Jensen-Gerard Karp is an American producer, writer, actor, podcaster, gallerist, and former rapper. Previously known by his stage name Hot Karl, he signed a record deal with

Interscope Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...

in his early 20s and has gone on to produce and write for television and radio.

Career

Music

Karp was raised in

Calabasas, California Calabasas (, ; Spanish language in California, Spanish for "winter squash, squashes") is a city in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. After a brief stint in hip-hop at 11 years old signed for management to

Ice-T Tracy Lauren Marrow (born February 16, 1958), known professionally as Ice-T (or Ice T), is an American rapper and actor. He is active in both hip hop music, hip hop and heavy metal music, heavy metal. Ice-T began his career as an underground r ...

's Rhyme Syndicate, Karp entered the Roll Call freestyle competition on Los Angeles radio station

Power 106 KPWR (105.9 FM) – branded as ''Power 106'' – is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area. KPWR is owned and operated by Alex Meruelo's Meruelo Group, through licensee KPWR Radio Ho ...

, during his time at

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

, where he lasted a record 45 days on air to become the show's all-time champion. Karp created a demo exhibiting his satirical style and tightly wound rhymes. He eventually signed with

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...

for what he said was a million dollars, where he recorded what was to be his debut album, ''Your Housekeeper Hates You'', which included

guest appearance The term guest appearance generally denotes the appearance of a guest in an artistic or pop-culture setting. The guests themselves (referred to as guest artists, featured artists, guest stars, or guest fighters, depending on context), are disting ...

s by Redman,

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "will I am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the frontman of the musical group Black Eyed Peas, which he ...

DJ Quik David Marvin Blake (born January 18, 1970), better known by his stage names DJ Quik or Da Quiksta, is an American rapper and record producer from Compton, California, known for his production in the G-funk style of West Coast hip-hop. Blake has ...

Fabolous John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), known professionally as Fabolous, is an American rapper. Raised in Brooklyn, he first gained recognition for his ability upon performing live on DJ Clue's WQHT, Hot 97 radio show. Jackson then signed ...

Mýa Mya Marie Harrison (; born October 10, 1979), known professionally as Mýa, is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer, and actress. She was born in Washington D.C. and studied ballet, jazz, and tap dance as a child. Her ca ...

Sugar Ray Sugar Ray is an American rock band formed in Newport Beach, California, in 1986. Originally playing heavier funk metal and nu metal style music, the band achieved mainstream popularity in 1997 with their more pop-influenced single " Fly". Th ...

DJ Clue Ernesto Shaw (born January 8, 1975), better known as DJ Clue (often stylized as DJ Clue?), is an American disc jockey (DJ), record producer, radio personality and record executive. Early life DJ Clue was born in Queens, New York City to Pana ...

, and

MC Serch Michael Berrin (born May 6, 1967), better known by his stage name MC Serch, is an American rapper and record executive. He gained fame as part of the hip hop group 3rd Bass, who were active in the late 1980s and early 1990s and released three s ...

. However, Interscope informed Karl that his album could not be commercially released due to scheduling conflicts and he decided to leave Interscope. Jensen released his memoir, ''Kanye West Owes Me $300 (and other true stories from a white rapper who ALMOST made it big)'', detailing the entire experience in June 2016 with

Crown Books Crown Books was a bookseller headquartered in Prince George's County, Maryland, with a Largo post office address. It was founded in the Washington, D.C., metro area by Robert Haft in 1977. Crown Books (retail) is of no relation to Crown Boo ...

. In 2013, Karp recorded his first song in 10 years for his favorite basketball team, the

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. The ...

, at the request of DJ Dense, the team's in-arena DJ. In 2016, Karp recorded a song titled "Like Riding a Bike", featuring

Mike Shinoda Michael Kenji Shinoda ( ; born February 11, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and is the band's co-lead vocalist, as well as rhythm guitarist, ...

from

Linkin Park Linkin Park is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Agoura Hills, California, in 1996. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn, bass ...

, which is available on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

Radio

In October 2018, Karp joined the cast of the ''

Kevin and Bean ''Kevin and Bean'' was the morning show on KROQ-FM, an alternative rock- format radio station in Los Angeles, California. It was hosted by Kevin Ryder and Gene "Bean" Baxter. The show was on the air from 1990 to 2019 and interspersed music and n ...

