Khari iiCe

Khari iiCe prides himself on living outside the box. This freedom of expression can be heard within the creativeness and diversity of his unpredictable sound as a musician. “I’m an artist but I’m also human. I feel all types of emotions. So whatever I’m feeling at the moment is what I record—happy, sad, rich, poor, love, hate—my music gone express all of it”. Growing up in the country ends of Mississippi, there wasn’t really much entertainment. As a child, his older cousin would record their own music but being so young, they never gave him a chance. So at age of 12, Khari bought a laptop and released a song to perform at his middle school pep rally called “Stomping Bleachers”. “My dad had just passed away. Wasn’t no therapy or nothing like that where I’m from. After first I just needed something to keep me out of trouble and occupied. I got a lil love from my school and it was game over from there.” He spent every day after that writing, recording and experimenting with different sounds. He released several Datpiff projects under the name iiCeMan, before changing it Yung iiCe for a few years. The week of his 18th birthday (2016), he relocated to Minnesota to join the music scene there at the time, taking the Yung portion out of his name and replacing it with Khari. “Moving out of Mississippi really helped me expand my mind and creativity. I felt like a shark in a fist tank where I was. Getting out gave me so much more to talk about...not that I didn’t already have a million stories to tell before. I’m glad I grew up where I grew up at though. The poverty, the hunger, the boredom—All of it made me resilient”. Within a year of his time in Minnesota, Khari dropped his first official mixtape titled “In a Nick of Time” featuring artists from his hometown like T3 and Double Gee and as well as artist from his new residence, Meatch and Chevy Quis. He was also featured on Famous Gang Entertainment’s collaborative mixtape, “Welcome to Fame”. In 2018, Khari decided to take his talents to Los Angeles, California where he worked on and released, “Rated K: for Khari”, a party packed mixtape inspired by the ESRB guideline ratings for video games. “I was having fun in L.A. I’m from the Mississippi delta—I never thought I would be where I was. I was seeing and doing s*** you see in the movies. I felt like a video game character and Rated K: for Khari was my theme music.” Khari said about the project From then after, Khari continued to perform and record on an almost daily basis but didn’t drop any new music until November of 2020. “Free Bling”, a heavily southern inspired track referencing his incarcerated childhood friend, took his hometown by storm. By October, Khari went back to where it all started and got to work on his next EP, “Lul Famous Gorilla” “I knew I had to be there to feel it in person. I needed that motivation. When I performed that song, I didn’t even have to rap the words—they did it for me. All the doubt I ever had in my self faded that night”. “Lul Famous Gorilla” dropped summer of 2021 along with separate more melodic single, “Cocomelon”, that was a full 180 degrees of the more aggressive sound of the project it came before and was the song that changed his outlook in his career. “People think I was just being lazy when I wasn’t dropping. I was just taking time to live life and evolve as a person so I can evolve my music too. My life is way more than just violence and drugs. I learned so much about myself and my voice since I recorded LFG and I’m still learning it. I be trying to try something different every song now.” said Khari when asked bout Cocomelon. Khari continued to drop more singles and a few videos that year. In December, “KHARI-19”, a 19 song “playlist” was announced and dropped. The project included a collection of “experiments” he conducted during the pandemic it was named after. What’s next for Khari iiCe? With this amount of talent and drive there’s no telling BUT WE HOPE YOU STICK AROUND TO FIND OUT. No matter if you’re looking for a smooth R&B track for baby making or a lit party banger for turning up with friends on a party night, this Mississippi native has an anthem for the occasion and every occasion in between.