Kev Choice: Love, Growth, and the Power of Music

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Posted on Nov 13, 2024

Kev Choice. (Photo by Nate Kang)

In this episode of Making Contact, we sit down with Kev Choice, a classically trained pianist, rapper, composer, and educator, who has reshaped the Bay Area music scene. Raised in Oakland with San Francisco roots, Kev blends hip-hop, jazz, soul, and classical music into a unique sound. His latest EP, All My Love, explores themes of love, vulnerability, and human connection, with soulful melodies and reflective lyrics capturing the complexities of relationships. Through music and mentorship, Kev uses his platform to inspire change and elevate consciousness.

TRANSCRIPT

Making Contact Button:  

Making, making contact, making, making, making contact.

Music: Kev Choice playing the piano at SF State

Kev Choice: “My first keyboard, like a little Casio keyboard. I think it had like 49 keys. And, um, that was my Christmas gift.”

AJ: That’s Kev Choice, casually dressed in a cinnamon colored button down shirt, wooden beaded necklace, and black jeans, sitting at the piano, playing a reimagined cover of the 1982 classic “All This Love” by the famed R&B group DeBarge—a track he included on his latest EP, All My Love featuring Viveca Hawkins.

[“All This Love” by Ambi plays]

AJ: Kev Choice is a classically trained pianist, rapper, composer, and educator raised in Oakland, California with family roots in San Francisco, he has long been a driving force in the Bay Area’s vibrant music scene, blending hip-hop, jazz, soul, and classical music. Over the years, he’s collaborated with the likes of Lauryn Hill, Michael Franti, and Too Short, all while building a solo career that marries artistic innovation with social activism.

With his new EP All My Love, Kev Choice explores themes of love, vulnerability, and the complexities of relationships. Through soulful melodies and insightful lyricism, the project navigates the emotional highs and lows of human connection, intertwining personal reflection with universal themes.

AJ: I’m Anita Johnson, and today on Making Contact, we’ll dive into the journey of Kev Choice — his early years, and his latest project, All My Love. I had the chance to catch up with him at San Francisco State University, where he teaches Jazz Harmony and Afro Cuban ensemble. Here’s Kev Choice, describing the creative process behind his new EP.

Kev Choice: Since the pandemic, I had been working on a series of songs. And a lot of it is based off a personal experience, I will say this. Where in the past, my music was focused on whether that’s political issues or social justice things. I feel like I’m at a page in my life where I’m analyzing myself as a man and knowing that I have to grow. I have to be vulnerable. I have to express myself to the fullest in order to be at the best capacity, continue to do the work in community. It’s almost like a lot of us are stressing self care, stressing our own healing, in order to continue to do the work at the highest capacity.

AJ: In a time marked by profound challenges and social reckonings, All My Love stands out as a deeply personal offering. For Kev Choice, this EP represents not just a shift in sound but in focus—turning the lens inward. His reflections reveal an artist evolving, intent on mastering personal growth and emotional honesty.

Kev Choice: Alot of us men don’t discuss certain things, whether that’s loss, whether that’s heartbreak, whether that’s our deficiencies as how we show up as men. And even in conversations, I feel like we need to kind of open up that dialogue a little bit more as men, especially Black men of color, about how we show up in relationship, how we express love, how we receive love and what that means. And I feel like that will help us.  Even in the work that we do is in community as leaders, as fathers, as educators and all those things. So I’ve been trying to represent that in the music that has coincided with things I’ve been going through in my personal life. 

AJ: By embracing his personal growth, All My Love invites listeners into this space, serving as a soundtrack for healing. In the track Congratulations, Choice reflects on past relationships, acknowledging that he wasn’t ready for deep commitment at the time. 

[Ambient noise. Music fades.]

Kev Choice: A lot of times I take a song and put different experiences together. That happened to me actually numerous times. So someone I would date, and then the next person would be the person that they would end up marrying or being with. And I’ll just be like, “Oh wow, okay.” I see that it’s almost was like a pattern. I’m like, “Man, so either I’m preparing it for this, or something about me is…when I get to the next person, it’s like they finally realize exactly what they need.” And you know, I can’t harbor ill will around it because I actually wasn’t ready at that time. They might have been ready. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t display the things that made them feel safe and secure, whether that’s being not spending enough time, whether that’s being completely vulnerable. You know, I even said, he got down on one knee, they was taking vacations in the wintertime with us. I mean, even in the course, like he take you out to dinner on a Tuesday, movies on, doing things in the middle of the week, not just on the weekend on this, when you have free time.

[Music rises]

Kev Choice: and that’s something that I had struggles with. 

AJ: So  you said had, do, have you resolved that? 

