"I've watched my parents, you know, pay bills, check to check. "I've watched my family struggle," kei said. "wake up," for example, features no lack of expletives, but kei is clearly referencing her childhood, rapping "I remember growing up in households that was broken/ daddy told me that whatever he said should be unspoken" and then "I don't know what it means/ all of this s-t just ain't what it seems/ this the lil girl that was raised in the bean." Underneath the swearing and the high energy of the production, kei is really opening up about her life. Kei's sound and rap style are also notably more aggressive and forward but this belies some of the tender, close-to-home topics that she's talking about in her lyrics. While still very bass and drum-driven, all three tracks sample sonic elements that sound like they're plucked out of a video game, providing an interesting contrast to the grit of the electric guitar on "made me" and the grainy vocal distortion on "s.t.o.o.p.e.d" and "wake up." This changes on her second project, "terrible twos," released in May 2022. Sonically, her debut seems to be heavily influenced by 2000s rap and hip-hop (kei credits rappers like Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott as musical influences). Her delivery is tight and succinct, rolling effortlessly over the bass and percussion on songs like "pressed" and "(in) ya birkin." There's no shortage of confidence or bravado - kei makes it clear that she's arrived on the rap scene and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The EP is her first foray into rapping (hence the title) but you wouldn't be able to tell by listening to it. One of those pictures is the cover for "baby steps." It features a toddler kei, surrounded by her father's equipment with a pair of his headphones on. I recorded songs with my best friends and my cousin with him." She remembers making songs with him and has "pictures of us being in the studio and of him setting up the mic stand. kei's father made music and had a lot of production and recording equipment in the house. Her mother practiced ballet in her youth and her siblings rapped and wrote poetry. That moment on stage affirmed a lot for me." That festival was the point where she knew that music was what she was supposed to be doing. "So, in that moment, I don't know what it was but I just knew there was something special. She started her journey connecting with her faith right before she started making "baby steps." "I went to church and I started going continuously," she explained.
Kei didn't grow up in a religious household and her family didn't go to church often. The sun was just beaming on my face and in that moment, I felt the presence of God." "It was just a rush of emotion and I just started crying. She said that once she was done and off the stage, she felt a sense of euphoria. Despite it being her first time performing, kei seemed to command the crowd with her high energy and playful stage presence. But within a few minutes, the energy skyrocketed. The crowd fell silent as kei got onstage and prepared to start her set. I was in the audience that day at Malcolm X Park in Roxbury.
"There were changes in when I was supposed to go on and how the set was supposed to run."
I'm usually very timid," she said, laughing. She'd never performed in front of a crowd before and her debut project, "baby steps," was still new at the time. When Dorchester rapper kei took the stage at the Forward Future Festival in 2021, she was pretty nervous.
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