. now. It's like 100. Yeah, gotta be. Fuck. In music industry years. He's like 200. So at 20 years old. I don't know how old he was, Henry. It's irrelevant. He's 32 and it's 12 years ago. There we go. Nice math. Thank you. The question was, what can we expect in the future? Right. And this was like an old school ass YouTube video, which was pretty funny. I'm not gonna lie. You know, it flashes the question up on the screen and it's just him sitting there. Apple iMovie type shit. yeah. So, you know, it is it is what it is. But do you remember what you said? What what can we expect in the future? 12 years ago, do I remember? it's 12 years ago? So this is this is 12 years in the future. Do you remember what your answer was? Damn. Hell no. It was a good one. It was great. It was good. Hits hits. That's why I said it. You said hits one word. Damn. You didn't give this interviewer anything. You just said hits DJ Khaled, another one. Yeah. Dropping bombs. So, So my question would be do you feel like you're living up to the expectations that you set for yourself 12 years ago? Yeah, actually, I'm not even gonna lie.

What I ended up doing 12 years later is what I couldn't even foresee me doing as far as like traveling the world and doing all that. That I would have answered that a lot different. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like what I ended up doing is way has way surpassed hits. You know what I mean? I have I have a lot of friends that have hits, and hits doesn't equate to life experience. You know what I mean? So I I I really uh I really appreciate being able to enjoy life more than just having hits, but also and having hits, and having hits, yeah. That works as well. This guy has his cake and eats it too. It's like it's incredible. Yeah, so so you posted recently you had a shirt on. Pay your producer. For sure. And then the and the quote. Say it again, Ben. Say it again, Ben. Pay your producer. It's 2023. Yeah. I need a deposit just to listen to the song this year, no cap. Yeah, yeah. That's what you said.

Yeah. Speak on that shit. Yeah, and I stand on that. I feel that. Every day you want me to fucking listen to your song. Everybody sends your song, sends a song. Oh, let's listen to my song. All right, cool. Then what are we doing? You know what I mean? So it's like, hey, look, if you want to work with me, then and you and you know, you hit me up. I didn't hit you up. You hit me up and said you want to work with me. So send a deposit. And then I'm gonna check your song out, and then we'll go from there. It's almost just a way to weed out the troll, the bullshit people that aren't really serious about it, you know. And I literally, even if it's a little paywall, just something that to like let the quality come through. That's my that's literally, I literally just had that conversation yesterday. I just told a guy straight up, I'm like, bro, like it's not about the money, but it really is about the money. You know what I mean? And at the end of the day, the only way I'm gonna know that you're serious is if you're paying up front before we get anything started. You just pay like you weigh, so I know that you're serious about this, and then after that, then we could do anything. I have people that I have people in my life that's only paid me one time. They only paid me from the initial setup, and once they pay me that one time, they've been good for life.

Yeah, I go pull up on them, I give them all type of stuff off the strength, but you just proved to me, like, oh yeah, you're serious about your craft, you want to actually build. All right, cool, you did that, and now I actually believe in your talent or whatever the case may be, and now we're locked in. Yeah, we had a we had um So Fago's producer, main producer, executive producer's last project. You talked about how he kind of paid for some of his early placements. And and it's like, you know, in a fairytale world, it's like, yeah, you know, you shouldn't have to pay for anything, but you know, if you have some disposable income and you want to prove yourself to some people, like there, you know, there's ways that it can be done, I think, tastefully. Yeah. And it shouldn't be overlooked. That's true. I think that his example of like he was kind of testing them type shit. Yeah. That's yeah, kind of interesting, right? Because a lot of people would expect, like, oh, this dude's gonna make me pay a deposit every fucking time. I want to like scam. There's scammy people that do that. There's people that do that with bad intentions. That's why it's like Exactly. Yeah, Some people just bust heads, but you know, I think it's a good strategy, even if you are legit. Yeah, yeah.

You know, I I see all the like, you know, 50% off collabs and like all these things that like I respect the producer hustle, man. Because but I I do respect the hustle because you guys do get shit on like almost more than any. I mean, I don't know, you and engineers, I feel like y'all just get like engineers, engineers more than producers for sure. Right. And we can speak on that Yeah, exactly. yeah, for sure. Yeah, so you know, worst part, me, me as an outsider looking in, like I do feel for you guys. So part of me is like, hell yeah, like get that fucking money if it's collab requests, if it's you know, paying, you know, to hear the artist's song and then like work with them from there, whatever it is. I I do respect it. But to your point, some of the like bad apples or like bad eggs. Ruin it, ruin it for everybody. They fuck it up for everybody. Ruined it for Everybody, yeah, for sure. So how many producer tags do you have? Shit right now, uh probably like uh like seven or eight. Seven or eight, yeah.

Wow. Because you used the 50 piece one is on the 24 hour project. so really um, really like the last five came from um the new project with 24 hours because um he just gave me a lot of shout-outs in the project, and I was like, fuck, that sounds like a good tag. Damn, that sounds like a good tag. Damn, that sounds it's a good problem. Yeah, so it's like now it's like it all depends on how I'm feeling. Like, if it's like a beat where it's like it, I feel like I'm in a deep bag and I'm going crazy, then I might use the uh Keno Beats he's magical on this. If I'm in a bag where I'm like, oh, they gotta pay for this shit. That's the Keno Beats, you know, that's a 50 piece, you know what I mean? Always, I mean, my favorite one in my heart is my niece saying his name is Keno Beats, because that's I was wondering that's the child one. Yeah, yeah, that's my niece. So then that's a go-to. Yeah, because that's it's it was too organic. Like, I was um I posted a video on my page. I I think I archived that I might have to post it again. But it's like, it's literally like me and my nieces. We all hanging out, and um, my one niece is like, Uncle, uncle, his name is Uncle, and my other niece is like, no, his name is Keno Beats.

And I'm like, oh, hold on. What? That was a statement? You know what I mean? I'm like, you know, I'm gonna put this on all my tracks. I don't give a damn. Like, I'm I'm using it. So that's the one I know you buy. Like that's Keno when I hear that one. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I'm I'm thinking about this now though. Like, is she getting a royalty every time? Shit. So my sister-in-law asked me that every time, every time I'm at the house, I'm chilling. It's like, uh, we want pizza. Well, you should ask your uncle, because uh, we haven't seen any royalty. So he should uh get us some uh pizza tonight. Like, damn, I'm responsible for the pizza tonight. I got it. Dude, that's fair. Did you clear that? Hasn't been, hasn't been cleared. Hasn't been cleared. yeah, I'm in talks with her lawyer right now to get all the everything squared away with. I was gonna say, she needs to lawyer the fuck up. It's like we're trying to, you know, get to an agreement now. Yeah, that's funny. So we were just talking about, you know, we had a uh a TikTok do, you know, four million views. It was a producer tag draft where we drafted our favorite tags producer tags.

So my question to you, Keno Beats, uh-huh. What are your favorite producer tags? Um aside from your own. Yeah, right now I love um ATL Jacob. ATL Jacob. We got so much hate for not drafting Jacob. Y'all didn't draft Jacob? No. That's the hardest one right now, man. Um right now. This is historic. Yeah, historically. Oh, and that um uh of course you gotta you gotta say uh Metro Boomin wants some more. Thank you. You know what I mean? If you're on Metro, don't shoot. If you're Metro, don't trust you on trust you on shooting. Round one for me. Yeah, for sure. Like that's one of them ones. Um take Keith. Round two for me. Yeah, gotta have Take Keith in there. Um Henry said, I can't say it on this podcast. Or ever. But we you'll know what I'm saying when I say it. So he said, fellas. Fellas. Oh, yeah, take Keith. fuck these fellas up. Yeah, that's kind of the the replacement word for white people. Yeah, we get the gist. Yeah. What else? Nigga, you had a couple more.