Kev Choice: Because I think, you know — (jokingly) next question.  No, I feel like one thing though.  I’m more honest about it. I’m more aware about it. I’m not like making excuses. I’ll just be like, you know what? I struggle with finding ways to make time to incorporate a partner in my life. Like I feel like that’s also a part of this music that I’m creating or releasing is like allowing people to be like, “Hey,  this is something I struggle with. I’m not trying to hide it. I’m being honest about it.” And I feel like that it’ll help me grow from it and help others as well. Like just even talking about it, being like, “I have a problem being dedicated during the week,” or “I have troubles balancing my schedule and work,” like things like that.

AJ: By fostering space for deep, often challenging dialogues — particularly between men and women — Kev Choice aims to open up heartfelt discussions that can strengthen relationships.

Kev Choice: All of this to me comes from conversations with women about what makes them feel value, what makes them feel safe and trying to uplift those more. Like I said, creating a conversation around it because maybe other men might think about it, or people. Or approaching an interest, think about an authentic way or think about a way to value someone as a human being versus just a physical aspect when you’re approaching them, you know? It was just like a conversation — like having conversations with women and just different situations that I’ve been in. 

AJ: How can, how can men, listening to what you just said, listening to the song, how can they benefit from actually hearing?  What you’re trying to convey, like really taking it in. How can, how can that improve black relationships, right? Male and female relationships? 

Kev Choice: Well, I think it’s having real, authentic, sometimes deep and difficult conversations. Like, even going to that song, Searching for a Feeling, which really…every line in that song is me.  It’s really spoken from the perspective of a female.

[Searching for a Feeling plays]

AJ: In the song Searching for a Feeling, Kev Choice explores a woman’s perspective, capturing her desires and expectations within a relationship.

[Searching for a Feeling continues]

Kev Choice: It’s really a woman telling a man how she wants to feel or someone telling their partner how they want them to feel when they’re with them, the things that will make them feel safe. It’s from another person’s perspective. And I feel like we got to listen more to that. ‘Cause I feel like we’re told these things, but maybe sometimes we just don’t listen.

AJ: Through song, Kev Choice encourages more attentiveness and understanding in relationships. Emphasizing the importance of creating dialogue around interpersonal communication, and encouraging men to think about how they approach relationships.  He offers more background on his track, Fresh Fade. 

Kev Choice: On the surface, it’s talking about a man getting a fresh haircut and feeling that confidence when you step out the barbershop. But if, as I get deeper into the story, I approach a woman on the street, I’m like, “Hey, I like how you looking, I’m feeling good, I’m looking good, let’s hang out. Let’s kick it. Can I talk to you? Can I call you?” And then it turns into a conversation of how women often feel when they’re approached by men. based on how they look and the pressures of social media and also just the stresses of dealing with life. 

And to me, I’m like,  I ain’t thinking nothing about it. But to her, she might be like, “Man, here’s another guy trying to approach me cause I look good. Cause it’s a nice day.  I’m just trying to get to work. I’m stressed out. I don’t need this energy.”

Station ID Break: You’re listening to pianist, rapper, and composer Kev Choice on Making Contact. To learn more about this week’s episode and hear more music from Kev Choice. Check us out at focmedia.org. Now back to the show. 

AJ: As Kev Choice reflects on the themes of All My Love — vulnerability, growth, and authenticity — it’s clear that his upbringing played a significant role in shaping both the artist and the man he is today. Growing up in Oakland, surrounded by the rich sounds of soul, gospel, jazz and all kinds of live music, Kev Choice was immersed in a world of rhythm and melody long before he began creating his own. 

Kev Choice: Growing up in Oakland and always coming across the bridge to the city to see my grandmother who was in Fillmore and going to Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, which I feel were probably some of my early music experiences seeing the choir and hearing those spirituals. Not getting into music, but like just hearing it and being around it and being surrounded by it. And of course my mom. All my aunts. Just heavy music. They was going to every show at the cow palace and the circle star and all of the clubs to see the live music. So I was  always listening to them, listen to music in the living room, having parties. Listen to all the latest records, the soul records, the R&B records, the hip hop record. They was just always listening to whatever was out currently. And that kind of like, I think that just kind of piqued my interest to just the power of music at that early age.  

AJ: Kev Choice’s family sparked his early love for music, but it was none other than Prince who truly influenced his musical path and even inspired him to learn the piano.

Kev Choice: So that seventh grade I signed up for, Westlake Middle School, you could take two electives. These were the options and I was like, “Wow, piano. I’m gonna take piano.” And at that same time, Prince had a movie called Under the Cherry Moon. I was already a Prince fan from Controversy, Purple Rain. My mom had all the Prince albums and I would just listen to those albums blown away. His sound to me was something different than all of the other records. I would listen to all of them, but his was like, man…I was like curious why he made certain sounds or why he would had a record playing backwards at the end of the song. He would be doing crazy stuff on the albums. I was like, “Man, that’s crazy.”

So of course we watched Purple Rain every day and then Under the Cherry Moon came out. Prince was a piano player in France. I was just like blown away by that because I already was curious about the piano. And then here’s my musical hero playing the piano. So that’s kind of what made me sign up for that piano class and then try to take French as well.

