Ken Aniah
Louisiana’s Next Up Rap Star
Coming from one of the hottest cities in the rap game, Baton Rouge, is an artist making his way to solidifying his stance within hip hop. With a theme of trappin’, Ken Aniah’s last projects, Trapland, Not Trap Music, and Trap Caesar, showcases an artist of unique talent that is building a foundation on creating music in a nonconventional way.
When listening and checking out Ken Aniah for the first time don’t expect to hear the typical, but a true creative style that can fascinate any rap fan, making you briefly forget that your favorite rapper still exists. From his showmanship, to his persona and his whole approach, to his artistry, all to go along with some pretty good music. Despite putting out a few projects this is just the beginning for Louisiana’s next star in the rap game.
As we get a chance to talk with Ken Aniah, we learn how big of a role music plays in Louisiana, how incarcerated rapper C-Murder has motivated and inspired him, and much more about the career of the up and coming Louisianan.
Ken Aniah – Damn Young (Official Video)
Trap Caesar
Ken Aniah’s latest release Trap Caesar takes trap music to another level. He has grown to become a frontman, bringing his drip to the spotlight and expanding his wardrobe to usher himself in as a style icon. The album, “Trap Caesar”, is full of stand out tracks like “Future Flow 2″ and “Whoa”. Ken Aniah’s personality and charisma seep through each bar. His lyrics effortlessly inject moments of eccentricity and humor, while matching the tone of the production. The album can be streamed below along with a link for the lead video single.
Buy and Stream Ken Aniah’s Trap Caesar
Meet and Get To Know Ken Aniah
Kulture Vulturez: What is it like growing up there in Louisiana? Outside the negative.
Ken Aniah: I’ve been staying in Baton Rouge for like ten years, but I’m really from the country area like 30 minutes like outside [Baton Rouge]. As far as, like you say, outside the negative, there’s a lot of music in the environment. Almost everybody does something with music in the state. Somebody knows somebody who sings or somebody plays the piano. I grew up playing piano and stuff like that. Music is a big thing in Louisiana. I feel like there’s another reason to probably why a lot of people here are starting to rap, as far as black culture that’s the outlet.
Kulture Vulturez: Can you break down Louisiana music? Everybody knows about No limit, Cash Money, and Boosie.
Ken Aniah: I mean as far as mainstream, that’s basically what most people are going to know. Once you get within the city it gets a little more diverse. Almost everything is going to have that hard rough element being from the city and in Louisiana. We just rugged like that. I guess that country element. That’s going to come through the music as far as dialect and everything, like how we talk, how we slur our words and stuff like that.
Kulture Vulturez: Is there a difference from the country and rural parts of Louisiana and the city of Baton Rouge?
Ken Aniah: It’s more the same because the city of Baton Rouge, not really the city. Once you get to New Orleans and stuff like that, it’s a little different. But Baton Rouge really still kind of country too. That’s why I say if somebody from the country come to Baton Rouge and you wouldn’t even know that they are not from Baton Rouge. It’s the same area code and everything.
So, it’s not really to much different. You gonna have your street shit, then you got your hard, hard bass hitting shit. That’s what mostly plays in the club and shit like that. Then you got some artistic shit and the new sounds starting to come out. Like I say, just got to get a little more light on it. But overall, No Limit [Records] they are the ones.
My pops he was a [correctional officer] at [Louisiana State Pentitary at] Angola and he had talked to C-Murder. He was cool with him, so [C-Murder] wrote me a letter and shit. He put me on learning the business and shit. That’s when I started getting ISRCs for my songs and incorporating my own label and things like that. I’d say, No Limit really the big ones out here. They try to [give out] knowledge, you know what I’m saying? That’s big love to them.
Ken Aniah – Throw Some P’s (Official Video)
Kulture Vulturez: What led and made you to start rapping?
Ken Aniah: Honestly, I used to play basketball. Everybody would freestyle on the basketball bus on the way home. So, n***** knew I always could a freestyle and shit. We got another dude from the same school I’m from, Jay Scales, he just had a credit on Moneybagg Yo last album. He had his own studio. We ended up connecting with him, me and a couple of my homeboys. We were just in there rapping, just because he had a studio and he made beats.
We ended up rapping, putting out a little mixtape. Everybody liked it. I always wanted to rap anyway since I was rapping and freestyling all the time. I was just known for freestyling, [but after recording in Jay Scales’ studio] I started kind of getting a little more serious. Then seeing [Jay Scales] progressed too, knowing we both started in the same spot, kind of led me to get a little more serious. Then going out on my own once I started recording my own stuff, that was like life is rapping on the daily now.
Kulture Vulturez: What is different from you than other artists and how do you emerge from the crowded industry?
