Due for release August 31 via Xl Recordings, Kenny Beats’ epic debut is already undoing any expectations. As a tribute to his sick father, LOUIE is almost entirely an instrumental record. It’s also strikingly personal, given the nature of his father’s ailing battle following a recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Kenny received the news about his father’s condition in 2020 while quarantined in the U.K. and producing an album for IDLES – a well-deserved distraction at the time from the artist’s long-term breakup and Covid-induced restlessness.

Despite Kenny and his father’s relationship never being smooth-sailing by any means, the pair bonded over one mutual love: music. Upon hearing about his father’s diagnosis while thousands of miles from home, Kenny Beats began the process of listening to his father’s own mixtapes – projects he had made for friends and family throughout his life.

The product of his time spent alone with his father’s mixtapes is the eminent LOUIE – a tribute to his father, a contemplation on sadness and the power of the imagination, and a testimony to Kenny Beats’ duality as a multi-talented musician. The record presents seventeen tracks, each unique in sound yet universal in meaning.

“I always said that I wouldn’t do a solo album because I didn’t have anything to say. Finally, I did,” Kenny shared of the album. "Something dark turned into something beautiful. This album encapsulated the feeling of that one month."

LOUIE is available to listen on August 31 via XL recordings. You can pre-save Kenny Beats’ debut album here.

Kenny Beats, LOUIE artwork.