While Kanii recognized early on that he was destined to make music, it’s amazing what he’s achieved at just 19 years old. The Washington, D.C.-born polymath tinkered with rapping, singing and producing throughout his childhood. He dropped off loose singles on SoundCloud just to scratch a creative itch. When one of those tracks, “So Long,” got more than 1,000 streams when he released it in 2018, when he was around 13 years old, Kanii recognized it as a small sign to keep creating.
So that’s what he did, and with each release, his buzz steadily grew. By 2023, Kanii had secured his first gold plaque for “I Know,” which debuted at No. 90 on the Billboard Hot 100 and dominated TikTok. At 17 years old he had a gold plaque, a record deal with Warner Records and Masked Records and his own apartment in New York City. Kanii recognizes that as the moment when everything changed for him. He capitalized on the momentum by dropping off his EPs Exiit and Nice Knowing U, both of which Kanii said are part of a trilogy he’ll conclude later this year.
One thing that’s been proven in Kanii’s brief career is that he can’t be pigeonholed. His music amalgamates pop with rap drums and every song of his has the driving pull of contemporary electronic music. No two releases of his sound the same, but each one oozes personality. The rising creative’s latest single, “Same Stories (Come and Go),” is vastly different than anything he’s dropped. It’s groovy and more synchronized than his past work; he’s tapping into his inner pop star. As an artist who prides himself on authentic experimentation, Kanii promises that he’ll push the envelope every chance he gets.
Check out Kanii’s exclusive interview with XXL‘s The Break below, in which he talks about his career highlights and what his next release will sound like.
Instagram: @kanii_o
TikTok: @kanii_o
Currently Working On: “Right now, I’m working on my final project that completes like this, this mini album. I’m dropping three EPs that are gonna turn into an album and I’m finishing this last one right now. It sounds f**kin’ crazy; I’m not gonna lie. I think a lot of sh*t in this next project no one’s really gonna be expecting. I think it’s gonna catch people off guard.”
I got into rapping by: “I’ve been surrounded around music my entire life. My mom, she’d play a lot sh*t around the house and my grandfather, he’d play a lot of his generation music. I kinda got both sides of the field very early. Once I started actually being able to talk, I was in church choir. It was a gradual development honestly, just being into it so young, and then eventually, being put in programs and environments where it just made sense to start singing and stuff.”
My standout moments to date have been: “Sh*t, it would either be me getting my gold plaque or going on tour. Mmm, nah, it would probably be my gold plaque or the Billboard chart. It’s called ‘I Know.’ That sh*t was f**kin’ nuts ’cause I was 17 or somethin’. I was in school and everything was just happening bruh. It was just like, bruh. I was just like, not knowing how I was gonna f**kin’ get into college ’cause I wasn’t focusing on school. Not even goin’ to college and being able to move out of my mama’s crib at 18, and have my own crib in New York. It was f**kin’ nuts.”
My goal in hip-hop is: “My long-term goal is to create art that’s gonna be here far beyond me. That’s the ultimate goal of why I do this. Not to get dark, but mortality scares the f**k out of me. Ni**as is finna die one day. We’re only here for a short amount of time. So, I wanna make s**t that’s gonna keep me alive forever.”
Standouts:
“I Know”
“Go (Xtayalive 2)” with 9lives
“Heart Racing” with Riovaz and Nimstarr
“Same Stories (Come and Go)”
It Was Nice Knowing U
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