Um, who else would I say? Um so far he's on my team. Yeah, I'm not mad at Southside. Southside. Southside on the track. yeah, exactly. That one right there. But think outside of Southside. Think like expand Southside. So where are we going? Um like Southside, but bigger. Hmm. But like the world. Oh, the 808 Mafia tag. Oh, yeah, but not even the tag, not even the tag, just the the kill bill. Right, the the siren, the kill bill. Siren is legendary. Bro, it's so fucked up. I be making a beat, and I think that the beat is ass, and I just be going through sounds trying to find a sound and I accidentally just ran. I'm like, oh my god, that just made this beat sound so hard. I can't use it though. Yeah, that's what that's what I'm at because like I think it would make a beat better. But anytime I hear a non 808 mafia, you produce like that, I'm like, you're trash, bro. Yeah, you're a fucking clout chaser. I hate you. I hate your family.

Facts. Yeah, I hate Everything about you. You should probably die soon. Like this escalated so quickly, guys. I'm gonna need both you guys to calm down. Look, The only thing I will I will take back, just a part of that, just because I know like some of my brothers in the EDM and the trap lane, like not hip-hop trap, but the uh the like the European trap style. Yeah, they use that sound often, but they use it more as a DJ tag, You know what I mean? So I kind of respect it for the club, you know. They kind of still pay homage with you. It's somehow more acceptable in the EDM world. Yeah, exactly. They're not trying to bite, they're not trying to make a beat and pretend like, oh, maybe anyway mafia made this exactly. Yeah, they're just using it to pay homage. So by the way, Ben took another one in that draft, so major L. Oh. But it was it was it was like half joking, but it got us a lot of comments, so it worked for the algorithm, It's true. It's true. And I took Whoa Kenny, and I think I think that one's dope. Kenny Beats.

I love Kenny beats, but I'm not really you don't fuck with his tag? It's cool. Whoa, Kenny. That's key. I like that's exactly that's that's the whole thing. I when I when I heard it, I originally just thought it was just for key songs. Like, I thought it was key saying it, you know, and then it went on other songs. I was like, okay, yeah, it's cool. And Kenny actually commented on the post and called us legends. He said legends, hard. Yeah, that's hard as fuck. But then I also took La Musica de Harry Fraud. I love that one. too. Come on, bro. that's a hard one. That's smooth. That's a hard one. That's a super hard. It's like butter, baby. That's a hard one. Yeah, that's why it's like I actually like even with my personal tag um with my niece, like I've been trying to get her to say it over because like I love my tag, but then sometimes it doesn't, it's not as smooth as I want it to be, so I want it to be like uh uh how his name is Kenny, like in a smoother type of way, but when I try to get her to say it over, it always sounds like bullshit. Because I'm not gonna lie, I I didn't actually know what she said before Keno. That's the problem, yeah. Exactly. And then I thought it was like Atlanta, Keno. I thought she said another Keno Beats.

You feel what I'm saying? So, like, even in like like genius or lyrics, when I look at the lyrics of songs I produce, it just says question mark, question mark, question mark, Keno Beats. So I'm like, fuck. That's amazing. So that's why I think I put it in my bio and just put his name is Keno Beats. It's like maybe somebody will catch on it at the time. No, for sure, yeah, for sure. So you've done several collab projects with artists. Yes. So we'll get into a couple, but you know, other than maybe some of your projects, obviously, that I'm assuming you're a fan of. Which producer do you think has done the collab project best? Um, let's go back. We can go back to um, we can go back to Harry Fraud because Harry Fraud and uh currency cigarette boats, that was one of my favorites. Like that was like that's still like a classic project to me. And didn't they do another one that was like the marina or something? Yeah, um, La Regenta Regenta, Regenta something. That was some Spanish shit.

Yeah, during our during our 2021 run, uh they dropped one, but nothing top cigarette speed boats. Like, that's one of the ones. And then obviously Metro. Metro. Yeah, I was gonna say Metro, man. I feel like he crushes for real. Yeah, yeah. When it comes to like producer collab projects, I feel like it's probably you know, no one that's touching what Metro has been able to do in the last you know decade. Not at all. Yeah, I might put Alchemist up there. Oh, yeah, for sure. Alchemist. Leave Alchemists out. Alfredo, yeah, boy. I thought that should have won the Grammy. Was that last year or two years ago? I think it was a couple years ago. Yeah. But we kind of were talking about this off camera. You're you're somewhat over the whole like just sending beats out and shit. Like, yeah, can you kind of you know reiterate what you were saying off camera about like why you're so you know, all hands on deck with this like collab project and like, or not even collab project necessarily, but like producing projects with artists. Yeah, that's kind of the bag I'm in.

Like me and my um my fellow collaborator and good friend Trauma Tone. We talk about this all the time. Shout out Trauma Tone. Shout out Traumatone. Shout out Traumatone. My brother. So we talk about this all the time because his favorite producer actually is Alchemist. And um we always talk about just the whole Alchemist wave, how like throughout the year, like Alchemist is not um, he's not seen in the same light as say uh uh a Metro Boomin' or a Southside or any of these top guys, but Alchemist is giving you three, four albums a year or more. And he's not, he's he'll go to a group and he's like, Oh, you're the leader of the group. Okay, cool. Well, I like this guy the most, you know what I mean? So me and this guy, we're gonna we're gonna go into my little my space and we're gonna make these records and we're just gonna drop this shit. And I feel like when he does it, it just sounds so like it sounds coordinated, you know. So I kind of took that into um into uh into play with what I'm doing, and I just I just don't feel that same vibe like when I'm just sending tracks to artists, you know. Obviously, just like any other producers, we're all looking for the next hit.

We're always looking for the next big placement and stuff. So obviously I send beats out and you know, would love to make a song with fucking uh whoever's the top person at the time, you know. But I appreciate the music more when I'm more hands-on deck and actually working on a project, and I'm able to take their vocals and really like mix and master and move this around here, make the beat drop here, do different things and actually be hands-on. I feel like it sounds more cohesive. That's such a major thing, too, is the the because sometimes a lot of a lot of music is made, like okay, the beat is made, and then the vocals are put on top of it, and then the song's done. Right. And there's this whole other step that's called post-production. It doesn't even happen anymore. People aren't doing that. To be honest, it's like a lot of my last, a lot of my last um, a lot of like five, five or six of my last like big placements have been two-tracks. Like, they haven't even asked me for the stems. It's insane. You know what I mean? I'm like, damn, Damn. it's so crazy, bro. But I'm not, but it's it's crazy, and I'm not even all the way mad about it because you guys are gonna fucking take my stems and take out the knockout my 808 anyway.

You know what I mean? But I would appreciate it, the guy that's mixing all these top records to let me hear, put some sauce on my shit a little bit. Let me hear, you know what I mean? I would really, really appreciate if I could be there with you. Right. You know what I mean? But yeah, it's like, you know, the the days of you know, yeah, send the stems and do and do the the real touch to make this thing, you know, radio ready. It's like it doesn't even happen anymore. It's just yeah, it's I see engineers advertise mix rates, and it's like they're just advertising the two-track mix rate. Yeah, oh, you want the stems mixed too? Oh, that's another, that's another 50%. Yeah, exactly. On top. Oh God. I remember like when you even cause you know, I'm not technical, I'm not an engineer, right? So like when you explained to me though, like what that meant. What a two-track is. I was like, and I was blown away by some of the artists that even he's mixed records for. Like, you know, you mentioned Keed and stuff. I mean, like, there's big records out there, yeah, that have been mixed. It's so it's crazy. It's it's crazy to the point where with some songs, if you listen close to the song, you can hear the tag, and then you can hear where they loop the beat, and the tag comes again. Yeah, you hear like the last half of a tag.

or something. It'd be like, what? Like y'all didn't, y'all could have at least just told the producer, send a longer version of the beat and just put over it. Like y'all really just looped it in. It's it's insane. Wow. It's insane. I figured out ways to be super creative having to do that. Like, how do I chop parts of the two track and make it sound new? I've like unfortunately gotten good at that. Right, right, right. Like, why is that even in my task list? Shouldn't be. Why is that on your resume? Right. Um, so you know, the most recent collab project that we got is 24 hour casino. Yes, sir. With our guy 24 hours and Keno Beats. Shout out 24 hours. Yeah, speak on like how that project came to life and any, you know, kind of parts of the the development of the project, and just you know, anything you want to share about the record. I know it's special to you because it's you know the most recent one that you've done. For sure. It's like um, I've been knowing him for like 10 years. Oh wow. Um, yeah, and he went by uh another alias before um the 24 hour thing. So yeah, where's he from? He's from Atlanta.

