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Music

Kaytranada Will Just Keep Getting Better

In this Noisey Next video, we catch up with the 25-year-old Haitian-born producer to talk about his rise from SoundCloud to stardom.

Louis Kevin Celestin, better known as Kaytranada, could be the most exciting producer in the world. The Haitian-born, Montreal-raised 25-year-old’s eclectic, blissful beats bring in R&B, disco, compas, and alternative hip-hop, drawing from titans like J Dilla and Nujabes but always sounding contemporary. He can run with danceable grooves, as he did on his debut LP 99.9%, just as well as he can lay the foundations for hits with rappers like Vic Mensa, GoldLink, or Chance the Rapper.

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As it has been for most artists his age, Celestin’s come-up was sudden. He’d been releasing mixtapes, EPs, and lone tracks as Kaytradamus for two years before his remix of Janet Jackson’s “If” blew up on SoundCloud in 2012. “It went viral in one night,” he tells us in our latest Noisey Next video. “Then I saw all those notifications, non-stop. Everybody liked my sound. I was not really prepared for that. I was definitely worried a bit[…] but I just knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

With his sound always expanding, 2018’s going to be a fascinating year for Celestin. Recent collaborations with Mary J Blige, Sunni, and Antwon have shown him growing as an artist, and there’s no indication he’ll slow down. “I feel like I'm making the best music of my life right now, compared to what I used tom” he says. “It's always gonna evolve, all the time.”

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