Explore California’s Psychedelic Hip Hop Underbelly

Crafting in the dry hills and salty air of southern California Keni Pich, or keni can fly, is a young budding artist honing in his musical talents. Freshly out of college in San Diego, Keni has migrated up to LA seeking the thick creative scene and an audience for his moving work. 

Helping build the more experimental side of hip-hop, Keni’s lyrics cut to the chase with fluidity and ferocity. Ethereal soundscapes drip in and out of the light behind ever-passionate vocals. A refreshing array of vocal and production effects within Keni’s sound brings to mind other modern artists like Jayden Smith and Remi Wolf, who all seem to share no fear of experimental sound. 

Spiritual and heavy topics flit through the lyrical discussion with purpose. Keni provides important honesty and relatability to his listeners, giving voice to inner discussions that some may think they are alone in having. 

Photo by Katin Pesarillo.

Originally in school to study business and philosophy, Keni was faced with one of the most difficult questions in life, what career path to commit to truly? 

“Maybe I’m not a role model in this sense, but I prioritized music over school,” Keni revealed. “I prioritized what I wanted to do, prioritized the craft, treated it as a career.” Junior year of college, Keni switched to a visual arts major and that changed everything.  

The recent move from San Diego to Los Angeles marks another step in Keni’s commitment to a career in art. LA has an important proximity to artists, but seems to also have some hollowness. 

“At San Diego shows, everyone is there to dance and have fun and listen to the music,” Keni described, while LA holds a bit more pressure even amongst the audience. Perhaps there are important benefits to this as maturity can be built on stage, staying true and holding your own despite the visual reactions of the audience. 

Nonetheless, Keni emphasized his appreciation for a joyful audience. “I want people to have fun at the shows and feel loose,” he said. This love for his community in San Diego has fueled his creative fire, and clearly, the musical sphere in the sleepy beach town has depth worth exploring. 

Starting in music very young, Keni’s Uncle and childhood role model was an important catalyst within his artistic journey. The pair spent years making music and freestyling together while building a deep connection, as well as a thorough understanding of music as an expression of the self. As time passed his Uncle’s struggles with addiction ebbed and flowed, eventually resulting in his loss after an overdose. 

Keni described his family experiences as “the full spectrum of the good, the bad and the evil. He was my best friend. I love him forever. He taught me to embody a certain energy that I carry with me. Energy that makes me feel like I have a purpose and something to say.” 

Photo by Katin Pesarillo.

This life-shaping relationship is deeply intertwined with the music and life Keni has devoted himself to. “I wish he could see what I’ve done. It’s all in his name,” he expressed.

Riding the waves of emotional development and complexities that come with being human, Keni has found great solace in his artistic outlets. “Art is therapy, the more you sit with things the easier it can get.”

While recognizing the power of his platform, Keni does not always see himself as a role model for his listeners. Rolling with the punches and maturing as life moves forward Keni seems to focus more on the present and on his personal growth rather than pigeonholing on specific messages to spread. 

“I find myself all the time. If I can teach people to do that I could be a role model in that sense,” he said.

Both explosively youthful and cautiously wise Keni’s introspection has been thorough and is surely a lifelong commitment. 

“I believe being able to use my voice is really important. I think in modern times, in the ocean of everything a lot of people feel like they don’t have a voice or they don’t know how to use it. Or maybe they don’t have the words to express how they feel. That’s something that I feel I can definitely help with. I think that’s one way you can take control of your own life rather than letting others take control.”

Photo by Katin Pesarillo.

It seems that career and craft become one with the way a person lives their life. In Keni’s case, there is no distinction between life and music. Walking the line between artistic chaos and passion, Keni brings a raw and naturally eye-catching expression. 

“I will always express myself fully and vulnerably and we need to encourage that in this world,” he said. This focus on vulnerability in his daily life supplements to the experimental nature of his music and wider creative persona. 

With the evolution of his craft coming out of childhood, much has changed with time. Music stands strong as the first thing Keni tapped into artistically, which perhaps is why it “comes the most freely and naturally,” as he described, but at this point, it is only a piece of what Keni does. In attempts to spread his art, Keni felt somewhat forced into using visuals, due to the power and allure of the visual language. He found himself continuously asking, “How can I help get this music to more people and build a world around it?” With time and the shift in focus at school to a visual arts major, Keni has leaned much deeper into his identity as an artist. 

“Building a world is my goal,” Keni explained, rather than specifically blowing up or seeking fame. The incorporation of video content and art helps form the fuller experience that Keni is chasing. We live in a multiple-medium world and so Keni strives to be “communicating emotions as a whole and looking at them holistically,” with multiple mediums. 

Despite years of songwriting, Keni has yet to release a full album. Attention to detail and variety of expression seem to lead to a struggle to hone his creative energy into something as committing as an album. His longest EP to date, titled cherimoya LUV continues to employ this holistic approach with a visual showing Keni as a child side by side with his young adult self.

“It’s hard to decide what I want a body of work to sound like. I have a lot of different sounds made with different people,” Keni commented. Within the deep vault of unreleased music, there is surely an album or two tucked away to look forward to.

The process of making music is incorporated into Keni’s everyday life, shifting and adapting with time. Keni described being “in a very internal place, a lot of solitude. Or the complete opposite, with all the homies. No in-between to be honest.” With his consistency in music creation, a collection of fellow young artists has formed. Keni’s San Diego band for live shows consisted primarily of fellow students and artistic thinkers, some of whom formed a group called The Wings. This tight-knit community remains at the core of Keni’s work on the long term scale. Music videos, graphics, and clothing lines all come from this young collective now blossoming into each creative endeavor. 

Each release, no matter how big or small, has striking energy, unique and brimming with thought. One recent single, 78 Birds, brings together Keni’s exciting variety in sampling and commitment to the holistic content of each song. Lyrically, Keni described the track as a “stream of consciousness, what’s going on in my life right now.” Most of Keni’s music seems to hold this energy, encapsulating the present or as he described, “music embodying life.” 

With direct contact, the song grabs listeners, “How’s it goin’ buddy, nice to meet you, what the fuck is up.” Showcasing Keni’s full spectrum of artistic expression the album art is a VHS shot of a geisha girl, a performing artist specializing often in singing dance, and music, whom he saw perform in Japan. Intertwining life with art seamlessly. 

“I’m trying to collaborate more because there’s a lot of value in that. Remembering stuff you made with your friends has a deep nostalgia, but I do love being alone. Just me and the spirit of my uncle.”

Life as a solo artist remains in flux for Keni. With drive and passion coming deeply from within in some ways there isn’t much need for the help of others on ideas or projects. However, this does not mean that Keni’s art is representative of him explicitly, or that he takes it as his own in a territorial sense. Keni emphasized that his art “represents something bigger” and pays much attention to his art’s existence outside of himself and his individual life. 

“When you release something, it’s not yours anymore. Now people connect to it in their own way and whatever they are going through shapes what your song means to them. It’s a wild flow of connection that I think really does speak to something deep in the human spirit.”

Coming up on December 8th is a brand new single “Basquiat”, named for Jean-Michel Basquiat, a visual artist who worked with Andy Warhol. This exciting drop follows Keni’s most recent single and music video “pritty&petty”. On the horizon as well is a full project, likely to be released next February, titled LiM!NAL BLOOS. With hip-hop heads in mind, this project will highlight the more sample-heavy and production-focused side of Keni’s sound with the help of producer Matteo Woods.

There is much of Keni’s art for fans to make their own, look to Spotify, SoundCloud or YouTube to begin your deep dive.