Well, no, where is he from? He's from fucking a lot of places, but he's like he's where did you meet him? Yeah, he's from the DMV. Okay, he's from the DMV, like DC, Maryland, Virginia area. Um, and then his family spent some time in Tokyo. Um, did you meet him in Virginia? No, I actually met him in Atlanta. You met him down here. Yeah, I met him. in Atlanta. He's a traveler though. He could have met him in Tokyo. Yeah, for sure. We don't know. For sure, for sure. So um, I met him in Atlanta. We started working, uh, we were working years and years and years ago, and um, like some years went by, and I hadn't even seen him. I think he had moved out to LA. Some years went by. So I go to the gas station one day, and he hops out the truck and I'm like, bro. He's like, bro. This is like after like four or five years of seeing him. I'm like, oh, what's up, bro? Wow. Nice to meet you again. So he's like, man, I got the studio right there. And I'm like, oh shit. He's like, come on. So I went to the studio there, and he's like, yo, this is what I'm working on. And he started playing me some of his new shit.

And I'm like, bro, like, you're doing, because I knew him as being like rappity rap. Like he was really rapping. Like he's a good rapper. You know what I mean? So he's playing me all this melodic stuff. And I'm like, damn, this is kind of hard, bro. This is different for you, but this is hard. And then probably a few months after that, then he uh went on to do the song Um Uh What You Like featuring Ty Dolla $ign and Wiz Khalifa. And I'm like, hold on, shit. You got one of the biggest songs out right now, you know. Um, so more time goes on after that time goes on after that. He comes back to Atlanta visiting, and I hit him up. I'm like, yo, bro, you in Atlanta? He's like, yeah, I'm like, all right, well, I'm gonna pull up on you. Uh met him at the house, and we did five songs at the house. And then we like we linked up the next day, did two more songs in 24-hour casino. Wow. Just like that. Two days. That that whole project was two days of recording Wow. and fucking two months of me just doing shit because I'm a producer. I fucking sit in the house, Yeah, tweaking it just tweak shit like Ah, this is great.

Ah, this is terrible. You know what I mean? This hi-hat needs to come out right here. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me listen to it in the car. Ah, fuck, it sounds like shit in here. Yeah, all that shit. So the recording of it though, arguably was like just slightly more than 24 hours. Literally less than 24 hours. Oh God, it was it was shit. I brought a bottle of Don Julio to his house, and we fucking drank the Don Julio and we recorded it. And actually, we literally left from his house that night and went to the studio just to catch a vibe and just play the songs back. Like, damn, bro, we caught a vibe with this. And then um the other, I'm lying. The other two songs, it wasn't the very next day. He went back to LA. He came back the next week. And uh we were gonna drop it as like a four or five track EP. Um, but when he came back, I'm like, yo, let's cut some more records. And we were in uh future studio um out here in Atlanta, and we just ended up recording like three more songs and yeah, what what's the studio? Um five star. Five star, exactly. Yeah, we were in Five Star. Yeah, you should totally just stick to like the 24 hour recording.

story. It sounded cooler, yeah. It sounded way cooler. When I did all that, I heard myself. I said, Why am I even explaining this? shit? I'm just going to edit it out, bro. It sounded way cooler, like, yeah, we did that shit in less than 24 hours. It's 24 hours. Yeah. Fuck. That's so funny. 24 hours total recording hours, though. Yeah, exactly. 24 hour total. It was so much little shit that um that he was saying in the project that it was just like crazy because I was like, bro, it was like you were right there, like it's just like I don't know. When you you go and listen back, like he says certain things like um um keen are I remember that time in DC in casino. I'm like, damn, bro, were you with me in DC when I was with in the MGM? The MGM, right? Yeah, I'm like, how'd you know that? My buddy just won 10 grand at a T at a tournament. Yeah, I lost him there yesterday. Yesterday, yeah. MGM. Yeah, what's it called? The MGM. The MGM in uh DC. It's called it has like a name there or something, whatever. Yeah, yeah, but I don't fucking do so uh, you know, you posted a kind of like BTS studio uh clip, yeah. Where basically he was like listening to the final version of the project, and he was like blown away.

Yeah, exactly. Where where he was like, Man, this shit sounded like a real project. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Because he had arguably only heard the roughs. Right, exactly. that were from the sessions, right? Exactly. So for those that like clearly didn't hear the roughs till like where it ended up, what did he really mean? Like what was he hearing? So, like, even that, like my boy, uh, shout out my boy Trey P. Like one of the. Trey P in the building, right? Trey P is in the building, man. One of the illest videographers from Virginia. Yes, sir. he came through and um he kind of captured that moment with us where it was just like it's some songs. Um, uh, even the intro, to be specific, the intro specifically, is a song that he did on a whole nother beat. So I literally took his vocals and I put his vocals on another beat. Yes, you know what I mean. Oh, that's some of the best. That's some of the most fun shit you can do. Awesome, bro. That has to be so shocking to 24. hours. Awesome. So you're listening to it and you're like, wait, when did I record this? You know what I mean? It's like, what the fuck is going on right now?

So it's just like I took the um, yeah, I took some of the vocals, I took the vocals from that, put on another beat. Um, some of the uh songs are like sped up just a touch. Um I add in like the casino chops and I made the casino chops integrate with it. It's certain parts where the song might be a minute long, but I extended the vocals a little bit and made the song stretch out some more, added. You make like a bridge, you were like repeating a dope bar a couple times and make a bridge out of it. You create a bridge out of it. Yeah, that type of thing. So when he listens back, it's like, what the fuck? What is this? yeah, this is uh now it sounds like a project. I just did a couple of songs, so that's even back to the original point why I rather be hands-on with records because I feel like you know, when you're hands-on a producer, you can actually, you know, take those visions and take it to another level versus you just making a quick song, you know what I mean? That's actually producing. Exactly. That's what producing really is. Can't do that with a two-track, can you? Yeah, you can try. You can try, but it's not the same. It's not the same. man. It reminds me of um our our boy Gabriel Averitt came for a session, and he just kind of DMed Slim Jimmy out of the blue.

And Slim Jimmy fucking pulled up here on a three-wheel, those big three-wheel bikes. Yeah, and we cut a couple tracks, and he was fucking with them. Like, you know, he said he was fucking with them. I ended up putting their vocals on a whole different beat. And sent it back. He's like, Gabe sent it back to him. Like, he was like, when did we do this? This shit is hard as fuck. Yeah, exactly. This kind of thing. Exactly. And to your other point about like making something out of nothing, he left he had done like 14 bars on a verse. We're like, ugh. I need the last two. I kind of like echoed a part out, you know. And then snatched the other ones and put on there, making it a full 16 kind of thing. So you gotta be creative, man. That's real producing, man. I respect that for sure. For sure. So another collab project was with one of my favorite artists, you know, from my childhood, honestly. There's no one that's gonna get me catching a vibe more than Spitta. Spitta. Curren$y, yeah, Spitta. Jet Life CEO. Yes, sir. So I know you've told this, you know, story before, but like matching Rolexes was the collab project, or I guess the second one y'all had worked on, or it was the first project, yeah. Okay, because I know you had like well, no, technically, yeah, the second one because I did the whole uh a lot of people don't know.

