“Chacho,” says KEVVO from across the couch, “I’m faranduleando up and down the place!” If you’ve ever stumbled upon the 21-year-old’s Instagram account, you’d know this to be true already. KEVVO, a toabajeño through and through, has amassed a fast following from posting all about his urbano star escapades since entering the scene this year — that means shirtless photos, iced out accessories and videos featuring his “son,” a red Build-a-Bear by the name of KEVVITO. And when he rolls up to the Remezcla offices, he’s still sporting the markers of a rapper on the rise: crimson caesar cut, neon shades and OFWGKTA bomber on full display. Yet his wide-eyed wonder unexpectedly gives him away. “This is only my second time in New York,” he tells me, “And in reality, I feel like I’m in a movie.”
KEVVO wasn’t expecting any of this. Having already collaborated with the likes of Farruko, Myke Towers, Arcangel, Darell, Ñengo Flow, Brytiago and Chencho on his hit remix for “105 F,” you would think the young Puerto Rican rapper has been rubbing shoulders with urbano’s big shots for ages. Yet only a few years ago, KEVVO was busy working at a car wash and cutting hair (“I did like cutting hair, cause you know, that’s a talent too,”) all to support his entry into music.
“I just started producing, I started recording vocals, making instrumentals for other people, but I wasn’t expecting it,” he explains when it comes to getting scouted by producer Pepe Quintana. “I knew it was going to come,” he says with confidence, “But I thought it was going to come later.” So much later, that he was floored when he received a call from Quintana’s team.
“These are the calls that everyone says they get — like, ‘One day I was in my house, and they called me, it just happened’ — well, in this case it happened for me,” he recalls, “I couldn’t believe it, you know?” His humility comes from a place of real diligence for his craft. So don’t let the newcomer’s place in the scene fool you; KEVVO’s been entrenched in rap and reggaeton since he was a child. He started listening and learning from the work of contemporaries like Daddy Yankee and Drake — KEVVO has a not-so-secret love affair for American trap, rap and hip-hop over his native island’s reggaeton — from as early as eight years old.
“My dad was the first person I saw producing from a computer, and I wanted to do the same thing that my dad was doing,” he remembers. “It was mind-blowing, how he could make a song right in his house.” It wasn’t long before KEVVO found himself behind his own laptop, producing and songwriting on SoundCloud for years until his big break came. Already, he was seasoned enough to collaborate with the likes of some of his biggest idols on “105 F” remix.
“[The remix] is a mix of the artists of today and the one’s I grew up listening to. These are artists that I’ve been dying to work with [and] I wanted to collaborate with, but I didn’t see that happening — maybe because we were all just on the same wave, you know?” KEVVO admits. “I didn’t expect that support. [But] to see all those artists collaborating with you one that one song? It was cool,” he adds, genuinely.
“I was a part of the whole process,” KEVVO explains. He didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to observe all other seven artists on the track. “[I saw] how every artist has a style and their own creative process. I learned so much from them, and I get inspired.” And taking a nod from his collaborators, KEVVO is on a blazing path full of mega collaborations, remixes and tours – all certain to unfold in 2020.
