BIO
Born Mark Mbogo, KayCyy spent the first 9 years of his life in Kenya before he and his family left behind the warmth of the Southern hemisphere for the icy cold of Minnesota. Growing up around St. Paul, he remembers playing soccer, singing in church, and eventually jumping into the sounds of artists like Ye, Michael Jackson, Drake, and James Blake. “They pushed the culture forward,” he says. “They weren’t doing what was already done.”
While he was inspired by those legends, it was his brother’s talent show that helped push KayCyy toward music. He’d already been steeped in gospel, but seeing his brother rehearse Ye’s “Heartless” for a middle school showcase sparked something in him. KayCyy’s father bought him his first MacBook, and with that and a Guitar Hero microphone, KayCyy began recording his first songs through GarageBand. He wasn’t all that pleased with his initial offerings. “I didn't like how it sounded when I recorded it,” he says, but he was able to identify the problem. “I didn't know how to pace myself.”
KayCyy would master his timing, but his music would have a momentum of its own. After serving up R&B covers of songs like Trey Songz’s “Love Faces” and Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” in his late teens (then as KayCyy Pluto), he began gaining traction when he released “Weekend Thir$t.” Mixing traditional singing and adventurous melodic flows, the track saw his instincts as an aesthete crystallize. The song earned over 100,000 streams on SoundCloud.
In 2016, KayCyy got the opportunity to move to New York to focus on making music. He jumped at the opportunity despite the wishes of strict parents who wanted him to focus on school. By 2018, he’d not only dropped a couple of underground mixtapes, but also connected with his manager, Ambrose Inman, and music executive, Abou “Bu” Thiam. With their backing, KayCyy landed features with Maino and Casanova, a writing credit on Lil Wayne's Funeral (2020), and, two years later, an in-person introduction to Ye out in Los Angeles.
Impressed by KayCyy’s melodies, Ye would spend plenty of time with him in the studio over nearly two years—what KayCyy would come to call the “Yeezy School of Music”—with some of their collaborations landing on Donda. His delicate, yet expressive vocals on “Keep My Spirit Alive” in particular earned him fandom and critical respect. “It’s mind-blowing to this day,” says KayCyy of connecting with the rap guru—a collaboration that resulted in KayCyy’s first GRAMMY nod when Donda was nominated for Album of the Year. His credits on Donda also include the #1 single, “Hurricane”, featuring The Weeknd and Lil Baby, “Praise God” featuring Travis Scott and Baby Keem, and “24”.
Now KayCyy is laser-focused on finishing his debut album, Who Is KayCyy, a project he laid the ground for via independent albums like 2020’s Patient Enough, which included a Lil Baby feature, and 2021’s Ups & Downs, a set that laid his emotions bare like none before. KayCyy’s forthcoming re-introduction will be laced with all the inventive, melodious stylings he’s known for, and so much more. But another part of that work is being a release valve for his fans and their feelings. “The ones that don’t got a voice can find one through mine,” shares KayCyy, who takes pride in speaking it how he sees it. It’s a weight that gets even heavier when you’re on a mission to shift the culture, something he works toward each day in the studio. “I'm in a great position,” he says. “But there’s still work to do.”
