Dro Kenji

One Liner: Bad AutoTuned R&B-ish stuff that likely kills on TikTok

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but rap and R&B

Home: L.A.

Poster Position: 26
Weekend Two Only.  Friday.

Thoughts:  Very little about the guy online - no Wikipedia, no album reviews - but I found a page on his label's website that tells a little of the story.  Last year he was a senior in high school in Summerville, South Carolina, releasing tracks onto Soundcloud.  But those singles got noticed and he was picked up by a label I've never heard of before to work on an album.  He loved video games, and says that his first real exposure to fandom came from the game Rock Band, where he learned to love Soundgarden, Weezer, and Radiohead.  Later, his sound was inspired by XXXtentation, as he started using his iPhone 6 to record tracks.

I can't find his real name - just the Dro Kenji moniker.  He moved to L.A. to get after his career though.

The top track makes me think of Lil Nas X - singing and rapping in a very similar tone.  And the second track makes me think the same thing - lots of AutoTune on a high-pitched singing voice.  it also sounds like Post Malone at times.  I really dislike this stuff.  I'm sure it is very popular with my kids on TikTok.

Somehow, Spotify lists him as having five albums - 2020's TEARS AND PISTOLS, 2020's RACE ME TO HELL, 2021's EAT YOUR HEART OUT, 2021's FUCK YOUR FEELINGS, AND 2022's WITH OR WITHOUT YOU.  The top track is from that EAT YOUR HEART OUT album - "KILL CUPID" with 20.3 million streams

Just a deeply boring piece of music.  I can't stand AutoTune (with very few exceptions) and this sort of mopey ass singing thing over a generic beat will never be something that I need to hear more of.  Again, I'm sure it is big on TikTok.  Dammit.

Second-most streamed track is from the newest album - "FINDERS KEEPERS" with 10.3 million streams.

Oh hey, another song of generic beats with AutoTuned singing?  SHOCKER!  Singing about doing drugs and killing guys and getting blowjobs!  ALSO A SHOCKER!  Just boring crap.  Uninteresting and uninspired.

Do we think that YouTube comments are fake, by the way?  The top three comments for that video, supposedly by unrelated people are: like "Dro so underrated bro..." and then "He is criminally underrated bro." and then "Why is it that rappers like Dro Kenji are so underrated!?"  Sure feels like some Russian bot farm got paid to comment about how underrated this dude is and then go like everyone else's comments.  I don't trust it.