Cleveland, OH · alternative rock · pop punk

KennyHoopla

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Post-punk-inflected alt-rock with a genuine 2005 dance-punk streak, and much heavier live than on record — new-core energy with real nostalgic craft.

KennyHoopla is the project of Kenneth La'ron Beasley, born August 5, 1997, in Cleveland. He moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as a child and split much of his youth between the two cities. He has recalled his earliest musical memory as recording a rough freestyle rap onto a cassette toy around age ten.

His songs borrow from early-2000s indie and dance-punk as much as from pop-punk, built on chiming guitar lines, propulsive drumming and vocals that sit somewhere between hook and shout. The mix has drawn comparisons across genres, from post-punk and new wave to hip hop and drum and bass.

He began posting songs to SoundCloud in 2016 and released the EP Beneath the Willow Tree that October. Early singles "Waves" (2017) and "Sickness" (2018) led to a deal with Arista Records, and 2019's "Lost Cause" became his most popular song at the time.

In 2020, "How Will I Rest in Peace if I'm Buried by a Highway?" reached the top ten of Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart and led into his commercial debut EP that May. He later reworked "Lost Cause" with guest vocals from Grandson and, separately, Jesse Rutherford of the Neighbourhood.

KennyHoopla worked with Travis Barker, who drums on "Estella" and "Hollywood Sucks," on the 2021 mixtape Survivors Guilt: The Mixtape. Live, his material is played louder and rougher than the recordings, closer to straightforward rock than the polished versions suggest.

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alternative rockpop punk