Keon
NaVarr.

Music was always around me growing up. My mom and dad listened to soul, gospel, R&B, funk, disco, hip-hop, and pop. I was fascinated by how records sounded before I understood how they were made.

I started playing drums at church when I was five, then picked up trumpet and baritone in school band. My cousin Justin introduced me to Fruity Loops one summer, and I started making beats on our family computer. A couple of years later, my mom helped me get my first MIDI controller.

Around fifteen, I tried learning a song by ear on a keyboard at my grandmother’s house. I kept practicing and eventually started playing piano at church, then for other churches and groups.

The musicians at my friend JR’s church changed how I listened to gospel. I was also getting into ’90s hip-hop, sampling, and J Dilla. My best friend and I spent hours writing rhymes and freestyling over Dilla beats.

After college, I stepped away from producing for a few years to focus on my career. Eventually, I got back into music and started learning Logic Pro through YouTube tutorials.

I ran into violinist Eric Stanley at a grocery store. We connected over music, and he encouraged me to keep producing. He also signed me up to play at a local live music event.

Through someone at my gym, I reconnected with London Louis, a producer I’d met years earlier at Guitar Center. We formed a production duo called The Culture.

My first significant placement came with Verse Simmonds in 2016. That was also the year I bought my first DJ controller. I’d already been choosing the music at kickbacks and college parties, so getting behind the decks felt natural.

Placements with KR and Kiana Ledé followed, and later Tory Lanez’s “It Doesn’t Matter,” which reached radio and Billboard. I’ve also worked on unreleased music with Musiq Soulchild. I’d performed one of his songs at a talent show in high school, so that meant a lot.

I added turntables a few years after that first controller. These days, I’m still producing, playing keys, digging for records, making edits, and DJing.