Ken Aniah: I feel like with my songs and my lyrics, I feel like I have the hard, the rough elements you’re gonna get with a Baton Rouge rapper. At the same time, my lyrics is up there with somebody who may just be on pure rap, like from New York or California. I found the way I approach it when I make a song, I think of who I am targeting.
Like for the hook, say I may want to target a female audience, I could dumb the hook down enough to where I can say something where everybody can connect to. Then come back on the verse and just drop bars. That’s what I feel like I find where I stick out at. I got a perfect balance. Then I can also come with a little melody on certain songs too. So, I feel that’s what kind of made me stick out, because most people can’t really do both like that.
Kulture Vulturez: Do you have musical influences outside of Louisiana as far as music wise?
Ken Aniah: Yeah, bro. Especially how the sound I’m more on now, as far as the last two or three years, Future a big influence. I cannot not say Lil’ Wayne. If I wasn’t listening to Lil Wayne then I wouldn’t rap. That was all I listened to until I was a senior in high school, nothing but Wayne. Just dissecting his bars, like ‘Oh, he say he’s cold as —‘ that’s a bar. Just listening to how he takes his different metaphors and flip them and stuff like that. I wouldn’t even rap how I rap if didn’t listen to Lil Wayne. Other than Wayne, Future, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, just his energy. Yeah, I just say Lil Wayne, Future, and Ol’ Dirty.
Kulture Vulturez: With your last three projects, is there a ‘Trap’ theme that you are trying to build?
Ken Aniah: Most of the time when I be rapping I talk about trapping and stuff like that. I put it on there, so they know what the content they’re getting. It’s other content too. You know how they say pretty girls love trap music, so it is a lot of songs for females and female audience. It’s just like building a brand kind of. That people know when they come to the album, it’s going to be some shit for you.
You be trapping, you want to listen to this, be turned up to that. It’s going to have some shit for you. Trap Ceasar, I was saying I’m the king of the trap music, like “Trap Caesar”. That’s why I dropped it on March 15th because that’s when they killed Caesar, so that’s when the power changed. That’s another reason why too. It was kind of themed around it.
Ken Aniah – Wop (Martha) (Official Video)
Kulture Vulturez: What do you need to do to take that next step or get to that next level in your career?
Ken Aniah: Bro, I really feel like I just need to build a bigger advertisement budget for my YouTube, get the perfect video and push it and push it. Then go out and hit the road a little more. So, like in the summer, I am going to try to do a couple more shows. Open up for some bigger artists with some promoters I got connects with. I feel like pushing that YouTube and then hitting the pavement and touching in different cities and doing a lot of shows this summer, I feel like that’s going to put me on another level by the end of the year.
If I could do what I got plan, along with pushing the merch stuff too. I feel like that’s free advertising, well not free since they are paying me, but you know, they also advertise when they wear it. I’m big on the merch right now. I’m trying to find a couple of brand ambassadors and send stuff to people who be on TV, like Brandon Marshall and them put their address out there to send merch. Different stuff like that, but mostly just the promotion, different ways to stand out.
Kulture Vulturez: What are some other projects of yours that fans and listeners should check out?
Ken Aniah: Trap Land. I am not going to lie, that’s my favorite one I would say besides my most recent one (Trap Caesar). My most recent one probably more than likely going to be my favorite, but Trap Land that one was special because I got two Lil B features on there. He showed hella love, on the prices and shit like that. That was big love. He sent me his personal number and everything. I ain’t expect that. I had just DM him, I was like ‘Man, how much for the feature?’
[Lil B] hit me back like three months later out of the blue. He was like send me your budget. I sent it. We did one song, and he was like ‘Man, that’s fire bro. Send me two more.’ He did three of them [songs]. [He showed] love, love. That tape right there was special to me having the Base God [on there]. I could remember when [Lil B] was on that Grove Street and shit like that. N**** had the little pink hat sitting on the car doing the cooking dance and shit. I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ Now a n**** has music with that n****.Kulture Vulturez: What’s next after this for you?
Ken Aniah: I don’t know, bro. I got [a lot of] songs, I record every day. I’ll take songs, let’s say I made five or six songs, and start to build a theme. I may make six more to go around that and that may be [my next] project. As far as videos and stuff like that, I know I have the Future Flow 2 off the Trap Caesar. I’m gonna shoot a video for that and probably get that out by the end of this month (April 2022). After that, I’m really just trying to focus on getting one of those videos to trend hard.
I’m gonna pick which one I feel like is doing the best for my analytics, and I’m gonna put the whole budget behind that after that. That’s really going to be my focus for the rest of the year. Just getting that one project to trend. And once that one trend, I’m gonna try to follow it after that and let it trickle down.
Kulture Vulturez: Anything else you would like to share or let people know?
Ken Aniah: I don’t think so. Oh, free C-Murder.