Kenny Mason: BULLDAWG

Fusing hip-hop with other genres can lead to rap being treated as a more acceptable version of itself, even though rap has long drawn from other music. Cross-genre respect has produced major collaborations and shared sounds across divides. Kenny Mason, an Atlanta rapper, aims to remove the separation between rap and rock for a new generation. His underground approach combines trap 808s with guitar-driven textures and ballad-like crooning, while maintaining rap flow over crunchy rock instrumentation. He frames his work as genuine love for rapping and rock music, acknowledging barriers tied to being Black and embracing that tension as a punk stance. His album BULLDAWG channels rap, rock, and gospel throughout.

"Fusing hip-hop with other genres comes with the inherent risk of the rap half being seen as a more accessible-or, even worse, respectable-version of itself. The phenomenon of rock fans, in particular, needing a gateway in order to respect rap is nearly as old as the genre itself; hilarious, considering it all derives from Black music in some way. But it's only natural that some of the most vital sounds in the history of rap-a form largely founded on collaging other types of music-would come from mutual respect across divides."

"Since the time he started out as a member of the short-lived collective House 9, Atlanta rapper Kenny Mason has made it his mission to erase the line separating rap from rock for a new generation. His synthesis has been one of the least superficial to bubble out of the underground in the last decade; he's not afraid to croon a ballad fit for Deftones over turnt trap 808s or effortlessly flow over crunchy guitar lines that wouldn't sound foreign on a Show Me the Body record."

""A lot of rappers act like they don't even like rapping. I like rapping, bro. I like trying. And I feel the same with rock music," he recently said. "There are certain spaces I am not in that I should be in-because I'm Black, to be honest. But the irony is that is a punk position to have. I'm wearing it on my sleeve.""

"On BULLDAWG, Mason's third studio album, his passion for his pet sounds-rap, rock, and just a splash of gospel-floods out of every corner. Aspects of Mason's approach to the rap-rock hybrid seem reverse-engineered from the process of nu-metal bands like Slipknot or Korn. Instead of surface-level hip-hop signifiers-record scratches, echoing samples, the occasi"

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