When 15-year-old Dontrell showed up at the Reader‘s offices for an interview, he was fresh off a delayed return flight after his first trip to New York. He’s better known as Kidd Kenn, Chicago’s most popular openly gay male rapper, and he was exhausted—his whirlwind trip east had included a meeting with Def Jam and a music-video shoot.
He went on to list four schools—one of which he attended two separate times—and explained in generous detail exactly why he left, or was kicked out of, each one.
Kidd mentioned many artists who’ve taught him different aspects of how to be himself. He began with his favorite rapper, Nicki Minaj, who also inspired his name. “Nicki taught me not to give a fuck,” he said. “Nicki is Barbie, and because I’m a boy, I decided I would be Ken.”
Unlike “Eriod,” most of Kidd’s recordings are freestyles over instrumentals he likes. Those freestyles have been the spark for his success, but he’s more than ready to drop his first EP of entirely original material, Childish (he hasn’t set a release date yet). “This is the first thing I’m putting out that’s going to be me on all-original production,” he said. “I’m excited for this because we been working on it for a while.”
