Kero One is a Korean-American hip hop MC, producer, and DJ from

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He has been recognized for re-introducing the

jazz rap Jazz rap (or jazz hip hop) is a fusion of jazz and hip hop music, as well as an alternative hip hop subgenre, that developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. AllMusic writes that the genre "was an attempt to fuse African-American music of th ...

sound in the early to mid 2000s with his jazz-hop album Windmills of the Soul.

History

Kero One originally worked as a web designer, making 50 copies of his first single with home equipment and personal credit cards. He released his first 12" record, ''Check the Blueprints'' in 2003 on his own imprint, Plug Label. Of the 50 copies that were eventually distributed around the world, one reached a tiny record store in Tokyo, Japan. A few weeks later, it was found by a Japanese DJ who played it at a club that night and received dozens of inquiries, including a Japanese label executive who immediately contacted Kero One and asked for 3,000 copies of the record. In 2012, Kero one released his fourth solo album, ''Color Theory'', which raised over $10k from fans to pay for the mastering and engineering costs through

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

. His lead single "What Am I Supposed to Do" charted on

Radio Nova (France) Radio Nova (or simply ''Nova'') is a radio station broadcast from Paris, created in 1981 by Jean-François Bizot. Its playlist is characterized by non-mainstream or underground artists of various music genres, such as electro, new wave, reggae, ...

, J*Wave Japan, and WDR Funkhaus europa radio in Germany. The song received a major endorsement from Stevie Wonder, who asked Kero One to perform it at Wonder's 17th Annual House Full of Toys Benefit Concert on December 15, 2012 at Nokia Live Theatre with

Bruno Mars Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is known for his stage performances, retro showmanship, and for performing in a wide range of musical s ...

. Later, Kero One formed a new collaboration project, Kesna Music with

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

singer Esna Yoon. They released their single "Is It Love?" on July 16, 2013. In 2015, Kero One brought his signature jazz-hop sound to Korea, producing a song called "Ordinary Love" for Korean rapper

Park Kyung Park Kyung (Korean: 박경; born July 8, 1992), also known as just Kyung, is a South Korean rapper and record producer. He is a member of the group Block B. Career Pre-debut Park Kyung started his rapping career by promoting underground al ...

Block B Block B ( ko, 블락비) is a South Korean boy band managed by KQ Entertainment, and consists of seven members: Taeil, B-Bomb, Jaehyo, U-Kwon, Park Kyung, Zico, and P.O. Block B has received several accolades, including nominations for seven ...

and

Park Bo-Ram Park Bo-ram (; born March 1, 1994) is a South Korean singer. She took a part in Mnet's ''SuperStar K2'' and finished in eighth place. Park made her debut with release digital single "Beautiful" featuring Zico on August 7, 2014. That year, she ...

, which hit #1 on Melon charts. Later that year, Kero One released a future soul album under the alias "Kero Uno", called ''Reflection (noitcelfer) Eternal'' which made it to Reddit's ListenToThis best of 2015 albums list. Also in 2016, South Korean longboarder Hyo Joo Ko used Kero One's 2012 song "So Seductive" in one of her Instagram videos. When Kero One reposted the video on his Facebook page it went viral, reaching 26 million views. The viral video brought Hyo Joo Ko international fame and renewed interest in Kero One's older song.

Highlights

* 5th Best Indie hiphop of 2004 on MSN music * 4th Most Downloaded artist on Cnet's Download.com * 2nd selling underground hiphop album on HMV and Tower Records Japan * 2nd most downloaded album on iTunes Japan * Landed on Reddit's ListenToThis best of 2015 albums list

Discography

Albums

Singles

Collaborative works

References

External links

KERO ONE - BIOGRAPHYReviews of Windmills of the SoulWindmills of the Soul : rapnews.co.ukKinetic World : Lesson SixDJ Deckstream - Soundtrack 1.5Nomak Re-Calm

Allhiphop.com review
(February 26, 2006)
Platform8470 interview April 12, 2009
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kero One American musicians of Korean descent American rappers of Asian descent Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area Hip hop record producers Musical groups established in 2003 Living people Rappers from the San Francisco Bay Area 21st-century American rappers Year of birth missing (living people)