As an openly LGBTQ+ rapper, Keanan is ‘challenging stigmas’ by being himself

Today, Keanan becomes the second of four acts to be spotlighted by Breakthrough, GAY TIMES and Coke Studio’s campaign to find the very best unsigned LGBTQ+ music talent in the UK and Ireland. As part of the campaign, Breakthrough will offer all four acts a range of exciting paid opportunities comprising a photoshoot with a leading queer photographer, valuable live experience and lasting support propelling them, beyond the summer Pride months, in an industry so few manage to break into. This support will include prestigious festival slots at the likes of Luno presents All Points East, Boardmasters and Longitude, as well as performances at Pride in London and Brighton Pride as part of Coca-Cola’s Parade Float. The four acts were chosen following an online callout that attracted submissions from more than 200 talented artists.

Keanan is an artist who prides himself on telling it like it is – especially when it comes to the tough stuff. One of his most-streamed tracks, the defiant and energising empowerment bop Obstacle, is all about the “hurdles” he has overcome on his way to “owning the top”. “One of the biggest obstacles I’ve faced and continue to face is existing as an openly LGBTQ+ rapper,” he says today. “Even though attitudes are changing, there are still stigmas present. I challenge these stigmas by unapologetically being myself and staying true to who I am as a person and an artist.”  The 24-year-old rising star, who performed at GAY TIMES Honours in 2022, believes this uncompromising honesty will “allow people to connect with me and my stories” while also helping “those who judge [to] realise that music has the power to bring us all together”.

You can soak up Keanan’s captivating candour on his dazzling remix of Headie One and Drake’s Only You Freestyle, which went viral on TikTok because he raps about his sexuality with such heart and humour. “Put a gally (woman) on me, that’s sweet,” he spits, “but I don’t want Stacey, I want David.” You can also hear it on Country Boy, a standout track from Keanan’s gleaming 2022 EP Exhibit Green. “Some call me a farmer, so I made my marks like tracks,” he raps, flipping a put-down on its head with witty wordplay. When the song dropped last year, Keanan told GAY TIMES he had “wanted to create [it] for years but never found the right words”. It’s his way of celebrating and in a way reclaiming his upbringing in Cheltenham, a spa town in the rural country of Gloucestershire. “Being from the countryside, trying to break into the industry is tough,” he said at the time. “And I always saw it as a negative, a disadvantage. But with my recent successes with TikTok and other opportunities, I realised that it makes me different and I should be proud of my hometown.”

Keanan says he has been “writing rhymes for as long as I can remember” and always “used to dream of being an artist”. He realised he could turn this dream into a reality as a teenager when he began sharing self-made videos in which he remixed popular tracks by adding his own verses. “These videos started to gain thousands of views which gave me the confidence to finally pursue music,” he recalls. Initially, Keanan approached songwriting in “a very guarded capacity” and “purely created music because I enjoyed how it sounded”. However, following the devastating loss of his mother, the fuel behind his creative fire really intensified. “Music became a form of therapy to me, and it changed how I created music,” he recalls. “I became more self-reflective, more aware, and more open to discuss harder topics and it allowed me to turn something so traumatic into a beautiful tribute.”