Keith Michael Whitehead (born October 10, 1985, in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

), popularly known by his

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Koncept, is an American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

, singer and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

. A former employee at Fat Beats, Koncept started out drawing graffiti and also had a short stint as a DJ before he went on to start writing songs and doing freestyles until he released his first EP in 2010 titled ''Playing Life''. In 2012, he had his first break with his debut solo album titled '' Awaken'' which featured

guest appearances 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 ...

from Soul Khan,

Homeboy Sandman Angel Del Villar II (born September 24, 1980), better known by his stage name Homeboy Sandman, is an American rapper from Elmhurst, Queens, New York, United States. Career Homeboy Sandman recorded and released his first EP, ''Nourishment'', in M ...

Royce da 5'9" Ryan Daniel Montgomery (born July 5, 1977), known professionally as Royce da 5'9" (or simply Royce 5'9"), is an American rapper. Best known for his association with fellow Detroit rapper Eminem, they became acquainted in 1997 and formed the hi ...

and Sene with production credits from J57 and

Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...

. In 2015, he collaborated with J57 to release an EP titled '' The Fuel'' which had its fair share of positive review from notable magazines including '' Respect Magazine'', ''DJ Booth'', ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of Hip hop music, hip hop music criticism and news. ''HipHopDX'' has over 3.5M monthly readers, the website encompassing hip hop news, interviews, music, and reviews. The website's founder and CEO is Sharath C ...

'' and ''

The Source The Source may refer to: Film and television * ''The Source'' (1918 film), 1918 American drama directed by George Melford * ''The Source'' (1999 film), a 1999 documentary film about the Beat generation * ''The Source'' (2002 film), a 2002 scienc ...

''.

Early life

Koncept was born and raised in Queens, New York City. He went to high school in

Warwick, New York Warwick is a town in the southwestern part of Orange County, New York, United States. Its population was 32,027 at the 2020 census. The town contains three villages (Florida, Greenwood Lake, and Warwick) and eight hamlets ( Amity, Bellvale, E ...

, and attended Community College in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

, where he used to DJ at nights. Koncept majored in

Graphic Design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

. In 2007, he started working at Fat Beats, a New York City-based hip hop records store where he met producer and music partner J57 as well as the group called

Brown Bag AllStars The Brown Bag AllStars is an American rap group made up of J57, The Audible Doctor, Soul Khan, DeeJay Element and DJ E Holla. The group's repertoire of East Coast hip hop and underground hip hop blended with hard-core rap lyrics won them a s ...

Career

Koncept's professional music career started in 2007 while working at Fat Beats. In 2009, he released a 13-track EP titled ''Resilience'' and went on to release ''Playing Life'' and ''More Than Meets The Eye'' EPs in 2010 and 2011 respectively. He made a guest appearance on DJ Concept's '' Heavy Smoke'' album released in 2011. On 24 October 2012, Koncept released a single off his 2012 debut album ''Awaken'' titled "Watch The Sky Fall" with vocal appearance from

. In 2014, he was part of the 2014 annual Brown Bag AllStars ''A Year in Review'' mixtape which featured guest appearances from

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and television producer. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, ...

and

Phantogram Phantogram may refer to: *Phantogram (band) Phantogram is an American music duo from Greenwich (town), New York, Greenwich, New York (state), New York, formed in 2007 and consisting of multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Sarah Barthel and Josh ...

. On 20 November 2015, Koncept released a joint EP with J57 entitled '' The Fuel'' with preceding singles like "The Fuel", "Porcelain", "Excitement" and "Crazy is Beautiful" which were received to critical acclaim. ''The Fuel'' featured guest appearances from notable artistes including Hollis, Akie Bermiss and Dice Raw. In 2017, he moved to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

where he performed at several shows, featured vocals on Part Time Cooks "Calling Me" and then signed a

record deal A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...

with Sony Music Asia and Vismajor Company, a Korean record label. On 9 June 2017, he released ''14 Hours Ahead'' through his record label Champagne Konny Inc. with support from Sony Music Asia.

Discography

Studio albums

*'' Awaken'' (2012) *''14 Hours Ahead'' (2017) *Champagne Konny (2019)

EPs

*''Resilience'' (2009) *''Playing Life'' (2011) *''More Than Meets The Eye'' (2011) *''Malt Disney'' (2013) *''Live On'' (2013) *''Malt Disney (J57 Remix)'' (2013) *'' The Fuel''(with J57) (2015)

Selected guest appearances

References

External links

* *
Official website
{{Authority control 1985 births Living people Rappers from Queens, New York American hip-hop musicians American male rappers 21st-century American rappers 21st-century American male musicians