Photographed by BKRY WORLDWIDE & Photo Edited by Bunni’s Archives

Khari Ennui approaches his rap career with the mindset of a prize fighter. He’s a tactician, focused on his craft - an artist with a firm grip on the explosive energy he lets loose in both his songs and on stage. Paired with being the youngest sibling of some talented musicians & pivotal role models, and at the center of a group of friends that are set on bringing new energy to the creative landscape, Khari is the embodiment of preparation meeting opportunity.

We had the chance to sit down with Khari this week following the release of his second EP of the month to talk more about the project, his current mindset, and the brand he’s building through BLACKOUT in our latest Q&A.

Hey Khari, thank you for getting up with us. For those who aren’t yet familiar, can you introduce yourself?

What’s up! First Name Given, Last Name Chosen, my name’s Khari Ennui. Since 2022 I been making alternative hip-hop music to navigate my experience as a person, which eventually evolved into me investing just as much energy into creating spaces for artists to grow over the past year or so. I’m a Pisces, also.

Can you share a bit about your path up to this point, and your early influences that led you to making music?

Man, I think my truest way of communicating it is that music always been with me, in me, etc, but it took consistent breaks in my ego to really embrace that shit. My mom used to sing for a record label, and my Dad is genuinely one of the most creative niggas I ever met, so really none of my immediate family chose a traditional path as far as careers n allat go. I was the youngest in a house of five with the last name “Jackson” so I grew up singing lil Mike, solos in church, etc etc. My battle as a creative was always identifying my voice and my story, so ironically, even though my first gift and love was singing, I didn’t discover my love for writing until rappers like Earl Sweatshirt, MAVI, MIKE, etc finally gave words to the depression-induced brain fog I couldn’t articulate as I grew into adulthood. I’ve been looking for more ways to reimplement singing into my craft, so I would say my old inspirations I’ve been returning to would be Moses Sumney, Novulent, Crumb, Hiatus Kaiyote, Mitski, and Frank Ocean. But honestly, graduating highschool into the pandemic forced me to sit with myself on a level that made me embrace the shit i enjoyed about living. Creating been my path out of a lot of mental health struggles, honestly. It took dropping out of college to even start.

How has having older siblings that are also talented musicians shaped your process so far?

Context been my weapon for the longest. My first real process as a creative was helping my big brother, Hitxion, curate his first album “Bloom” back in 2019. The shit lowkey… scared me off making my own shit for the longest. You see the truth a they process n shit, truth in the experiences that created it, etc etc. Around this time too my big sister, Frida Ka$hflo, was already outside performing, getting shout outs n allat, so I think I dealt with inadequacy, or imposter syndrome for the longest. It forced integrity out of me, I had to find my own stories to tell. Inversely, that shit made me confident. I knew the shit was real.

You’ve been making music for 3 years so far, what have been a few of your biggest lessons so far?

Having flashbacks of the 500 different niggas to tell me to SLOW TF DOWN in the past year. Honestly, that's my biggest one. Let shit develop, refocus, all that. I’m genuinely just impatient as fuck. I made my first project in a week. I send emails to venues out of boredom half the time. Let things fall into place at the pace they should. The other part is just to honor your ideas, honor your processes, honor your strengths. A lot of people try to put a value on your worth. I think everybody needs to give themselves full permission to operate at their truest. I didn’t see that fully until about last May.

You’ve been active on stages all over the city (& beyond) since we’ve been following you. From The Go Fest, Sleeping Village, The Promontory, just to name a few. Talk to us a bit about your live set & how it compares to the energy we hear from you on record…

I like this question! I think at first performing was just an effort to embody the spirit of the tracks, but lately I been focusing more on *translating* it. Showing people why what I created was important to me through the craft if that makes sense, seeing MAVI live for the first time on the LAUGHING SO HARD IT HURTS tour, then again for Shadow Box validated that a lot. He showed me how to get people to know why what you’re saying is important, even if it takes them time to process the words. People who have seen me live know I be stage diving and all that, but I think my proudest moments as a creative are when I can see people tangibly respond to, even wordlessly, to the harder emotions to communicate. I guess “intense” is a label I’m fine with.

You recently released a beautifully shot music video for “So Simple” which continues a fantastic run of work with BKRY Worldwide. What can you share about that ongoing collaboration & how you all work together?

Man, Pablo is my brother, Bunni is my sister. I directly credit them with inspiring me to release all of the music I was overthinking last summer and onwards, literally before I even met them. They genuinely have more love for the creative scene than almost any artists I can think of, they actively consume damn near every project to drop on the underground, but Pablo in particular helps me channel my ambition into creating more intentionally. Honestly if I could name a single creative that understands the pace I move at, it’s him. It feels freeing, validating, etc, to move in unspoken confidence and rhythm like that. Definitely more shit otw, but my lips are sealed for now. Watch out for them though, I want to leak all the other shit they got crackin’ with familiar faces, but I’mma just say they’re not going anywhere for a long time. My GOATs :)

There’s word of a deluxe album coming soon… what should we know about that?

