Issue 12

Hometown: Tacoma, WA

From Tacoma, WA comes 26-year-old, KeySean Devin — also known as “KeyBangz” — who has been officially making music since the age of 19.

KeyBangz has been musically involved since he was “four years old” — he began with the piano, picking up other instruments like the saxophone, guitar, drums, and bass as he grew into his teenage years. According to KeyBangz, just one album flipped a switch for him, pushing him from a private musician, to a rapper, producer, and singer to the public:

“When ‘Good Kid, m.A.A.d City’ [by Kendrick Lamar] dropped [in 2011,] I was going through hella shit with my family,” KeyBangz says. “I remember just hearing those stories and hearing [Kendrick] speak and it was like, damn bro. There’s somebody who knows how I feel, like he was speaking those stories, you know? I was just so moved when I heard “Sing About Me, I’m Dying Of Thirst,” and I was like, I know those people bro. Right now, I’m thinking about those people. It was just like crazy timing. So forever after that, I was like, no, I’m gonna be an artist. I gotta be able to do that. To speak for people and tell those stories, you know?”

KeyBangz has a total of nine singles released since 2022 — alongside instrumental versions of his tracks, one album, “SYNTHESIA,” and an EP titled, “Guilty Pleasures,” that was released recently on March 29, 2024.