'' morning show, hosted by Kevin Ryder and Gene "Bean" Baxter on alternative rock station

KROQ KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The sta ...

106.7 FM in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He had a regular segment called "Get Up on This", based on his podcast. On March 18, 2020, it was announced that the entire morning crew had been let go by KROQ, over the phone at the start of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It was reported that the station lost half its audience in the 2 weeks after letting them go as office and car listening fell rapidly across America as the pandemic emerged.

Television

Karp was a writer for

WWE Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE. It currently airs Live television, live every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Netflix. The show fe ...

for seven months during 2006. He also appeared on Season 1 of VH1's ''

Barely Famous ''Barely Famous'' is an American reality television parody on VH1. The first season was 6 episodes broadcast on Wednesday nights at 9:30, starting March 18, 2015. On April 28, 2015 VH1 announced that the show had been renewed for a second six-ep ...

'' playing Erin Foster's boyfriend and was seen numerous times on the final season of '' Candidly Nicole''. Karp also appeared on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

's ''

@midnight ''@midnight with Chris Hardwick'' (shortened to and formerly exclusively titled ''@midnight'') is an American late night Internet-themed panel game show, hosted by Chris Hardwick, that aired Monday through Thursday nights between October 21, ...

''. which aired 31 episodes starting in 2017. Karp was credited as an executive producer for 7 episodes. Karp has written for Sacha Baron Cohen's

Who Is America? ''Who Is America?'' is an American political satire mockumentary-style television series created by Sacha Baron Cohen that premiered on July 15, 2018, on Showtime. Baron Cohen also stars in the series as various characters and executive produces ...

The Grammys, The ESPYs, The MTV Movie Awards, The Masked Singer, and the NFL on Fox.

Art

Karp co-owns and operates Gallery 1988, two pop art focused galleries in Los Angeles, California both located on

Melrose Avenue Melrose Avenue (sometimes referred to simply as "Melrose") is a shopping, dining and entertainment destination in Los Angeles, California, starting at Santa Monica Boulevard at the border between Beverly Hills, California, Beverly Hills and W ...

. He co-wrote the book ''Just Can't Get Enough'' for

Abrams Books Abrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (HNA), is an American publisher of art and illustrated books, children's books, and stationery. The enterprise is a subsidiary of the French publisher Média-Participations. Run by president and CEO Mar ...

with Matthew Robinson. Gallery 1988 is well known for its

Kevin Smith Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He came to prominence with the low-budget buddy comedy film ''Clerks (film), Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted i ...

hosted annual show, ''Crazy 4 Cult'', where 100 artists reinterpret classic cult movies in their own style. At one time, Karp was also the brand manager and designer for

Pete Wentz Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III (born June 5, 1979) is an American musician who is the bassist and lyricist for the rock band Fall Out Boy. Before the band's formation in 2001, Wentz was a fixture of the Chicago hardcore scene and was the lead si ...

's Clandestine Industries. His marketing company, Tyson/Givens Design & Marketing created the LOST Underground Art Project for the show's final season and worked with the TV show ''

Breaking Bad ''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan for AMC (TV channel), AMC. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Breaking Bad), Walter White (Bryan Cran ...

''. The gallery has also hosted exhibits for movies including ''

The Avengers Avenger(s) or The Avenger(s) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Marvel Comics universe * Avengers (comics), a team of superheroes **Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a central team of protagonist superheroes of "The Infinity Sag ...

'', ''

Rick and Morty ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated science fiction Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The series follows the misadvent ...

'' and '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens''.

Podcasts

On July 1, 2020, Karp and his wife,

Danielle Fishel Danielle Christine Fishel ( ; born May 5, 1981) is an American actress and director. She began her career in theater, appearing in community productions of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''Peter Pan''. She made her debut as an actress shortly after, m ...

, started a new podcast called ''Talk Ain't Cheap'', where they analyze and dissect the Cameo accounts of celebrities. They also launched a Patreon account that grants early access to the show, as well as other podcasts and an interactive Instagram game show called Scorantine. The podcast has drawn criticism as the idea was stolen from the Canadian podcast ''Blocked Party.'' The show was originally called ''Word Up!'' which is a direct copy of ''Blocked Party'''s segment title. Since the summer of 2022 Karp has been producing the podcast

Pod Meets World ''Pod Meets World'' is a rewatch podcast hosted by Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, and Will Friedle. The hosts rewatch episodes of their 1990s sitcom ''Boy Meets World'', share behind-the-scenes memories, and interview other actors and producer ...

in which three cast members from the 90s sitcom ''

Boy Meets World ''Boy Meets World'' is an American coming-of-age sitcom created by Michael Jacobs and April Kelly that aired on ABC for seven seasons between September1993 and May2000. The series centers on Cory Matthews ( Ben Savage) and his friends and f ...

