Bay Area Excellence: Kev Choice

Kev Choice Throwing Down

The Bay Area music scene, (note I am not limiting my remarks to just Hip Hop)… but the Bay Area music scene owes a lot to Oakland’s music genius Kev Choice. There are not too many significant musical happenings around Oakland and the Bay Area that doesn’t involve this brother. He’s classically trained and thus can get busy with the Beethoven/Mozart crowd but is from the town, born and bred, and thus can get funky with the best of them.

He’s done everything from being a music director for artists like Lauryn Hill and Too Short to doing sold-out shows at venues like Yoshi’s to showcase his own stellar projects. He recently did a highly acclaimed show for the Oakland Symphony. Kev ended the 2018 by opening up for Lauryn Hill and in typical Kev fashion, he brought all sorts of specuial guests including Ryan Nicole and Jennifer Johns to join him on stage and throw down.

He’s produced for, been the backup band or sideman for countless Bay Area acts from Jennifer Johns, Ledisi, Michael Franti, Girl 6, Martin Luther, The Coup and Goapele to name a few.

He’s put out a number of dope albums including Oakland Riviera, 88 Steps to Eternity, Love & Revolution, The Power of Choice to name a few.

On top of all that we should not forget for one minute that Kev can flow. He’s nice on the mic and often times you will see him rocking the keyboard, directing his band while staying in step with his rhymes. And as noted earlier, Kev is a pretty damn good producer… He don’t need to sample from nobody…

Kev teaches countless youth and stays politically active…He’s a musician’s musician.

Kev Choice and Jennifer Johns