Louie

Louie is the solo debut album from American hip hop producer Kenny Beats, released on August 31, 2022, by XL Recordings. The album was recorded in December 2021. CD and vinyl releases are set for January 27, 2023. The album is mostly instrumental, but features guest appearances from artists including Vince Staples, Slowthai, JPEGMafia, Thundercat, and Remi Wolf. Background Per a press release, the album is "an almost entirely instrumental artist record that acts as a deeply personal tribute to [Beats]' ailing father" who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Beats first learned about his father's diagnosis in early 2021 while he was in Bath, Somerset, England producing Idles' 2021 album Crawler. After ruminating for most of the year, Beats assembled the entire album in December of that year. Beats said that he previously "didn't have anything to say" to make a solo album out of, but channeled his feelings from that time to make an album that "encapsulated the feeling of that one month", also described as "something dark turned into something beautiful." The album tributes Beats' father, a former radio DJ, by recreating the vibe of mixtapes that the elder Kenneth Blume had made throughout in the 1990s while his son was young. The album announcement was preceded by four song snippets all titled "Louie" which were uploaded to YouTube, and was announced along with the album's cover art and track list. A large portion of the album is made up of voice clips of conversations between Beats and his father, assembled by Beats across 2021 leading up to the recording of the project, some from Beats' childhood in the 1990s and others in his adulthood. The album opens on a conversation between the two telling the story of how Beats received the nickname Louie, and the track "The Perch" has the elder Blume introducing a radio show on the namesake fictional station as part of one of his mixtapes. Beats originally intended the project only as a gift to his father, but after a positive reaction from his close friends he decided to share it publicly. Beats cited Aphex Twin, D'Angelo, and Björk as inspirations. Live Beats performed three songs from the album for an episode of NPR Musics Tiny Desk Concert series on February 13, 2023. He played drums alongside keyboardist/saxophonist Leon Michels, bassist Nick Movshon, and guest vocalists JPEGMafia, Remi Wolf, and Nami.