I did the whole Welcome to Jet Life 2. Yeah. Um, that was produced completely by me and Traumatone. Okay, yeah, yeah. But yeah, but this one, matching Rolexes was actually released under Keno Beats and Currency, right? Correct, yeah. So, like I know you've told this before, but if you could humor us, like, how did that? I think this like story of like how you found yourself making a collab project with currency, yeah. Like this story is epic, so like if you don't mind sharing it again. I know you told it before, but we try not to have people repeat, but if it's epic, nah, nah, nah. It was just, it was, it was, it was really simple. Like um uh traumatone and uh currency were, they they did a lot of uh collection agency together. And me and Trauma, we flew down to um to New Orleans just to cut some records. You know, we're just cutting records. And the first day we were in there, currency just took a real liking to my uh to my Rolex. And he said, gosh, that's a really nice watch. And I said, Thank you. I said, you have a really nice watch as well. And that was that. And uh he took a picture, he took a picture and posted on his Instagram, and he was like, This guy wins Watch of the Day Award. And he posted on his fucking Instagram, and I was like, Damn, that's lit as fuck.

You know what I mean? I'm like, damn, because Curren$y is one of my favorite rappers. Sure. So I'm like, yeah, that's fucking dope. So I'm like, all right, cool. So we're vibing some more, and we're working on uh working on the projects. We're doing Welcome to Jet Life too. We knocked that out. We're doing Highest and Charge, we knocked that out. Uh we fly to LA. We work on a couple more records in LA. He gets back to New Orleans, he calls my phone, he's like, bro, where you at? I'm like, I'm in LA where you left me at. I'm still in LA. I'm Still here. Yeah, I'm still in LA. Doing stuff. And he's like, uh, okay, when you come back in New Orleans, I was like, uh, I don't know. I didn't have any plans to. He's like, well, shit, we need to keep this shit going. And I'm like, all right. So he's like, uh, can you come tomorrow? I'm like, uh, yes, Mr. Currency, I can come tomorrow. The fuck. All right, cool. So I fly back to uh I fly back to uh to New Orleans the next day, and I get down there, and um we're sitting in a studio, and he just like I I'm really thinking he just fucking with me uh just uh for engineering. No, but how did you get to the studio?

How did I get to the studio? Oh no, that's day two. That's day two, that's day two. That's day two. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah. Because that was that was fly as fuck. though. That was fly as fuck. But um, yeah, day day one, when I get down there, I think he just want me to record some records for him or whatever, but he's just like, um, bro, where the fuck the beats at? Play the beats. I'm like, oh shit, he wants my beats. All right. So I started playing beats, and we start recording a couple of songs. And I'm like, damn, we already, he records fast as fuck. So we already like four or five songs done. And I'm like, damn, we're about to just do a whole tape. And he's like, yeah, fuck it. We should do a tape. And then um, I'm like, damn, you know what? I just talked to trauma. Trauma was like, you guys should just do matching Rolexes. You guys got matching Rolexes, just do match Rolexes. And Kirstie, looks at me, then he just walks straight in the booth. And that's why on one of the songs on Villon, he says, matching Rolexes, and just like that, the project is done. Shit. You know what I mean? So that was super organic. The next day, um, I'm out and about in New Orleans. I got a lot of friends out there.

It's like my second home. I love New Orleans to death. And I'm running around New Orleans, and then he calls me. He's like, yo, come meet me at the um at the office. I'm like, all right, I pull up at the office, and um he has the uh the pace car Corvette. And I'm like, all right, well, uh, he's like, yeah, let's go to the studio. And I'm like, all right, well, I guess I'll call my Uber. He's like, get in the car. I'm like, all right, cool. So we riding, we're riding around in the Corvette, and then we uh he's like, I gotta stop by the house, so we go to his house or whatever, and then he's like, uh, hey, Keno, uh, which one of my Corvettes should we take today? I'm like, yo, how many cars does he have? Oh, fuck. Or how many did you see in whatever like garage you were? He's a collector. I know uh actually, no, it's funny. Somebody asked that question in the studio. Uh, I think Trauma's manager actually asked him specifically, like how many cars? And he was like, shit, I don't know, 38, 39. Holy shit. What? The fuck? How many did you visually see with your eyes?

Like, you know, when he's telling you to pick a car, like, how many options did you have? Well, this is because he he has a um, he has a garage, and that's that's one thing because I had mentioned to him, I was like, damn, how do you keep up with the keys? He was like, That's the hardest part. Like he says, like, life is hard. Yeah, like some of my friends have keys here. I might have a key over here. So visually, I probably seen probably like 15, maybe. Yeah, like just from like, you know, probably like uh a Rolls Royce over here at the studio, uh G-Wagon over here, uh Chevy Impala over here. They're just a couple of Corvettes over here, you know. It's just like however he feels for the day. Like, I think I'm gonna take the Monte Carlo out today. Like, I mean, it's real good problems to have, essentially. Great problems. Great problems, like it's good pro man. What was your favorite car? I mean, me personally, I would say, um, I would say the Cullinan, bro, because it's just like just coming from Virginia is like coming from Virginia, the only time, the only time I've seen a Cullinan in Virginia is really just recently when uh Missy Elliott was having her um, like uh, she was uh they gave her a road and they were giving her, I guess, like the key to the city and stuff like that. Crazy.

So I seen uh them bring the Cullinan out, and I was like, oh shit, that's beautiful for Virginia for people to see that, but you don't typically see those type of cars in Virginia, and in New Orleans for that matter. So for you to have so much respect in your hometown and to be able to drive this fucking beast of a machine around, it was just like that was epic, just to like right there with the Cullinan, and then the fact that you have the Cullinan with the matching Rolls Royce behind it, and then it's like, what the fuck, you know what I mean? But I love that one, and then um the 96 Chevy Impala, too. Like, I'm not really a big old school guy, but that that car right there, just one of them ones, yeah. Yeah, it's one of them ones. Like, you don't even have to love old schools to respect the Impala. It's Impala. you know what I mean? Yeah. Damn. Show me how they bounce and all that shit, you know. As someone who's not a car guy at all, like you're speaking foreign languages to me at this point. But like if I could just hang out with currency and check out his car collection, I'd become a car guy, like pretty quickly. I'd be Like, oh yeah, currency, I love the way this car.

looks. Yeah. Because you asked a simple question. Like, we go, we we we arrive in the Corvette, and then it's just like uh he goes out to the old school, and I'm like, hey, do that, does that one do like the little up and down shit? He's like uh hydraulics. I'm like, yeah, that's like it's like uh yeah, let me show you. You know what I mean? That's funny. I'm like, how the fuck does he do it? Then he shows me all the batteries in the car that makes it jump and shit. I'm like, that's fucking cool. Yeah, so so you know, random kind of side note. There was this event called Carcella that I think you were at with with currency, right? So did you ever hear about this? I've not heard of Carcella. So Carcella was essentially like, you know, obviously a pun off of Coachella. And it was like a car show. I don't know if there was like music shit or whatever. Okay, so like you know, some music shit. It was by DJ Envy, right? Yeah, yeah. So DJ Envy was. Well, I drafted in my DJ, the DJ draft. That's fine. That's my guy. That's fine. But he got sued for copyright infringement by Coachella, so he had to stop doing it. That was some sucka shit, too. Yeah, that was so just random side note, but like rest in peace, Carcella.

Yeah, that was like a cool idea, but it's a dope as a bet, bro. Like one of the dopest car show. But it was very short-lived. Coachella was like, nah, you're not making money off. That's whack. Whack as fuck. Well, why couldn't they like come to a like a license agreement? Agreement or something. So no one can have cella in the name of their shit anymore. Like, come on, man. Apparently, maybe just like it was the car and the co It's pretty close. Too close. Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, so you've mentioned Trauma Tone. Yeah, it feels like you guys are clearly like a pretty like dynamic duo, right? Like you've collaborated a lot over the years. Like, how important is it for producers to find a consistent collaborator? Man, it's super important. And I never really realized how important it was, but man, it's like one of those things where um, just as a producer, you kind of get into a wormhole where you're just making shit and you're just doing stuff, and it's good to have like a little checks and balances. Like, yes, it'd be shit three o'clock this morning or three o'clock yesterday morning.

