Keith Michael Whitehead (born October 10, 1985 in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

), popularly known by his

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Koncept, is an American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

, emcee and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

. A former employee at Fat Beats, Koncept started out drawing graffiti and also had a short stint as a DJ before he went on to start writing songs and doing freestyles until he released his first EP in 2010 titled ''Playing Life''. In 2012, he had his first break with his debut solo album titled '' Awaken'' which featured

guest appearances In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other p ...

from

Soul Khan Noah Weston, better known as Soul Khan (born April 18, 1985) is an American rapper and songwriter. Born in West Hollywood and raised in Woodland Hills, California. He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York City. After a short career in battle ra ...

Homeboy Sandman Angel Del Villar II (born September 24, 1980), better known by his stage name Homeboy Sandman, is an American rapper from Elmhurst, Queens, New York, United States. Career Homeboy Sandman recorded and released his first EP, ''Nourishment'', in M ...

Royce da 5'9" Ryan Daniel Montgomery, known professionally as Royce da 5'9" (or simply Royce 5'9"), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Montgomery is currently one half of the rap duo Bad Meets Evil with fellow Detroit rapper Eminem, and ...

and Sene with production credits from J57 and

Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...

. In 2015, he collaborated with J57 to release an EP titled ''

The Fuel ''The Fuel'' is a collaborative EP by Brooklyn-based rappers Koncept and J57. Released through KON57 Records, the EP features vocal appearances from Hollis, Akie Bermiss, The Grand Concourse, Dice Raw, Denitia, Andrew Thomas Reid and Nevaeh. B ...

'' which had its fair share of positive review from notable magazines including '' Respect Magazine'', ''DJ Booth'', ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group. ...

'' and ''

The Source ''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the ma ...

''.

Early life

Koncept was born and raised in Queens, New York City. He went to high school in

Warwick, New York Warwick is a town in the southwestern part of Orange County, New York, United States. Its population was 32,027 at the 2020 census. The town contains three villages (Florida, Greenwood Lake, and Warwick) and eight hamlets ( Amity, Bellvale, Ed ...

and attended Community College in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...

where he used to DJ at nights. Koncept majored in

Graphic Design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

. In 2007, he started working at Fat Beats, a New York City-based hip hop records store where he met producer and music partner J57 as well as the group called

Brown Bag AllStars The Brown Bag AllStars is an American rap group made up of J57, The Audible Doctor, Soul Khan, DeeJay Element and DJ E Holla. The group's repertoire of East Coast hip hop and underground hip hop blended with hard-core rap lyrics won them a sp ...

Career

Koncept's professional music career started in 2007 while working at Fat Beats. In 2009, he released a 13-track EP titled ''Resilience'' and went on to release ''Playing Life'' and ''More Than Meets The Eye'' EPs in 2010 and 2011 respectively. He made a guest appearance on

DJ Concept DJ Concept is DJ and music producer from Long Island, New York. He is the co-founder of The Bash Brothers DJ Crew along with DJ Mickey Knox. Biography Between 2001 & 2007, Concept linked up with producer/mc Undefined to form the group Crisis Cente ...

's ''

Heavy Smoke Heavy Smoke is the first fully produced album by DJ Concept. The album features Famoso, Koncept Keith Michael Whitehead (born October 10, 1985 in Queens, New York City, United States), popularly known by his stage name Koncept, is an American ...

'' album released in 2011. On 24 October 2012, Koncept released a single off his 2012 debut album ''Awaken'' titled "Watch The Sky Fall" with vocal appearance from

. In 2014, he was part of the 2014 annual Brown Bag AllStars ''A Year in Review'' mixtape which featured guest appearances from

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...

and

Phantogram Phantogram may refer to: *Phantogram (band) *Phantogram (optical illusion) Phantograms, also known as Phantaglyphs, Op-Ups, free-standing anaglyphs, levitated images, and book anaglyphs, are a form of optical illusion. Phantograms use perspectiv ...

. On 20 November 2015, Koncept released a joint EP with J57 entitled ''

'' with preceding singles like "The Fuel", "Porcelain", "Excitement" and "Crazy is Beautiful" which were received to critical acclaim. ''The Fuel'' featured guest appearances from notable artistes including

Hollis Hollis may refer to: *Hollis (singer) *Hollis (name) Places * Hollis, Alaska * Hollis, Kansas * Hollis, Maine * Hollis, Missouri * Hollis, New Hampshire * Hollis, Oklahoma * Hollis, Queens, neighborhood in New York **Hollis (LIRR station), its Lon ...

, Akie Bermiss and

Dice Raw Karl Jenkins, better known as Dice Raw, is an American hip hop artist, from Philadelphia. He is associated with The Roots, and the now defunct musical group Nouveau Riche. He hooked up with the band while still in high school after Kelo, a membe ...

. In 2017, he moved to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

where he performed at several shows, featured vocals on Part Time Cooks "Calling Me" and then signed a

record deal A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

with Sony Music Asia and Vismajor Company, a Korean record label. On 9 June 2017, he released ''14 Hours Ahead'' through his record label Champagne Konny Inc. with support from Sony Music Asia.

Discography

Studio albums

*'' Awaken'' (2012) *''14 Hours Ahead'' (2017) *Champagne Konny (2019)

EPs

*''Resilience'' (2009) *''Playing Life'' (2011) *''More Than Meets The Eye'' (2011) *''Malt Disney'' (2013) *''Live On'' (2013) *''Malt Disney (J57 Remix)'' (2013) *''

''(with J57) (2015)

Selected guest appearances

References

External links

* *
Official website
{{Authority control 1985 births Living people Rappers from New York City People from Queens, New York American hip hop musicians American male rappers 21st-century American rappers 21st-century American male musicians