IN THE PITCH BLACK, COME FIND ME was pretty much a scrap book of my journey towards breaking out of my shell as a creative until it gave me more space to exist as a person. So many of those songs are precious to me, but I think the way it ultimately soundtracked the creation of BLACKOUT is its crowning achievement. Honestly though, I consider it more of a mixtape than an album; I mixed the entire, unmastered project personally. IN THE PITCH BLACK, REMEMBER ME is gon’ be more of the same, but a bit sharper, bit more mature. Sort of like a revised thesis statement. Expect verses you gon’ have to read back if you fuck with me. Expect a couple hilariously wild bars that I didn’t think were crazy when I wrote them. Listen for the hidden “Get on my level nigga” adlib in most of the tracks. Look out for them experimental deep cuts I was scared to share a year ago. Oh, and a bit more singing, the shit healing my heart a bit. I’m not giving a final date till I finish these last couple songs, I know I still need to cull it some, but it’s coming very soon.

What can you share with us about your brand BLACKOUT?

It’s my love letter to the city, fresh from the south suburbs. I’ve identified as asexual since I was 17, so one of my greatest struggles as a person has always been in finding a community that makes me feel truly seen. I named it and my first album after that clarity and candor I found during late night writing sessions; like 2-3 AM when no one was around to dilute my truth, if that makes sense. So BLACKOUT is my invitation for black artists to be who they’d be with the lights off; I want the brand to spotlight and celebrate the power of that truth. First in myself, then in every creative that I watch inspire me and others to live more freely. I think my greatest pride in the ecosystem, if you will, is that the way we show up for each other defies the valuation gatekeepers in the city would try to place on us on so many levels. It’s my “For Us, By Us” mission as an artist. I fucking hate the narrative that growing as an artist means running away from your upbringing and stepping into increasingly inaccessible, increasingly white audiences, so I wanted to prove that if we pay eachother in our money, resources, and investment, we’ll create all the value we need to thrive amongst eachother. That and my biggest song is “FUKNIGGAHITTA” which I’m not tryna hear back from a sea of white people. It shares a name with an awesome anthology book series about black love stories from a coalition of black authors. The mission statement was, “Fuck selling Black Trauma to survive, we’ll write joy instead”. I’ve been pulling inspiration from them ever since I discovered it.

What can you share about your mindset & priorities as a creative at this point in time?

Tightening up bro. Less shots, more precision. Learning how to maximize every individual move I make; I think I’m reaching the upper limit of my potential doing things the “dumb way”. And honestly, my biggest benefit in being on the younger side of the scene is seeing how many people fucked theyself up by not innovating. So lots of cleaning things up, a lot of aiming down my sights for the future, a lot of step by step execution, and the biggest one, more lateral movement. More focus on the work, audiences, etc that I’ve been neglecting. Challenging myself to stay out of my comfort zone. I like to keep my best cards close to my chest, but genuinely, I think a lotta people finna be surprised when I pull the rug from under them. The youngest child in me is enjoying the underestimation, family.

You close off the year with a new EP, WHEN THE WROLD GOES, what can you tell us about this set of songs?

Honestly my last two projects, BLACK ERF and WHEN THE WORLD GOES, felt like loving send offs to my personal history

BLACK ERF with my brother was a love letter to my bloodline and the lessons they imparted on us

WHEN THE WORLD GOES was a love letter to my child wounds and the person that grew around them. And also a personal memoir of my first heartbreak as an adult. Needed reminder to love myself as who I am over what I’ve required from myself.

I’m dedicating 2026 to letting my present create my future, so I feel so much weight lifted from my shoulders having finally released that one.

Anything else you’d like to share before we wrap up?

EREBODY SAY “HAPPY ERF DAY!!!!!!!” Past that, more music, more BLACKOUT, both soon, won’t elaborate. Shout out TOUCH ERF, TrxshWxrld, BKRY Worldwide, BIGGER THAN THE CITY, and the rest a the creative communities I had the privilege of navigating this year. “It’s still Rabbit Season”, “WAKE UP MR WEST”, “What the fuck it is, and what the fuck it ain’t?”, and “Y’all be safe though” are the words of wisdom I’m imparting. From gang to yall. Honestly though, keep your eyes open. Watch who’s around you and learn from them. Kill the competition shit, kill the ego shit. I want everybody in this city to understand how far we’ve already set ourselves apart man. Don’t let nobody tell you your worth, don’t let nobody dim your light, don’t let shit discourage you. So many of us are literally holding the life we want in our palms, it’s just time for us to take it. First Name Given, Last Name Chosen, I’m Khari Ennui and I’mma be seeing a lotta yall soon. <3

Khari Ennui: No Wasted Motion