Like, I randomly get like three texts from Trauma Tone. I'm like, what is this? It's just three random beats. And I go listening to him and I sent him three beats, and I'm listening to him like, oh, this right here is the vibe, bro. Uh, this one right here is cool. Hey, you should probably da-da-da-da-da. You should do this to it. And same thing, he'll tell me, like, yeah, this cool, bro. Hey, speed this one up, slow this one down, take out that 808, replace that with a bass line or whatever the case is. So it's just it's dope having that checks and balances, you know what I mean? It's like, a second pair of ears just to kind of keep you in line, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, it seems huge, it seems like a theme as well. Like, we've had several, you know, established producers on the pod, and I feel like you know, collaboration, it's something that people talk about all the time, but like really locking in with someone who you trust, right? That can not only, you know, to your point, check your shit and be like, hey, bro, like maybe you could do better here, or like what are you have you have? You thought about this, you know, whatever. So giving like creative ideas, but also just like from the motivational side of like Exactly. just not getting bored with this shit, man. Like, real, real genuinely, though.

Like, that's always the best when you have that genuine, it's a genuine person in your corner that's just like, nah, bro, you straight. You need to, you know, what I mean, do this, and uh, it's good, you know. So, yeah, it's always a always a plus. Yeah. So I do want to dive into your like international experience because I think that that is something that you alluded to as something that, like, in your wildest dreams, fuck the hits aside, honestly, right? The international side of what you've been able to do, you've been able to travel the world off of this music shit, bro. Yes, like how good does that feel? It's amazing. No, no better feeling, honestly. Like, that's like to me, like, that's one of the biggest accolades to be able to be um to be known amongst several different cultures around the world. It's like nothing compares to it, you know. So, shout out some of the places that you've lived. Um, Paris, France, Milan, Italy, Barcelona, Shanghai, China. You've lived in these places? Yeah. Uh lived, yeah, lived, lived in Paris, lived in Milan, lived in Shanghai, China, and the rest was like weeklong visits everywhere else.

Yeah, um, yeah, because I knew you had obviously been like super well traveled. I didn't know that you had even like lived. Extended stay. Yeah, like set up shop in these places. Like, to be completely honest, if it wasn't for COVID, like, I was literally like, I was like one of my friends in Paris uh does real estate, and I was literally looking for a place to live in Paris. Like when I say lived in these places, this is like me building a relationship, and it's like, yo, Keno, we love you, bro. You can look, I have a place for you. I have a place for you. Is it the Shanghai accent? I just don't really know what he's doing here. Is this French? It's a mixture of all of them. Don't know what he's doing. Look, I do this in every country, bro, and I mean it with no offense. Like, we always joke because they I joke with them like that, and they'll be like, Oh yeah, look, well, I'm, you know what I mean. So we go back and forth, but it'd be like, I have a place for you, and you can stay there. And it's no problem, bro. And then next thing you know, I'm staying there and I'm doing my thing, and then I'm looking, and I'm like, damn, I got here in March, and it's fucking June, July, August, and I'm still here.

Yeah. So that's why after a while, out of all the places I was visiting, Paris was the place where I said, you know what? I think I'm gonna actually like get my own place here and actually like lock in, like, bring my stuff over and really like make this my dwelling. You know what I mean? What did you fall in love with in Paris? The women. Is that what we're doing here? Yeah, Paris is a beautiful place, bro. It's fine. Everything is beautiful about Paris, bro. I mean, I didn't know if you liked the baguettes or like what the fuck he was doing. This is my thing, though. I went to Paris, I was in high school. We did a trip. Chip francais. No. Oh. But they. No, no, no, no. French people don't like Americans. So how did you make that work? But they were assholes. They were kids and they were mean to us. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. It's like it's it's one of those things that you know you have to deal with in every country. And that that's the part that I'm not gonna lie. After some time, um, in certain places, it kind of gets annoying.

Yeah. Because it's especially in China, you know what I mean? Because it's it's very hot and cold. But what I started to learn is just the older culture. So the younger culture loves the shit out of us because the younger culture watches us all day. And now I have dreads, so they think I'm Quavo or fucking Richard Sherman or whoever the fuck you called me at the beginning of this shit. So I was about to bring that to head, so they think I'm one of them. So, you know, it's kind of the same as here. So, you know, our old people, like we don't always agree with, we don't agree with anything they say. You know what I mean? So it's really so it kind of works like that. So it's like even now, like I I like having friends that visit now, and they're like, damn, Keno, you told me it was fucking cool out here, bro. They're fucking racist as shit, or they they're this and they're that. And I'm like, bro, fuck them. If you the basically the love from the people that fuck with you outweighs the negative. That's what I'm saying. It's like because the people that love you out there, they really love you. I'm talking about three, four o'clock in the morning, you could call their phone and be like, hey, bro, I'm I got this going on, and they're like, okay, okay, bro, I'm getting, I'm coming now. You know what I'm saying?

It's like the people will really give you the shirt off their back, you know. So it's like I I really experienced like real people that really had like admiration for not just what I did musically, but me as a person, you know, and I really got to appreciate that about the people in those just all the different cultures uh respectively, you know. Yeah, and let's be honest. There's some racist motherfuckers right here in our street. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So being able to like, I remember it was one specific night when I really made that decision, like, yo, I think I'm gonna really move out here. Like out it was um, I was in Milan, I was in Milan, and um I had went and visited a friend in Milan at uh 4 a.m. in the morning, and I'm leaving their house, and it's 4:35 a.m. and I'm walking down the street, and you know, they walk everywhere, like everywhere they walk, and I look and it says 15-minute walk. And I'm like, all right, and I throw my AirPods on, and I'm just walking down the street, minding my business at like 4:35 in the morning, and I'm like, where could I feel comfortable doing this in America? You know what I mean?

Because I don't even, I don't even want to walk to the parking lot in America without gripping. You know what I mean? So it's like, damn, like I'm out here with a fucking cell phone. He's fucking skipping. He's like skipping down the street. He's, like, 4:30 in the morning. I'm just having a good time, not worrying about shit. And I'm like, damn, like, this is crazy. You know, it's like, I was like, nah, this is actually how life is really supposed to be. You know what I mean? You shouldn't have to worry about bullshit every every corner you turn. But there's probably so many places, like, don't take this advice, guys. Like, don't just walk down the street in Paris, France. At 4:30 in the morning. No, in the in the city, in the city center. Because another thing, structurally, structurally, a lot of their cities are set up better than ours in the sense that we have what's known as inner city crime. So a lot of our uh low-income areas are inner city. The way a lot of European cities are set up, their crime is set on the outside of the city. So they their cities are built inside out.

So on in an inner city, you have the city center, you have the you know, museums and buildings and all that stuff. And then when you go outside the city, you have your ghettos. So now in America, you have fucking downtown trap house. Yeah. Right across the street from each other. So you you can leave your nice place in the city in America and walk across the street and it's bullshit. But there you're literally walking through nice shit the whole time you're walking. And then when you go on the other side of town, it's like, all right, yeah, it'd actually be nice to live downtown over there. Yeah, like yeah, it's actually good to live downtown. Living downtown Atlanta. Yeah, there you go. Downtown Atlanta, downtown LA, all that shit, like it's over with. Yeah. So shout out Lex Luger. Yeah, my brother. A Pioneer. One time. Yeah, for sure. Because he he was, I believe, the first one to kind of usher you into the globe. Yeah. for sure. I mean, like he took you on tour with him. You were his DJ, right? When he was doing basically like Lex Luger sets, similar to like how Metro Boomin's doing like concerts now, right? Mm-hmm. Like, what were some of your favorite places?

