14KT

Hailing from Ypsilanti, Michigan, Kendall Tucker first drew notice for his sample-chopping prowess while also proving capable on drum programming and keyboards. He surfaced as part of Athletic Mic League, the rap collective centered in nearby Ann Arbor. His earliest solo release arrived late in the 2000s via the instrumental album The Golden Hour (2008). From there he kept developing, folding together disparate influences that stretched from the grittiest funk to the starkest post-punk. His later albums comprise Nowalataz (2009), the Mello Music Group releases A Friendly Game of KT (2012) and Nickel & Dimed (2013), the independently issued Elelator (2015), and 14KillaTape: Redux (also 2015) on Street Corner Music. Outside his own work, Tucker has supplied beats for dozens of tracks by Invincible, One Be Lo, Danny Brown, the Black Opera, I, Ced, and Elzhi. He has further joined forces with Athletic Mic League alumnus Mayer Hawthorne on The Big Knock under the Jaded Incorporated name and with Aaron "AB" Abernathy on Saturn Return, each project markedly removed from his typical output.