NYC Flagship Podcast, ItsTheReal taps one of the hardest working people in music, Kenny Beats on their show, "A Waste of Time"

Written by Greg Harris

When it comes to the realm of podcasts, ItsTheReal is easily dominating the hip-hop space with their wittiness and their brash effort to not only expose the stories of some of your favorites but also unlock the history behind some of the most pivotal individuals in the music business and culture. As the year progresses, they put some out of the most interesting content from their live episodes of “2 Jews and 2 Black Dudes” to their perspective pieces, it’s a lot from their catalog to choose from but one of their recent episodes will make listeners to tune in closer because it features one of the hardest folks in the game at this moment, Kenny Beats.

This insightful interview covers the life of Kenny from his early days of living in Connecticut, taking different internships in the music industry, diving into the music industry, the importance of the relationship between producer and artist, his various projects he’s worked on this year, and more. It’s an important audio piece for those who want to get in the music industry and certainly an important episode for aspiring producers who want to carve their own lane.

Check out the new episode below.

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome arguably the producer of the year Kenny Beats to the Upper West Side! Kenny talks growing up in Connecticut always the tallest kid in his class, taking breakdancing classes, noodling on the guitar, the moment his mind awakened to music production, and the days he'd spend in a beat-making program recreating Timbaland beats he'd heard in the Jay-Z documentary Fade to Black. Kenny talks about his high school internship at RCA, his off-the-books internship for Jonny Shipes, going off to Berklee College of Music, getting ahead of his peers, becoming a staple of the hip-hop scene in Boston, trading his own supply of weed for the opportunity to hang with Ab-Soul, how that friendship got his first beats placed with ScHoolboy Q and Smoke DZA. We discuss transitioning into the EDM scene, touring the world as the DJ LOUDPVCK, putting on elaborately produced shows, how his beats weren't a huge departure from his hip-hop catalog, how ultimately his heart wasn't in the EDM world and the dark results it had on him physically, mentally and emotionally. Kenny talks giving up the DJ life, his reset, being down to his last $1k, locking himself in his room and composing records he truly cared about, and how he reintroduced himself into hip-hop through his work with HoodRich Pablo Juan, Key!, Rico Nasty, Lil Wop and more. All that, plus how he separates himself from other producers, why he prefers being in studio with an artist, how he stepped up his vocal production, what working on full projects with Vince Staples and 03 Greedo mean to him, his special collaborative album with ALLBLACK, how he knew his beats were winning, and so much more!