INTERVIEW: Kennyflowers is Sprouting with his new single “Misunderstood”
Photo taken by Uncommonground
23-year-old Chicago-native Kennyflowers is paving a path for effortless rhymes and bright instrumentals to fill your headphones. This underground hip-hop artist utilizes playful verses and melodic instrumentals to guide listeners through tough times. With just a little over 25 thousand monthly listeners, Kenny is sprouting into a prospective musical flower surrounded by the concrete music industry.
After finding success with his single “Fireball” last May, Flowers had fans waiting roughly eight months for his next release. Luckily it was worth the wait as the Chicago artist released “Misunderstood”, a bright and evergreen track uplifting fans’ spirits during troubling times. Kenny utilizes a groovy bassline and angelic backup vocals to create a shiny world of acceptance and understanding for those that are misunderstood. The amount of relatability throughout the track is what took me back, with lines like “cause when life gets good that just mean it’s about to get bad again” are what create his humble tone.
The track left me with many questions and fortunately we were able to chat with Flowers to break down his musical journey.
A :Why the name Kenny Flowers?
Kennyflowers :Initially it wasn't any significant to it, I just I felt like it sounded good. But as time progressed, it metaphorically started to represent a lot of things that was going on in my life and the flower part was really starting to connect with the idea of being fragile and growing like a flower.
A: If you had to describe your style of Music in one word what would it be and why quirky.
Kennyflowers: Quirky, yeah at first, I didn't want my music to be quirky at all but hearing people talk about my music and then explaining it as a quirky sound, I’ve learned to accept the fact that sometimes I just can be a little quirky a little weird. Which is fine because that's who I am as a person, I'm pretty awkward pretty weird and it's good that my music reflects off of my personality traits. I don't have to maintain an image, I can just continue to be myself and that can be a niche so.
A: What did you max your card out on in LA based on your single “Misunderstood”?
Kennyflowers: We went to LA in 2019 and man it's just so different it is way different from Chicago. 'cause you're in LA so you know bro. My roommate is very materialistic, it's fine like he accepts the fact that he's materialistic, but sometimes I get caught up in that lifestyle, I want to have a certain look. I want to present myself a certain way. And I go to LA & I see a homeless man who is fresher than I like. This guy is wearing like cargo pants with Infrareds and a Beanie I'm like. What? And I'm like wearing sweatpants and Converse. So we went to Fairfax and we went to Melrose and we cashed out.
A: After visiting LA do you think it's overrated?
Kennyflowers: No, I don't because the thing is like a lot of people a year. Here, a lot like a lot of celebrities. They talk about wanting to go on Ellen but then like in their sophomore junior album. They talk about wanting to leave LA because it's is overrated or there's a lot of fake people and there's a lot of social climbers and cloud chasers and all of that, but I was only I was only there for like a week, so I wasn't able to see what they were saying.
A: I stumbled on a Reddit video that involved you another guy in a bathtub of Mac and cheese for an interview called "Bath Facts”. What led you there and what happened to the Mac and cheese after you guys finished filming.
Kennyflowers: Uh Joe reached out to me on Instagram. He is like you want to be on an interview and I was like cool ok. Come to find out we’re in somebody 's bathtub and it's a bunch of Mac and cheese and I mean. He told me beforehand that that was going to happen 'cause you know, he wanted me to be ready prepared so I bought swimming trunks. For the macaroni it took him 2 days to clean it up. ‘Cause it was all over the bathroom?
A: Would you rather be in Big Time Rush or One Direction?
Kennyflowers: Big Time Rush 'cause Big Time Rush One Direction is a ....Actually, you know what? 'cause I like Big Time Rush. I used to watch their show all the time, but definitely One Direction, they made better music time.
A: Is it Godzilla or King Kong?
Kennyflowers: King Kong 'cause, he has thumbs like he can just like jump on Godzilla and just like scratch his eyes out or something.
A: What are your top 3 favorite anime’s?
Kennyflowers: Naruto, Tokyo ghoul and it's between Hunter Hunter and One Piece, which I'm currently watching.
A: Any Chicago artists, you'd love to collaborate with on some music.
Kennyflowers: Saba, yeah, I’m a huge fan of Saba.
A:Regular pizza or Chicago deep dish and if deep dish, what's the best deep dish in Chicago?
Kennyflowers: The first time I've had deep dish too like three years ago and it was at Lou Malnati’s. It was the best shit ever. Like I was eating it with like a fork and knife like it was some steak. I felt like extravagant like I felt like exquisite. So yeah I would say Chicago deep Dish and Lou Malnati’s.
A: Is deep dish a casserole?
Kennyflowers: No
A: Is a hot dog a sandwich?
Kennyflowers: Oh, I was just getting into an argument with my friend about this, 'cause another thing is like ketchup a tomato smoothie? A hot dog is a sandwich? Yeah, because the same thing that you can put on the hot dog bun is the same thing as you can put on the sandwich and it still tastes amazing.
A:Just 'cause of the people that you follow, if Adult Swim gave you a show would it be animated or live action and what would it be about.
Kennyflowers: I would say animated, I had this one idea of a guy who, his character flaw is he has wings growing out of his penis the guy is just like he doesn't have wings growing out of his back and he's dead by the way he's like a dead guy he's in heaven, but now every time he flies like he's like hanging by his penis.
A: Just to get a little bit easier, what's your favorite song from your 2019 album “JOAT”
Kennyflowers: “Yellow Lines” only because that was one of the few songs that came out the way that I wanted it to.
A:Being a Jack of all trades and a master of none as you said in the “Bath Facts” interview, has fatherhood come with any hurdles that you weren't prepared for.
Kennyflowers: Bro, I want to make a Jack of all trades 2 bro, like I want to make a second one mainly because like I'm going through what I went through when I wrote JOAT. I was ready as soon as I as soon as I found out I started to. Micro manage my life a little bit better than I started to become more urgent. Uh, the things I was doing and it just made me more motivated to ground myself.
A: Any advice for indie dad artists out there?
Kennyflowers: I would say it's OK to accept where you are right now. Actually you should accept where you are right now because where you are right now, it's the same thing Drake said at the freaking Grammys. But it's so true, like you can have one fan or you can have like thousands of fans as long as you have people who listen to your music and who supports you. You made it.
A: Can fans expect a new project or single out anytime soon.
Kennyflowers: Yeah, “Stuck in Second City'' is coming out like in April. I don't know what day specifically, but yes “Stuck in Second City'', “Misunderstood” is going to be on there. It's all themed around the same thing as “Misunderstood” how you know me being stuck in Chicago and wanting to get out to go somewhere else.
Written By Alcharles Castillo
