WHITE ARROWS

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kenanbell

You can think of Kenan Bell’s arrival as a shining star in the constellation of hip-hop as one of the slowest-developing coming-out parties ever. Bell grew up in the lily-white Los Angeles suburbs challenging stereotypes. He’d look askance at anybody who assumed because he was black and tall he played basketball. He’d smile knowingly at anybody who expected him to be more gangsta than skater. He’d fidget nervously, self-conscious about his high-pitched voice, when anybody presumed he should be a rapper. “I never wanted to be that guy, the one who plays to everybody’s expectations,” Bell says. “But I have started to realize who I am, that I have a deep love for hip-hop as an art form, that I need to do this.” “Picture a bookworm with a ghetto blaster,” he raps in his song “Sounds Awesome” — and if you can imagine that in a 6-foot-5, sunglasses-sporting, argyle socks-favoring package, you have one snapshot of who Kenan Antony Bell is. Now the 26-year-old, who has spent the past four years teaching spelling, vocabulary and handwriting to fourth- through sixth-graders, is ready to drop his own words on a hungry legion of hip-hop purists. Bell’s debut album “Until the Future” is hip-hop for people who know their Basquiat as well as their basketball, who are as liable to quote Langston Hughes as MC Hammer, who can party as hard to a soundtrack of Kool Moe Dee as the Offspring.

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