We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kevin Lewis Jr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kevin below.

Kevin, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I definitely wish that I would’ve started working on the media side of things way sooner than I did. After seeing how fast my brand has grown in 2 years, it’s no telling where we would’ve been if I started it 5-10 years ago.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a professional musician out of Dallas, Tx who has been blessed to travel around the world, playing for different artist and bands. I am also the creator and owner of Dope Kontent Entertainment LLC. I knew what I wanted to do in my life around my sophomore year of high school. I had everything mapped out. Plan A, B and C were all mapped out by the second semester of my junior year. I was going to go to college and get my degree in entertainment business so I can get into the media world whenever I want. Once I graduate, I was going to travel the world as a touring musician, playing behind some of the best artist and musicians in the world. Plan C was to find a trade that would allow me to be my own boss if plan A and B didn’t work out. Coming out of High School, I was recruited as a band percussionist by Jackson State University, Grambling State University, Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University. I chose to go to PVAMU for multiple reasons. They were on a come up when it came to being one of the best HBCU schools, they had a brand-new campus that was built, some of my closest friends had already committed there, they gave me the most attention and they had the best drum-line out of the four schools in my opinion. Anybody from Dallas that commits to PVAMU as a football athlete, or a marching band member know that the Cotton Bowl game vs GSU is the game you simply can’t miss! If you don’t play or perform at any other game that season, the Cotton Bowl game is the one you have to be there for. You literally spend the summer in the heat and dirt getting ready for the season and that game. Hazing was still a thing at the time as well, so add that to the list of things that we had to deal with just to make the line/team. Long story short, I grew up with very bad asthma unfortunately. Once we got our physicals for the season, I was told that my lungs were not in good enough shape to march and I should sit the first 4-5 weeks out, considering the Texas heat and physical energy that is used at practice and games. Being young and dumb, I got very upset about missing the Cotton Bowl game and decided that I just didn’t want to be at PVAMU anymore. I felt like all of the stress and hard work that was done over the summer was for nothing. So I decided to stop going to class and come back to Dallas. Once I got back to Dallas, Plan B and C were in motion. Plan B was somewhat happening, but not nearly how I planned it. I was playing music on a consistent basis, but it wasn’t on tour with a big artist/band. I joined a band that told me that they had traveling shows booked and ready to go. I believe we did one show as that original band before my friend was let go and the band leader quit. While deciding who should take over the band, everybody except myself decided that it should be me. At the time, I had zero experience with getting a band booked and etc. I didn’t want to do it at all to be honest, but they were very convincing. I took over the “Smooth Edge Band” and decided to bring my own people in the group. Learning on the fly, I was able to get us some good gigs but there were some that I wish I would’ve never accepted. I also learned the hard way that you can’t bring everyone with you, because some of the ones that you think you are close with will be the same ones that’s trying to bring you down. As time pass, I’m learning more about the business and is learning that I need more money to be able to do what I need to do for this band. Plan C is now in full effect. I go to barber school and become a full-time barber. The first barbershop I worked at was not made for new barbers like me. They would rather laugh and make jokes instead of helping the younger guys. I decided to leave and go to a new shop in the Cedar Hill area. It was one of the best decisions I could have made. It was a fresh start for me and my friend who was also a new barber and had the same experience I had at my first barbershop. We were the only two barbers there outside of the owner who only worked on appointments. We both built a very good clientele while getting better and better at our craft. Money was being made and we were enjoying life as barbers. I’m now able to use that income for studio time and etc for my band. We start to get more gigs around town consistently and things are cool. I’m officially my own boss. As time goes on, things at the shop are starting to become unsettling. The customers were still there, but a lot of complaints were coming with them because they had days where they had to sit in heat because the a/c was out, and the owner of the shop was nowhere to be found. On top of that, the owner decided that he wanted to raise our booth rent while the issues we kept telling him about weren’t being fixed. While this is happening, my friend meets his wife at the time, and they decide to leave and get their own shop in Duncanville. At this point, I’m now in a serious relationship of my own and just got a new apartment in Arlington. I decided to follow my friend and his wife to their new shop in Duncanville. That turned out to be a bad decision for me, as a lot of my clientele were high school students who didn’t have cars to travel to Duncanville. I now have a child on the way and I’m not making the same money that I was making just two months before. I decided to quit working at the barbershop and went corporate. That was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made. I thought it would be temporary because I was never told that once you get stuck in that corporate lifestyle, it’s very hard to get out of it! I made another bad decision during that time by getting married. I was definitely not ready for marriage, but I wanted to do what I thought was right. I spent majority of that marriage stuck in the corporate world and turning down music opportunities because it seemed “too risky”. For example, I would get offered to travel for a month or two with an artist or band but would decline it because I would say to myself, “what will happen after those two or three months?’ My wife at the time was mostly a housewife, so it was on me to take care of the bills and etc. I simply didn’t want to risk losing my job and home for a short payday. Years of frustration go by, and I decide that I’ve simply had enough. I decided to get a divorce and start over. I felt free for the first time in my adult life. Show offers that I use to decline, I was now able to accept. That led to me traveling the east coast with Dave Hollister, Europe with Quentin Moore, out of town/country shows with In10city and more. This also gave me the opportunity to start back on Plan A, which was media. Now in my 30’s, I knew that taking the media route without a degree would be difficult. I decided to do it anyway. While building my brand, I’ve reached out and applied to different media outlets. I’ve been told by multiple radio program directors, “ you are very good, but you just don’t have the experience.” With building a business, it takes money to make money. With that said, I’m still in the corporate world. I currently work at a school district here near Fort Worth. Working at a school district is pretty much the best option for me because I get a steady check and the schedule allows me time to focus on my brand and music. The music side is good. I am pretty much controlling the narrative when it comes to that. I am the one deciding what I want or don’t want to do based on MY preference and not based on what bills I got coming up. I might even start up another band pretty soon. The brand is building at a nice rate. We are already in business with our local XFL and WNBA teams. We have covered multiple wrestling and sporting events as well. We have also done interviews with some of the best musicians, artist, producers, actors and athletes in the world. The ultimate goal is to have Dope Kontent Entertainment as one of the most successful media companies in the world. I want to be able to fully be my own boss again, while also having something that my kids can come into when they’re eighteen. If you love sports, music, wrestling and entertainment, Dope Kontent is the place for you! We cover it all!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I tell people all of the time that likes, shares and comments are free. If you can’t support someone financially, you can support them by simply liking or sharing their post. It goes a long way. It really does.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Seeing a vision in my head and accomplishing that vision in real life is one of the best feelings in the world..

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dopekontent.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/klewjrmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/klewjr
• Twitter: tiwtter.com/klewjrmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvh4IryK6ofXARkQYHS8TLQ
• Other: https://app.mediakits.com/dopekentertainment