You mentioned like just you know some of the places you lived. Obviously, it seems like Paris was a favorite. Like, you know, what were some of your other favorite places that you went on tour with Lex? Maybe that's why that's one of my favorites because that was the first place in Europe I visited. And uh when me and Lex first went to uh overseas, uh we first we first went to Paris and we literally got off the plane. Neither one of us knew what to expect. And while we were in the airport, somebody came up to us and was like, Lex Luger, Kenny beats. Wow. We looked at each other like, what the fuck? You know what I mean? And then we did a club there with 2,000 people, and like fucking Lex gets on top of the shit, grabs the French flag, and is he's waving the French flag around. I'm playing hard in the paint. It was epic. But um one of my most favorite memories is uh Pula Croatia and Pula Croatia. We DJ'd on a um on a yacht, and we were um we weren't gonna do it at first uh because it was the night after we just DJed like a big ass festival for a bunch of people. Um but they said, please, we need you guys to come, it would be a good look.

And um, we ended up uh arriving late. So since we arrived late, they had us they had me Get on a little boat on the fucking speedboat. Meet the yacht boat. Yeah, we got on a speed boat and left. Boarded the yacht. We boarded the yacht off the speed boat in the middle of the ocean. Like we're literally like jumping on the yacht off of the speed boat, and then we fucking DJ the fucking party. The fucking party uh boat runs out of ice, so another boat comes next to us. They have a party going on, so we shouting out the boat. We're like turn the fuck up. And they're like, ah. We're both side by side in the middle of the ocean. So they're throwing us bags of ice off the boat and shit. We're throwing back bottles of liquor and shit. Like it was insane. So like Pula, Croatia, like that's like a memory I'll never forget. And I only visited there one time. And it's, and it was just that that always burned in. Yeah, that's burnt in. So on the flip side, least favorite. Like fuck this place. You're never going back.

You can't pay me enough to go back here. Shit. What are some of those? I'm surprised you said Italy was so cool because those are, Italy is the most racist. Italy is the most fucking racist. They still to this day throw bananas at black soccer players. Yeah, Italy, in 2023. Really? We're still I'm like mad that you brought I think I've heard that, and I like tried to just knock it out. Ignorance is bliss to some degree, I'm like, oh, like I'm not throwing bananas, and I've never seen someone. Italy, Italy is racist as fuck. It sounds like we're so fucking racist. We had we had some racist moments in Italy for sure. Wow. For sure, for sure. Um my least favorite, uh my least favorite would probably have to be uh Beijing, China. Um, but it's a gift and a curse because um the the events and the clubs that I did there was awesome. Like I DJed at like fucking across from the arena that the uh the Olympics were held at. Wow. So that was like insane. Um, but the actual culture, like day to day, is like you're walking around and everybody's looking at you like, what the fuck are you doing here?

You know what I mean? Just just because there's so few black people? Yeah, like it's just like there's just like no black people. Yeah, exactly. Is there a lot of white people? No, it's just Chinese people. It's just Chinese people, Chinese people. So what is would I get the same like scrutiny, would you say? Uh not to the same, not to the same level because of the fact that in these places you have um you have uh more uh Africans that are fleeing from Africa going to these areas. And that's the same reason why you have issues in Italy, because you have you have uh you have Africans that are looking for a way out the same way. And so they look at black people as a lower class because you're not getting the immigrated there. You go. You're like Trump looking at Mexican. And that's what I was trying to think of. I was trying to think of a right way to say that without being no he's the same way, fucked up. Yeah, exactly. It's it's literally how let us do that. Yeah, exactly. So it's literally how Trump looks at Mexicans, is how those cultures look at look at blacks because of because of the Africans that's immigrated. And Is Beijing, oh yeah, good. Is Beijing that much different than Shanghai? Because you lived in Shanghai,

completely different because Shanghai um is the biggest city in the entire world. You know what I mean? Wow, yeah. So Shanghai is is is pretty well integrated and pretty up to culture. And I and um there's other cities that I've been in, like Chongqing and Hangzhou and Guangzhou that have nothing but a Chinese culture, but they're more youthful cities, so they're more appreciative. They're tapped into the culture. Beijing is just like more of an older city. So it's just like you're walking the streets and it's just nothing but just old Chinese people looking at you like, what are you doing here? So Guangzhou is where you'll go and you'll see somebody with some Yeezys on and I saw you on TikTok. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, they'll tap in with you, they'll come and take pictures. Like I took dozens of pictures. Maybe they thought I was fucking Richard Sherman. Quavo. Quavo. So, you know, what I think is most interesting about your international experience is that you not only traveled the world, but you have at least a few examples of actually collaborating with international artists. Yeah.

Right. Like what whether it is, I mean, you've done a record with the Chinese group, uh Higher Brothers. Higher Brothers. Yeah, those are my guys. like they crush it. Like month, you know, million plus monthly listeners on Spotify. I had never heard of them, obviously, because I'm fucking ignorant American, but like, you know, in Asia, like they're doing numbers. Yeah, for sure. For sure. So, like, how did you find working with international talent? I think you have some records with Italian artists. as well. For sure, for sure. So I guess they were. Yeah, yeah, exactly. We actually just dropped a song called, um, Polygrapho. I did that with Evangelisti. That's an Italian record. Um uh Polygraph, um, uh something about uh don't lie to me, like a polygraph. Like a polygraph, like a lie detector test. Exactly. So that so that exactly what you just did, that's all I do. When I'm in the studio with them, and they're speaking in their language, I just ask, like, what is he saying? What is a song about? And they're like, bro, he's basically talking about life in the streets and da-da-da-da-da. I'm like, oh, okay, okay, because their rhyme schemes are super hard.

I just don't understand the language sometimes. Um is that hard as a producer? No, there's a cool part about that, real quick, that you don't have to be distracted by the actual lyrics. You can literally just zone. in on. How does it sound? The sonics. There you go? That's a cool part of like not worrying about the lyrics. It's like, how does it just sound because there's songs that you know, we all like songs that maybe aren't English, but we they just sound cool, you know? It's like is the is it rolling off the tongue? Oh, I mean, I obviously listened to some higher brothers tracks, and I was like, this shit sounds good. Facts. Yeah, this shit's hard as fuck. And then I listened to the uh, the, uh, Polygrapho earlier. Yeah, polygrapho, yeah, yeah, exactly. I listened to that record too, and I was like, same shit of just I I felt like they probably feel when they hear like Jid going off, you know what I mean? Yeah, I was just fucking like vibing, and you know what I mean? So so the biggest, the biggest like gem that I gained from all of it because it was funny before even starting to travel often, I was starting to have that feeling like, man, I need to expand my music a little bit more. But I learned that trap, trap, hip-hop, trap hip hop is the number one hip hop, the number one genre in the entire world.

You know what I mean? In the sense of I really took that and went anywhere in the country, and they all respond to it. And they don't have to know the words. It shows the importance of the producer because they just love that beat to drop, and they just love the A, A, A, everything else is blank. It's just words, and they can dance to the beat, and then you come back around to the A, A, A. You know what I mean? So it it actually helped me elevate my um musicianship when I'm in the studio with artists to say, hey, maybe you should, you know, take out some of these words and make it more simpler because every culture and everybody can understand um simple vowels. That's why people thought designer was crazy when he said that in an interview, talking about vowels, like A E I O U, whatever. Like, the vowels is what make the song a hit because everybody can adapt to those vowels. Yeah, and I mean, you know, what I kind of take from some of the international songs that I was listening to is that the voice is just another instrument, bro. It's just another sound.