AJ: Though Prince may have inspired him musically it was the support and encouragement he received from teachers that paved the way for his growth as a musician.  

Kev Choice: Well, a big part of that…you know, first year, seventh grade, Westlake, my teacher — shout out Ms. Phillips, Willie Schaffers, recognized the talent that I had. Like, I really progressed quickly that first year. She recommended I get into this program at UC Berkeley called Young Musicians Program, and that was a phenomenal program for youth all across the Bay — summer program for two months, where you’re doing music theory, music history, choir. They give me private lessons. They gave me a piano. They gave me a real piano in my home and this was all paid for. It’s all free.

And that program really…I was around like all of the other prodigies around the whole Bay Area. This is where I met people like Howard Wiley or get you Taylor or everybody from people like Thomas Pridgen or even Ledisi when she was younger. Like everybody went through that program. You ask a lot of the musicians, they went through Young Musicians at Berklee. So I was in there for three years and it just really helped excel my musical growth and education. Of course, going to Skyline High School, being in a jazz band there, in the orchestra, but really Young Musicians put me at a level to where once I started going for college auditions or college tours, I would play for them and they would be like, “Oh wow, you’re really talented!” And that’s kind of how I got offered a scholarship to go to Xavier University.

AJ: When Kev Choice made the leap from Oakland to New Orleans to pursue college, his world of musical possibilities really expanded. He began collaborating with musicians from diverse backgrounds and exploring music theory in depth. After earning a BA in Music, he kept the momentum going and headed to Southern Illinois University for a Master’s in Music, with a focus in Piano Performance. That’s where things really started to click.

Kev Choice: I think it was in grad school when I was in this band. I got hired to be in the band of some of my friends. It was like a hip-hop band, but I was playing keys. And one of the emcees knew that I was an emcee and producer as well. And he was like,  “Yo kid, we want you to play keys, but then we want you to jump up and start rapping in the middle of the song, like throw everybody off.”

And I was like…it was like the first time in a show I was asked to play keys and then spit at the same time. And I was like, “Wow, that would be dope.” And then from then on, when I first did that, the crowd kind of went crazy because nobody expected me to. Here I am a, a master’s degree candidate in classical piano who just jumped off the keys and start spitting like as an emcee. And I feel like that showed me that it could live in one space and also within the hip hop space, because hip hop is all about highlighting the multiple genres in that one aspect and bringing it to that dynamic as a hip hop performer in a hip hop band where we do everything from jazz to soul to whatever.

AJ: It was that moment that made him realize he could blend those worlds—hip hop, jazz, and soul—into one space, which later would serve as a musical blueprint for him. And though he’s known by many labels—lyricist, rapper, artist—it’s his remarkable songwriting and piano skills that truly set Kev Choice apart. A prime example of his talent came in 2015, when he performed his original composition International Blvd from the album Oakland Riviera. Playing live among the trees at an outdoor exhibit at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens, Kev Choice captivated the crowd, transforming the natural setting into an unforgettable musical experience.

[Fade into clip of Kev Choice performing]

AJ: That live performance left a lasting impact, showcasing the deep connection Kev Choice has with his instrument, a bond that resonates throughout his music. His new EP All My Love weaves together various styles but keeps hip hop at the forefront. As we talked, his song ‘God’—not on the EP, but one of his latest releases—naturally came up, revealing his evolving understanding of selfless, unconditional love and his spiritual journey.

[God by Kev Choice plays]

Kev Choice: As an adult in exploring different religions, reading about different religions, becoming a musician, practitioner and music communities and in the Bay area and beyond that really emphasize oneness emphasize spirituality, emphasize, love  as the most powerful force in the universe. Like that’s something that I study practice and try to exhibit. Day to day, I say, through music, through education, through even through political activism. Like I never tried to attack a political opponent or someone on the political side. I’m coming from you. I’m coming at this from a place of love and even the Panthers and all the way back say love is a revolutionary act.

AJ: As our conversation wound down, I asked Kev about his vision for the next steps in his journey.

Kev Choice: Well, I think for me, it’s continuing to grow as a composer, a producer, a performer, expanding my audience from, mainly Bay Area-based to being able to take my own message, my own music, my own band. Across the world, I’ve done with other artists and sharing my musical platform across the world. And also continuing to expand, I feel like on what I call the form of hip hop and to creating bigger pieces like creating orchestral pieces and going around showcasing the inner connection between Black music, symphonic music, jazz music, all of that in a larger scale.

[Kev plays piano]

AJ: That was Kev Choice. You can hear his new EP All My Love on all social media platforms. I’m Anita Johnson. And this is Making Contact. I spoke with pianist, rapper, composer, and educator Kev Choice about his musical journey and his latest project, All My Love. If you want more information about this episode or our weekly shows, visit us at focmedia.org.  Also you can visit us on Twitter or Instagram and leave us a comment. We’d really like to hear from you. Thanks for listening to Making Contact.

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