Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
He’s written tunes for Trey Songz, Jamie Foxx, Nicki Minaj and Toni Braxton, not to mention his own R&B hits.
This Friday night, Southeast D.C.-native Kevin Ross comes home to Bethesda Theater in Bethesda, Maryland.
“I’m super excited about being back home on Friday,” Ross told WTOP. “For those who have seen me around as far as riding the Metro, whether it was the bus or the train, I was just a very unassuming kid. It was never a thing where people would look at me like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s a star,’ but it was a blessing in disguise being from the inner city … the entrepreneurial spirit, the swag, just the whole entire vibe of being from Washington D.C.”
Ross said he is grateful to have attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Northwest D.C.
“Ellington was like a training ground,” Ross said. “Honestly, I feel like we worked harder than every high school student in America because we had academia from 8 [a.m.] to 4 [p.m.] … then putting on a show or preparing for some presentation or competition, that was after school from 4-10, so by the time I got to college, all the other freshmen were like, ‘My schedule is so intense,’ but I was like, ‘What? This is nothing!'”
While attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Ross traveled to New York City to compete on BET’s “106 and Park” in their segment “Wild Out Wednesday.” After moving to Atlanta, he got a life-changing call.
“I get a call one day randomly like, ‘Hey, Jamie [Foxx] wants you to come to L.A. He loves the songs that you did and he wants to cut them tonight,'” Ross said. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m 21 years old, I’ve got nothing else to do, so let me put my clothes in a little bag and I’m off to L.A.’ … One thing that I noticed about Jamie is that … I’ve never been around someone with that insane level of devotion to taking in information. Absolute genius.”
Upon signing with Motown Records, Ross dropped his first EP “Dialogue in the Grey” (2014), its single “This is My Wish” reaching No. 16 on the U.S. R&B chart. It also featured collaborations with Ne-Yo and T.I. allowing him to tour as Maxwell’s opening act. Ross had arrived as AOL named him the Best New Artist of 2014.
“You don’t know if it’s going to go away tomorrow, you don’t know what’s happening next, you’re just trying to focus on living in the moment,” Ross said. “Here I go from performing once every six months to six nights a week … There is no partying, no drinking, no girls after the show, because we have to hop in our church van and get to the next city to chase after Maxwell’s three tour buses and sleep in one hotel room, head to foot.”
The title track of his second EP “Long Song Away” (2016) reached No. 1 on the Billboard Adult R&B Songs, reappearing on his full-length album “The Awakening” (2017). The album featured Babyface and also charted the No. 15 single “Don’t Go.” For all this, Ross was nominated for Best New Artist at the Soul Train Awards, Outstanding New Artist at the NAACP Awards and Best New R&B Artist at the iHeart Radio Music Awards.
“I was just glad to have music out again,” Ross said. “The first single we sent to radio going No. 1 was super humbling … ‘The Awakening’ literally was a true awakening for me when it comes to the value of self … You can hit a season when it no longer serves you and the time is up on it … I decided to ask for my release because the person that brought me into the building at Motown left without me even knowing.”
After his third EP “Drive” (2017), Ross left Motown Records to launch his own independent record label, Art Society Music Group. He released two more EPs, “Audacity: Vol. 1” (2020) with the song “Thing Called Love,” then “Audacity: Vol. 2” (2020) with the song “God is a Genius.” He also released his second full-length album “Drive 2” (2021), featuring the single “Looking for Love,” which reached No. 9 on the U.S. Adult R&B chart.
“‘Drive 2’ was definitely a pandemic record,” Ross said. “I had learned so much from ‘Audacity,’ that was my first release as an independent artist, so sonically I was everywhere on purpose. I wanted to create as wide of a spectrum as I possibly could … but still lyrically say things that’ll fly and make a very potent piece of work.”
Most recently, he released the two-part project “Midnight Microdose: Vol. 1” in May 2023 and “Vol. 2” in Sept. 2023, including the song “Look My Way,” which cracked the Top 10 of the Billboard R&B chart.
“‘Midnight Microdose’ is another pride and joy as far as the maturity of my artistry, of lyricism, of being concise with my delivery of music, so I’m super proud of it,” Ross said. “As far as for Friday, I will say the Bethesda Theater is sold out, but for those who have their tickets, this will be a celebration of ‘Drive 2’ being out for two years … so I’m paying tribute and homage to the tour that never happened [due to the pandemic].”
Listen to the full conversation on my podcast below:
