| Kenna | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Kenna Zemedkun |
| Born | ca 1978 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
| Genres | Alternative rock, electronica, funk, indie rock |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician, producer |
| Instruments | Vocals, keyboards |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Columbia, Interscope (Former) Star Trak, Godel, Fury (Current) |
| Website | okkenna.com |
Kenna Zemedkun, known professionally as simply Kenna, is an Ethiopian-born American musician. His track "Say Goodbye To Love" was nominated for Best Urban/Alternative Performance in the 2009 Grammy Awards.[1]
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Kenna is the eldest son of an Ethiopian family that immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio. He was later raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Kenna began to express an interest in music upon receiving a copy of U2's The Joshua Tree.
With the release of his first single in 2001, "Hell Bent", Kenna gained moderate popularity and an underground following of fans who eagerly awaited the release of his debut album, New Sacred Cow. After many delays and swapping of record labels, the album was finally released under the Sony imprint Flawless in 2003.[2] A subsequent North American tour was launched in the Summer of 2003 with Depeche Mode front man Dave Gahan.
The album, which was co-produced by Chad Hugo of The Neptunes, contained elements of electronica, synth pop, post rock, and house music. Two singles, "Sunday After You" and "Freetime" followed the release of the album; the music video of the latter, along with "Hell Bent", appeared sporadically on MTV2. "Freetime" reached #19 on the U.S. Dance charts.[3]
In Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink, which is about the way people judge and make decisions in their lives, a portion of one chapter focuses on the stops and starts and difficulties that Kenna experienced in getting his music accepted by the general public, despite the tremendous reception and enthusiasm that music executives, other musicians and a small, loyal fan base had when they heard his music.[4]
Kenna's second album, entitled Make Sure They See My Face, also co-produced by Hugo, has faced delays, written over the course of three years, finishing in early 2007.[5] The album was originally set to be released on June 5, 2007, then pushed back to June 19, 2007, finally being released on October 16, 2007. Kenna, in an interview with Vibe magazine, cited the reason for delays as being over the video for the album's debut single. The inspiration for the album came from Kenna's attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the title, inspired from phone calls by Pharrell asking Kenna; "are you going to make sure they see your face?". Kenna's climb took him to 18,200 feet before he fell ill from taking a sulfur-based altitude medicine, to which he had an unknown allergy.[6] On October 23, 2007, the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 20 Heatseekers Chart.
An unrelated song from his second album, "Face the Gun", was released to appease his waiting fans, and initially was not to appear on Make Sure They See My Face, missing from early promos of the album. Ultimately, it was included in the final track listing. Kenna released a track from the album, entitled "Better Wise Up", in time for the Super Bowl; this track can be found on his MySpace page, as well. A remix of "Better Wise Up" featuring Audio Imagery has been circulating the internet since August 2007. There has been no official word from Kenna or from his label about this remix.
Kenna has stated on his official Twitter that he will start recording songs for his third studio album, entitled Songs for Flight. Kenna has also stated that much of the lyrical content of the album will be inspired by the experience & importance of the Summit on the Summit project, when he and friends climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in January 2010, to bring attention to the global clean water crisis.
A new song called "Turn" was made available as a free download on his official MySpace for a limited time. It has since been released on the iTunes Store on January 26, 2010. Proceeds from the sales of the track are donated to the Summit on the Summit project.
Kenna and his celebrity friends and "Summit on the Summit" colleagues were featured on the cover of the March/April 2010 issue of the fine beverage publication, Mutineer Magazine, where he was also interviewed about the climb to Africa’s highest peak, Kilimanjaro, to bring clean water awareness to the masses.
On February 13, 2011, Kenna announced plans over Facebook and Twitter to release a series of 3 EPs with 3 songs each, titled the Land 2 Air Chronicles. The series will be followed by his 3rd studio album Songs for Flight. The first EP, titled Chaos and the Darkness, was set to be released on March 8, preceded by the first single "Chains". The song was streamed on Kenna's official website on February 22.
However, on March 4, it was announced that there had been an unfortunate technical failure with the hard drive that stored the majority of the files that made up the songs for not only the EP, but also the Songs for Flight album, wiping out the majority of the material recorded. Despite how upsetting it is for Kenna, he and his production crew are currently in the process of rerecording and reproducing all the songs, stating that he only considers this to be "more Chains". Despite the challenges, the first Land 2 Air Chronicles EP was eventually released on April 26, and "Chains" was made available as a single on iTunes & Amazon on March 8.
Kenna has also contributed to many other tracks by bands associated with Chad Hugo or The Neptunes, including but not limited to "Spiral" from William Orbit's album Hello Waveforms and "Red to Black" and "The Hard Way" off of The Rising Tied, the first album from Fort Minor, the side project of Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda. "The Hard Way" is only available as a bonus track on the limited edition version of the album. Kenna also appears on Mark Ronson's album "Version" with a cover of the Ryan Adams song "AMY".
On October 6, 2006, the world premier of "Out of Control (State of Emotion)", from Kenna's EP entitled Black Goodbye Ride, was played on East Village Radio on Authentic Shit with Mark Ronson; it became available on iTunes on December 19, 2006.
On July 7, 2007 Kenna opened the New Jersey portion of the Live Earth concert. He also toured with Nelly Furtado throughout various stops on her "Loose" tour.
Kenna was featured on Mae's third full length album Singularity on the tracks "Last Transmission II" and "Novocaine". Both tracks being bonus tracks on the iTunes Store.
Kenna produced a number of tracks for Ashlee Simpson's third album "Bittersweet World", released in 2008.
Kenna has also worked with Lupe Fiasco on the remix of "Say Goodbye to Love" and the The Cool Kids on the remix of "Loose Wires."
Kenna teamed up with UK Grime artist Wiley for his 2008 album "See Clear Now", appearing on the track "Summertime". The song was released as the album's second single in the UK, hitting #45 on the UK Singles Chart. Kenna does not appear in the video.
"Out of Control" appears in the soundtrack for the video games: MLB 08 The Show and FIFA 08.
Kenna is currently working with pop singer JoJo and will be producing tracks for her new album "All I Want Is Everything".
He also made a remix of the Kings of Leon song 'My Party' which was on the Charmer single as a B-side.
On RJD2's 2010 album The Colossus, Kenna contributes vocals to the song "Games You Can Win."
Kenna is featured in the latest string of Gatorade Commercials. He created, wrote and does the vocals on the Chad Hugo produced track, "Lock it Up", which plays in the background of the ad.
Kenna the featured celebrity in the HP You on You project advertisement. [1]
Kenna & Pharrell have collaborated with Clipse on their 2009 album Til the Casket Drops on the track "Life Change".
Kenna and Lupe Fiasco recently recorded a song together called "Resurrection". This song was released on the charity album Download to Donate for Haiti in 2010, in which the proceeds go to Music for Relief, Linkin Park's charity. Also present on this album is "Never Let Me Down", an unreleased track from the Make Sure They See My Face sessions.
Kenna has organized an expedition to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro called Summit on the Summit to raise awareness of the billion people worldwide who lack access to clean drinking water.
Other celebrities, including Jessica Biel, Santigold, Emile Hirsch and Lupe Fiasco, committed to the treacherous climb, which started on January 7, 2010 and was completed on January 12.[7]
The documentary on the climb aired on MTV on March 14, 2010.
| Album information |
|---|
New Sacred Cow
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| The Black Goodbye EP |
Make Sure They See My Face
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Land 2 Air Chronicles I: Chaos and the Darkness
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Songs for Flight
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