Kenna Zemedkun spent the first three years of his life with his grandfather
in Ethiopia, where his family was from. His mother and father had left the
country soon after his birth to escape persecution from the new government,
moving first to England and then to the U.S. Kenna eventually joined his parents
in Cincinnati when he was three years old -- however, he spent his formative
years in the place that really affected his music: Virginia Beach. It was there
that a friend lent him a copy of U2's Joshua Tree, an album that profoundly
changed Kenna's perspective on how an album could sound. Soon, he started
teaching himself how to play the piano and studied singers like Stevie Wonder
and Marvin Gaye, as well as listened to his fair share of bands like the Cure
and Duran Duran.
Kenna didn't decide to make music his career, however, until college, when he
realized that the more standard route of formal education wasn't the right one
for him. Teaming up with high-school friend Chad Hugo (of the Neptunes), Kenna
set to work making demo tapes. One of these eventually made its way to Atlantic,
and then to Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, who had recently started his own imprint,
Flawless, on Geffen/Interscope. Durst was impressed by what he heard and gave
Kenna (with production help from Hugo) the go-ahead to make his own album.
Unfortunately, when it was completed, Durst was unable to get the backing from
Interscope to release it, and let the musician go (among other things, the label
was unsure how to promote the album, as it didn't fit into any one market).
Record in hand, Kenna found a new home at Columbia, which eventually issued New
Sacred Cow in 2003.
His sophomore effort faced similar problems. Although it was mostly completed by
2005, again he had trouble finding a label to put it out. To help fill the
ever-growing space between albums, Kenna released the EP The Black Goodbye with
help from the Neptunes-run Star Trak in 2006. Finally, signed back to Interscope,
his second full-length, Make Sure They See My Face, was released in October 2007
(and not without its share of delays and changes, of course).
Kenna took part in a record of «Red To Black» and «The Hard Way»
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