So, like when they're flowing and it's the main sound. Exactly. But that's why it doesn't almost matter. I mean, shit, let's be serious. A lot of Americans don't know what rappers are fucking saying, and they're vibing to it. And it's still vibe. Exactly. Same shit. It was just the rise of mumble rap. Yeah, exactly. Who cares what they're saying? Yeah, as long as the beat is hard and the shit dropped. I don't know what the fuck he just said, but he's snapping. Exactly. Exactly. That's the same shit. So then, you know, one of my questions was do you adapt to their uh region or do they kind of adapt to you? It's a little bit of both. Yeah. It's a little bit of both. Like just like culturally, like every morning when I'm in France, I'm waking up, I'm eating croissants in the morning, I'm eating baguettes, you know what I mean? I'm going for a aperitif and having my spritz, you know. I'm drinking rosé with every single meal I have. You know what I mean? Like we going and we turning up till six, seven in the morning every morning, like this dude's a real Frenchman. Yeah, like it's really it's really how it goes. It really how it goes. French people love rap though. They're not, Europeans love rap, but French, French specifically, they're, they, they actually are top. They're the

two country. Yeah, you have um United States is number one and French rap is number two. I thought like Germany was like so. hard. Germany is too. UK is up there, Germany, France, I feel like I was so surprised that Germans fucking love American rap. Yeah, specifically like golden era hip hop shit, bro. Like Yeah, for sure. someone like a, you know, MF Doom and shit would just like crush. So that's even that's even more like the with German culture in Germany. Um, they're more in tune with the 90s and 2000s. Yeah, with French culture, a lot of songs, a lot of new songs I learned over there before I learned here. Yeah, I heard you say that before. That's crazy. Yeah, while I was over there, people were telling me about songs, and I'm like, oh shit. Like uh the the summer I was there, we were listening to um to Playboi Carti's album that whole summer, you know what I mean? And then when I came back, I'm just like, yo, y'all. Y'all like Cardi too?

Yeah, exactly. Like, we literally listen to Cardi every single day. Like, that was our shit riding around France. So that's crazy, man. Yeah, yeah. So, so anything that we should be, you know, looking forward to anything you can speak on that you're excited about for you know twenty twenty three? Um, shit, we got to do uh 24 hour casino part two is done vocally. Wow. Yeah, we post production. Post production. Now it's time to really lock in. I'm heading to LA in a few days to uh to turn up. We're gonna uh finish that up. And um I'm I'm gonna probably do a project with my brother OG Maco. Shout out Maco, yeah. I'm dropping a project Yeah, so just speak on kind of like you know how important that relationship has been to your to your career. Maco is my brother. Like, we literally like that's kind of how that thing set off. Like, I was uh running the tours with Lex and then uh me and uh Maco built our relationship, and I started tour DJing and tour managing for him. And me and him ripped up the the whole world. Like we did me and him probably did about four or five European tours together.

We did Japan together, uh we did China together as well a couple of times. And um, yeah, that's just my brother. Like, that's somebody I we call and talk for hours, you know what I mean? And he gives me advice about the game and and and vice versa, and we just bounce ideas. So we have a whole project that we have done. Um it's crazy that someone like someone like Maco, who like you would have thought was more of like an Atlanta poppin' artist, could go overseas, bro, and tour like that. Oh, yeah, they love him over there. That's crazy to me still, man. OG, yeah, they love him over there. That's so cool. Like to see that someone from the city, yeah, you know, can have such an impact like globally, man. Like that shit just I just love that for hip hop, you know. Yeah, it's fire, bro. It's fire. That's why I say, like, if for people that that love trap music, like don't ever feel because you get certain times people say, Oh, you you just in one box or whatever, it's like, bro, the world is big. You know what I mean?

There's a lot of people that appreciate the art that we do. And um, and yeah, I feel like uh it's is like I said, the world the world is so big that you can really do you could do what the masses are doing and just put your flavor on it and add your own twist and solidify your own sound and just put it out. You know what I mean? How do you think those international markets found out about Maco? Was he like was that like Was that like blog stuff that kind of I mean this was pre back then, yeah, blog era? It was like pre-playlist era, right? Like, well, you know, for him, he had uh you guessed it, and that's the thing. When you have a whenever you have a hit song, a lot of times what happens with a lot of artists is they have hit songs and they don't really leave their region or they don't really show like appreciation outside of their region. So it's a lot of artists, like a lot of artists you wouldn't even think of that um these different cultures really love and respect, but they just don't go, or they don't really show enough, you know what I mean? So then they forget about them, probably, right?

There you go. He was good at servicing the fans. He looked at his analytics, he said, Oh shit, I'm popping in Ecuador and he fucking it's just yeah, no, that's true. It's just like um Sunny Digital. Sunny Digital is another artist, like that's a good friend of mine. Like, like um, I had Sung Digital come to China, and the first time we came, we went to China, we did a small show for his uh it was his birthday. We did a small show for his birthday, and just for him going out there and shaking hands and seeing the people, the next time we went to China, we did like 3,000 people. You know what I mean? Um Cap G, he's another one. I took Cap G. to China. Shout out Cap G, man. Yeah, that's my dog. Took Cap G to China, and the same thing when we went to China and they seen, you know, they seen him in the flesh, and now they're like, yo, we seen him, he's a real person, we love him. And after that, everybody stays in tune. You know what I mean? Yeah, because when they experience it live, also to deeper connections. That's when the that's when the word of mouth just goes just goes crazy. Exactly. Hey, what were you doing this past weekend?

Yeah. I was at this show, this artist, blah, blah, blah. They post a story and their friends all see the story. Yeah, who is that? Who is that? Let me get it. Where are you at? And that's why I tell that's why I tell you see, a lot of times artists in Atlanta and uh LA, New York, all the major cities, they kind of get spoiled because they start catching a buzz in their in their big towns. And I'm like, bro, you have to go to those small markets. Like the game has changed so much. So there's no CDs, there's no flyers, and none of that. There's none of that going on anymore. But you have to touch those small markets because that person in uh Chattanooga, Tennessee, that person in uh Nashville, Tennessee, uh fucking, well, I keep on saying fucking Tennessee. But these please, please. Because that's what you think of You think of Shitty secondary markets. I fucking love Tennessee. What are those shitty like secondary markets? I feel like they're all in Tennessee. Third world cities at Tennessee, uh Tennessee. That's so funny, man. All the B markets and the C markets, like even where I'm from, like a Norfolk, Virginia, like you you come to those cities that like you say, man, money aside, like I'm gonna come to those cities and touch those people, and those people are gonna be your fans forever because they're gonna remember, like, oh, he's a real person. He came out here, he wasn't tripping about the money.

He just came to the club, he came to the meet and greet. I got to meet him. I'm listening to everything else he puts out. You know what I mean? Also, people listening, like people that go to your show and see them before they're even like hot as big as they are, they're like, I was fucking listening to him first. I knew about him first. I'll always be a Travis Scott fan. When Travis Scott first started doing this shows, I went to a Travis Scott show with 200 people. Travis Scott, the same way he jumps up and down and goes crazy now, he did that when it was 200 people. Then he got off the stage. It's like Rodeo. Rodeo days. Before Before Rodeo. This is early, early, early. Like I don't even know. Like, I don't know what the fuck he was even performing. He was just performing some shit. And I was just like, all right, this guy's fucking turnt up. You know what I mean? He got off the stage and he came in the crowd and sat with us. And we, oh, everybody came and dapped him up. And then I literally watched the progression. But he kept on doing that until it was literally impossible for him to do that. Right. But he's jumping up and down, jumping off the stage, standing with the crowd, talking to people. So once you make yourself personable, then it takes your thing to the next level.

