Kenny Mason

The year was 2019 when Kenny Mason seemingly emerged with his breakout single “Hit.” The song was a hit indeed (with over 17 million streams on Spotify alone), though it came from Kenny’s years as a teen in the Atlanta underground, tinkering with genre-bending sounds and performances that uniquely set him apart from his peers. He fanned the flames with his 2020 project Angelic Hoodrat and its recharged edition Angelic Hoodrat: Supercut a year later. Now several projects in, Kenny’s ascent is steady, yet his reach is meteoric. Frequently namechecked by his peers as the prototype for true emotional artistry, Kenny Mason has accomplished more than many artists, yet he’s still just getting warmed up.

Born and raised in Southwest Atlanta (Ben Hill, to be exact), Kenny spent his early days traveling along the infamous Hamilton Road, living the life of a typical kid. By eleven, his world was shaken when his grandma—his main caregiver—passed away. “When she died, I had to move around all different parts of the city,” he remembers. “So I ended up staying with different family members, all from eleven to when I graduated high school.” Making friends as an introvert was difficult with a living situation in constant flux, so Kenny found himself writing rhymes on the inspirational heels of his favorite artist Lil Wayne. “I listened to his music so much that I just started rapping and making my own lyrics over his songs, with my own versions about me and what I was going through,” he adds.

By high school he was a seasoned rapper, and a quick dabble in the street life gave him enough fodder to start writing his own songs. The product of that practice was “Hit,” a track that exists in the rearview mirror of Kenny’s hustling, yet still supercharged enough to pull listeners into the moment. It became an underground staple, as Kenny used the scene as a testing pool. He then released a clip on social media, and when the buzz built he chose not to release it. “I just kept doing it live and building anticipation for it,” he adds. By the time he was ready to let it fly, it catapulted him to new heights. However, his performance art is what sealed the deal as a rising icon. “I studied the whole punk movement into the grunge movement, people who brought bare bones, raw energy on stage,” he explains, namechecking artists like the Sex Pistols and Iggy Pop as inspiration. “I really was trying to just be crazy on stage, to be the most memorable. I came up in the underground circuit, where I'd be performing, and it’d be ten other artists on the same stage. And it’s not like a festival; we’re in a warehouse somewhere.”

Kenny kept ascending, with the release of Angelic Hoodrat and its Supercut, as well as headlining the Ruffs Tour in 2022, with global performances and releasing his Pup Pack EP. His next few years were transformative, having drifted from some friends and losing his granddad (he released 9 in 2024, along with Angel Eyes inspired by his grandfather’s passing). “I let go of a lot of shit, and I let go of a lot of people that I feel like I couldn’t trust,” explains. “I focused on myself for real, who I wanted to be, and what legacy I wanted to have.”

He emerged at the top of this year a new artist, one who has already experienced the highs of fame, but is ready to level up to superstardom. “I ain’t gonna lie, I feel like I'm in a state where I’m making ten times as much music as I was before,” he expresses. “I’m way better at rapping, I’m way better at singing. I’m way better at writing, I’m even way better at thinking this shit.”

New music is on the horizon, with another series of Pup Packs on the way, gearing up for another album. His music is still in a league of its own. “I don't really think I care about genre or believe in it, per se,” he says. “I can express myself with rock sonically in ways that I can't do with rap, or I express myself in ways with rap that I can't do with rock. It's all just one thing of self-expression at all times. I ain’t puttin’ no label on it, for real.”

After years of making music that fans can hear and feel seen, Kenny Mason is ready for this next chapter. “I want to be a safe place for people who need me,” he humbly advises. “I want my music to be a place that people can go and feel safe, feel complete, feel heard, and feel love.”