'',

Rider Strong Rider King Strong (born December 11, 1979) is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for starring as Shawn Hunter on the ABC sitcom ''Boy Meets World'' (1993–2000), which he reprised in its sequel series '' G ...

Will Friedle Will Friedle (; born August 11, 1976) is an American actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as List of Boy Meets World characters#Eric Matthews, Eric Matthews in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC sitcom ''Boy Meets World'' (19 ...

, and Karp's wife

, watch episodes of the show, and share behind the scenes stories of what it was like to make the show.

Personal life

On July 4, 2017, towards the end of episode #303 of his podcast ''Get Up On This'', he announced that he was dating actress

. The two attended high school together but only began a romantic relationship after reconnecting as adults. On March 22, 2018, Fishel and Karp got engaged. They married on November 4, 2018. Fishel announced in January 2019 that she and Karp were expecting their first child in July 2019. After the couple got married in 2018, the couple started a family with the birth of their son Adler Lawrence Karp on June 24, 2019, a month early. Their son spent three weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. There was fluid that was found in Adler's lungs that had not been present prior to that. Over two years later, Fishel and Karp celebrated the arrival of their second son, Keaton Joseph Karp on August 29, 2021

In popular culture

Karp appeared on ''

The Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...

'' in 2011 to talk about his time in the rap industry and perform The Roll Call with Howard & Lisa G. He also acted as the Creative Director at comedy

YouTube Channel YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in San B ...

, Jash, where he produced and wrote on projects like The ArScheerio Paul Show and the

Chance the Rapper Chancelor Johnathan Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, he released his debut mixtape '' 10 Day'' (2012) during one of his high school suspension ...

music video for "Na Na.". He has written for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', the ESPYs, the MTV Movie and Video Awards, ''

The Late Late Show with James Corden ''The Late Late Show with James Corden'' (also known simply as ''Late Late'') is an American late-night talk show that aired on CBS from 2015 to 2023. It is the fourth and final iteration of '' The Late Late Show'', and aired in the United Sta ...

,'' and ''

Funny or Die Funny or Die, Inc. is a comedy video website and production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a regular staf ...

''.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch incident

On March 22, 2021, Karp

tweeted A tweet (officially known as a post since 2023) is a short status update on the social networking site Twitter (officially known as X since 2023) which can include images, videos, GIFs, straw polls, hashtags, mentions, and hyperlinks. Around ...

a photograph of apparent discarded

shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...

tails he claimed to have found in a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch he purchased, despite the facility not producing a single product containing shrimp. Additionally, Karp said he found a piece of string, "small black pieces" embedded into some pieces of the cereal, and an object that looked like a pea. The tweet about the alleged incident went viral, bringing safety concerns in

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

' manufacturing process into question. General Mills later issued a statement on Twitter claiming the tails were "an accumulation of the cinnamon sugar that sometimes can occur when ingredients aren't thoroughly blended". A company representative claimed “that there’s no possibility of cross contamination with shrimp." On March 23, General Mills claimed the company was investigating the case, but that contamination "did not occur at

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

facility." Karp's presence on Twitter ceased at the time of this incident, alongside concurrent accusations of emotional abuse and

gaslighting Gaslighting is the manipulation of someone into questioning their perception of reality. The term derives from the 1944 film ''Gaslight (1944 film), Gaslight'' and became popular in the mid-2010s. Some mental health experts have expressed c ...

by former romantic partners. His last tweet was posted on 24 March 2021.

Bibliography

*''Just Can't Get Enough'' (2007) Co-written with Matthew Robinson *''Kanye West Owes Me $300: And Other True Stories from a White Rapper Who Almost Made It Big'' (2016)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Karp, Jensen 1979 births 21st-century American rappers 21st-century American male musicians American male singers American film and television podcasters Living people Entertainers from Calabasas, California Rappers from California