Allan Kingdom

A rapper who made his official debut alongside Sia and a Beatle, Allan Kingdom went from a relative unknown to a Kanye West feature in 2015. Born in Canada, Kingdom launched his rap career at church at the age of nine. A fellow parishioner turned him on to hip-hop, and with his help, Kingdom recorded a Christian rap album before he turned ten. Ten years later, Kingdom was in St. Paul, Minnesota with a husky voice and lyrics that fell somewhere between hardcore and indie. He produced, wrote, and released the Talk to Strangers EP in 2013, followed a year later by the Future Memoirs EP. In 2015, he worked with producer Plain Pat and Kanye West, and joined Sia and Paul McCartney as guests on West’s So Help Me God album. Kingdom’s 2016 Northern Lights mixtape featured guests spots from Chronixx, Jared Evan, and D.R.A.M., and was followed in early 2017 by a full-length LP, Lines. The EP Peanut Butter Prince arrived in 2018, and included the single “Globe.” ~ David Jeffries