August 12th - Chicago, Illinois - Xavier Keyz
I first met Chicago-native R&B singer Xavier Keyz back in 2015, through AnywhereButHome (ABH) singer/rapper from Northern Virginia, who I would interview apart of the DMV area later on in this trip. We and another Chicago-native hip hop artist, R.O.E., caught up at Heartland Brewery Co. downtown NYC after an event held by Xavier's friend Ryan Leslie. I didn’t attend the event, but them three did and had a chance to chat it up a bit with Ryan. The motivating vibes carried to our discussion at the brewery as we ate and talked our about each and one of our grinds and goals.
So after three years it was good to finally catch back up and like the other two artists, R.O.E and ABH, Xavier Keyz has been working, growing his fanbase, selling merch, and performing outside of the U.S, doing international tours across Europe and Asia. He’s performed so much that now his time has been devoted to not only working on future projects, but also setting up his own Masterclass where he’ll be teaching the art of performing live, overcoming stage fright and more—so stay tuned for the knowledge and insight he's about to drop.
Xavier Keyz style of music is mostly R&B and hip-hop, but demonstrates some of that pop/dance sound as well checkout some of his tracks below.
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Link up, Interview
When we linked in Chicago it was only right that I greeted him sporting his fitted-branded hat I bought a few years. He got a good kick out of it and it was a good seg-way to kick off where we left off, talking about the grind. He’s got his hat now in different colors, which you can select and buy here. He choose to do the interview where, according to him, his love for music began, Kenwood Academy his old high school.
Ironically it just so happened to be the day where his school was having a reunion block party for all the classes. So after the interview we walked around the ticketed area in the parking lot, which he caught up with some old friends and then ended giving me a brief tour down memory lane inside the school.
The need for grub was real, so he recommended we check out one of his favorite spots to eat at, an authentic Jamaican Cuisine call Ja’Grill, downtown Chicago. People… this place DOES NOT DISAPPOINT. I got his recommendation which was their ribs with their jerk seasoning, and damn they were amazing, the flavor was juicy to all types of levels, and the meat slid off the bone and everything as they say a characteristic for some good ass ribs. It was a nice hot day so we sat outside in their seating area, the atmosphere was right and the prices not bad, definitely not bad for the quality and amount.
A week prior, Chicago made national headlines with a spree of shootings and killings, a reason why I didn’t want to stay in Chi-town overnight, but Xavier mentioned that the violence is only in some parts and that the city is often overshadowed by the negative media. The area where he lived, went to school at and where we ate at was safe. The funny thing though, while we waited for food, we heard shouting down the street that got everyones attention. A fight was about to happened, a guy got out his car, while people were holding him back yelling at another dude. I kept the camera rolling… Police soon came though and broke it up, so all good.
While we left, walking back to the garage, we stumbled across an art show tucked away in that same plaza. The art was friggen ridiculously dope, and actually symbolic to anyones experience driving around and taking in the artistic nature of Chicago. Sculptures and wall murals decorate the colorful city. The artshow was hosted by Chicago Top 5 with Connect Gallery. See below.
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