Kenny Allstar

DJ/producer/broadcaster Kenny Allstar has made it his mission to weave the disparate threads that run through London’s urban scene, dipping into genres such as dancehall, grime, and U.K. drill. Perhaps more impressively, he brings together collaborators from various areas of London who would have fought each other as rivals — he asked them to put aside their differences in service to the music. Although he has been pushing for peace on every platform available, it’s his debut album, 2018′s Block Diaries, that best demonstrates how well cross-collaboration can work. Born in South London in 1993, Allstar grew up in a household without a television, thus the radio became his go-to form of entertainment through which he fell in love with music and broadcasting in general. In his teen years, grime was at its peak and he would regularly head down to the local youth club to record bars with his friends. Finding that MC’ing wasn’t quite his tempo, he focused more on DJ’ing and producing, taking influence from the likes of Logan Sama and Mistajam. As the years went by and the number of youth clubs began diminishing, he vowed to provide creative spaces for young artists to express themselves, this led to his long-running series Mad About Bars, which was hosted on Mixtape Madness’ channel. The aim of the series was to bring together artists who wouldn’t usually work together, either through choice or circumstance; the popularity of the show landed Allstar broadcasting gigs at both Reprezent and Radar Radio. As his star began to rise, he caught the attention of the BBC, who brought him aboard for a show on BBC 1Xtra. By this point Allstar had become a respected figure in the scene, which allowed him to pull together a wide variety of artists in aid of a full-length album, 2019′s Block Diaries, which was designed to collate every aspect of London-based urban music. The album featured numerous producers, MCs, and spoken word entries, including appearances from Headie One, Hardy Caprio, Nafe Smallz, Mike Skinner, and M Huncho, to name but a few. ~ Liam Martin