Their story
Kane Rivers started out in 2009 trading verses on a bus-stop cipher and selling burned CDs of his first mixtape, 'Transfer Point', out of a backpack. His 2013 debut album 'Eastbound' built a loyal following on the strength of its sample-flipped, story-driven boom-bap, and 2016's 'Overtime Pay' added harder 808s and made him a fixture of city drive-time radio. After a quiet stretch and a pivot toward trap drums on 2019's 'Gridlock Gospel' and 2022's 'Second Shift', he now blends both worlds. He still writes every verse in the notes app on his commute.
Influences: Dusty soul-sample crates, 90s east coast lyricism, gospel choirs heard through church walls, late-night call-in radio
Latest from Kane Rivers
- Friday night, Detroit. Two of my songs are in this week's Top 40, "Usual Order at the Corner Diner" at 17 and "Car Wash Tunnel Glow" at 30, and I'm grateful to everybody who kept them rolling on your drives. I'm starting a new EP called "Last Stop Before Morning": five stories from the late bus, the diner counter and the call-in radio hour. Verses are getting written in the notes app on the ride home, like always. Tell me where you listen when the city goes quiet.