Diverse

Diverse first gained notice in 2001, when Chicago critics hailed him as the city’s strongest MC to surface since Common. Born Kenny Jenkins, he wielded an expansive vocabulary and delivered intricate yet fluid rhymes that situated him in the cerebral wing of underground hip-hop and prompted frequent comparisons to Talib Kweli. Jenkins entered the world in Englewood, spent his childhood in various Chicago neighborhoods, and eventually settled in Rogers Park. As a teenager he began crafting lyrics but avoided performing for friends. After finishing high school in 1993 he accepted a baseball scholarship to Northern Illinois University, only to tear his anterior cruciate ligament in a football game and thereby end any athletic future. He returned to Rogers Park, took a mail-carrier post at the nearby National-Louis University branch, and spent the following years sharpening his rap technique. Working first with childhood friend and producer Matt Sibert and the experimental funk band Shag, he later met Chocolate Industries founder Seven, who signed him. Diverse’s debut project, the 2001 EP Move, featured a live band that included Isotope 217 bassist Matt Lux and jazz drummer-producer Ted Sirota. Its release allowed him to leave his day job and devote himself to music full-time. The EP also led Mos Def to appear on “Wylin Out,” a track for Chocolate Industries’ 2002 compilation Urban Renewal Program, which in turn introduced Diverse to the New York underground and created early demand for a full-length album. The non-album single “Build” surfaced in late summer 2002, and late the following year he issued One A.M., which received uniformly strong notices. The album showcased beats from RJD2, Madlib, and Prefuse 73, plus guest verses from Lyrics Born, Jean Grae, and Cannibal Ox’s Vast Aire.