Absolutely, man. Well, Kino, we appreciate you coming on. We have entered a final segment of the podcast. H3, where we at? Oh shit. Damn, I thought we was done. Nope. You wish. You're not out of here yet. We've got you for a little bit longer, my friend. This is the most fun part, though. This is the rapid fire rampage. Damn. It's a three-part rampage. Um, we're just gonna go ahead and start with the short answer questions. All right, here we go. Rapid fire rampage, episode 92. One more time podcast with Kino Beats. I love how you have to get that little bit in. Knock knock. Who's there? One more time podcast. One more time. Shit. All right, now we're actually starting. So I have to get that one out of the way. Kino, what high school stereotypical friend group were you a part of? Uh shit. It was a mixture. I used to sell CDs in high school. So I was like the one. Burnout? Nah, I mixed.

I was super mixed, bro. I was in, I was in every every group because I sold everybody wanted music, and I had the CDs. I sold CDs. So I could go to the cool table, the lame table. I was in the band. I was at the band table. I just I was I didn't sit at one seat in the lunchroom. I went to every seat in the lunchroom. He was a floater. I was a floater. There we go. Yeah, straight wobbler. I can kind of identify with that, to be honest. Yeah. Kino, what is something that you are simply bad at, no matter how much you try to improve? Rapping. He's not cutting any references. Kino, have you ever played Keno? Never. You're a gambler. You went to the casino. You never played Keno. Yeah, I never played Kino though. Surprised. Because they spell my fucking name wrong. It's an E instead of an I. And everybody does that. What makes you what makes you do that? If I tell you my name is Kino, why the fuck would you put K-E-N-O? It doesn't make any sense to me. Because of the game, I suppose. One of these days you're gonna be bigger than that fucking game. That Kino. The lottery's pretty big, Ben. I don't mean, I love Kino, but shut up, Henry.

Okay, moving on. Kino, if you had three extra ears, where would you put them on your body? Shit. I'll put them behind my ear. All three of them. I would put two on the right side and one on the left side. Why is it? Is your right? Yeah. Is your right words? I don't have a reason to try it. Just sounded right. It sounds good. Kino, what is something absurdly expensive that is 100% worth it? This watch. Exactly. And that's the reason why it's a Rolex, but because of doing the project with currency, it made its return on investment. So I was happy with that. You know, the real Rolly Heads would say that the iced out is trash. Yeah, that's uh I don't know. That's sorry for them. Sorry for them. Love that. Love it. Fucking love it. Kino, you can ask God one question. What do you ask him? Oh, damn, this got deep. Real quick.

Oh, man. You didn't know you were joining a religious podcast. Did you? We're Mormon. Man. Yep, we're from Utah. Yeah, I needed that. Hit the Jeopardy music on him, Trey. The more I think, the worse my answer is gonna be. Like, that's why I'm just gonna say something. Yeah, people understand that it's on the spot. Yeah, man. All right. I'm gonna ask God. Oh, what should I be doing? That's pretty good. That's a great question. That's pretty good. Because I literally asked myself. that every day. what am I supposed to be doing? And then to then feel confident about what you're doing instead of all of us who are just like blindly going through life. Right. That's actually an Amazing question. Jesus. All right. This next question, we're gonna need you to pull out your phone. Okay, where's my phone? All right. Kino, what is the last phone call you made? Not including Ben, if you were trying to navigate here. He was. And what did you talk about?

And I want to say no lies. I called my boy Ali. Okay. Like mixed by Ali. Uh nah, boy. That'd be a super dope call. Where my master's at, my boy. All right. That'd be too fire. This is equally fire, I guess, though. My boy Ali is he's uh Akon's son. Oh, wow. Yeah, he uh he's he's working on a project right now, but I literally called him and he answered the phone and he said, Hey, bro, let me call you back. Phone drop. He was in a session, though. He was recording somebody, he said, I'm recording some vocals, I'm gonna call you back. So I said, All right, bro. That's why I love this question. I'm probably gonna keep it. Keep it for a little bit. Kino, how many Flintstone vitamins would fit in a standard sized grave? Oh, in a grave? A grave. Oh, um, 17,427. That's exactly right. Yeah. Duh. Yeah. Who Doesn't know that. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty much common knowledge. Yeah, it's actually probably pretty accurate, too, as well.

Last one of the short answer, Kino. What is your favorite curse word? Fuck! Part one. Part one, great. Great part one. Yep. We got him on God for a second. He slipped a little bit, but he delivered. Yeah. At least I'd say eight out of ten on part one. We're moving on, though. This is part two. Oh, it's part two. Shit. And there's a three, so just buckle up. All right. We're not out of the woods yet. All right. This is the this or that. All right. I'm gonna give you two choices. You pick one. Here we go. Rampage! Sample or from scratch? Sample. Delay or reverb. Delay. Long intro or long outro. Long outro. Sending loops or receiving loops? Receiving. Drums or melodies? Drums. Drums or flats. Drums. No, flats. Oh, we got him. You got me. We're premature there, Kino. YouTube or TikTok? YouTube. Atlanta Braves or Atlanta United? The Braves.

Get rich from hard work or win the lottery. Hard work. In over your head or bored out of your mind? In over my head. Always sing instead of talk or always dance instead of walk. Shh. I love this one. It's a hilarious image. Yeah. Ask that one more time, please. Always sing. One more time. Always sing instead of talk, or always dance instead of walk. Always dance instead of talking. Imagine doing the interview and he has to sing to answer every question I ask. Living in Shanghai, I was so crazy. Crazy. I'm gonna request auto-tune though. I've been saying this. We need to get auto-tune on the mics. We gotta figure that out. You're the engineer, bro. Fucking do it. I will. I'm talking about it All right. We're people of action here on the One More Time Podcast. You're right. You're right. Yeah. Stop growing mentally or stop aging physically. Ooh. So you can't learn anything or get any smarter.

Stop, stop aging physically. I figured out what I know now. I'm just figuring this shit out. Do you want to be like homies with 80-year-olds and look like you look like them? That's fire. Like, yo, this is my homie right here. That's weird. Yo, you know what's crazy? He's 80. What? That's great. Man, what? I knew black people aged well, but holy shit. That takes black don't crack it to a whole nother level. Oh God. Wow. Last one of the this or that. Are you going to either do six months in jail for a crime that your best friend committed? Or have a stranger do 10 years for a crime you committed? I'll do six months for my friend. What a guy. What a stand up gentleman. Part two. Part two. What if I said one year? Fuck that stranger. Like is six months your limit, or like I think a year is my limit. So that's where it would flip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A year in a day, yeah. I don't know this asshole. But 10 years, like people would see this shit on internet all the day all the time.

10 years is a long fucking time. It is It's crazy. I changed it from five at the last minute, but I might adjust now. Okay, part three of the Rapid Fire Rampage. This is the word association. This is for all the marbles. I'm gonna say a word, and you just say the first word off the maybe two words, first thought right back at me off the top of your head. No thought. All right. Here we go. As always, starting with hip hop. Hip hop. You're just using the same word. Music. Music. Okay. There you go. Twin. And no. Nice. Pork. Chops. Podcast. Hair. Doing one. One more time. Flour. Uh, dumplings. Sacrifice. Illuminati. What are y'all doing in these meetings, bro? What were you really in Shanghai for? Moving on. World traveler. Uh-huh.

Flush. The toilet. Um. Bomb. Bomb. Bomb. 9-11. That's the first time. That's fine. Shit. Beep that out or something. No, that's good. I don't think YouTube likes the B word anyway. bass. Drum. FL Studios not responding. Fuck. Okay, yeah. I was hoping. I was hoping. Vacation. Uh, Croatia. Blick. In my pocket. Yeah. We didn't have a metal detector on the way. Bitcoin. Got some. I guess he didn't know like where he was going. Like what kind of vibe we had. To each their own. Mexico. Tacos. Lil. Bow Wow. Flex. DJ.

24 hour. Casino. Let's go. This has been Keno Beats on the One More Time podcast. You know. As always, please like, comment, and subscribe if you fuck with this interview. Let's go. We appreciate the support. Keno, we appreciate you coming on. my man. Thank you, my man. And Henry, until next week. Getting out of here. We're getting the fuck out of here. Peace. Peace.