Today, the Internet has been taken by storm: Kevin Mehmed is wowing the world with his unique music styles. Almost everyone I know has heard of him. They know of his eclectic collection of music. They know his bubbly online personality and presence. He may not be known nationally – yet. But in Washington, D.C., he just might become the new Chuck Brown.
Music is a funny thing. It is so subjective. Some people love classical music and adore Mozart. Yet other people would swear that Bob Dylan is the best musician that ever lived.
In the United States, music had an interesting history, with Black and White Americans mixing together to create things that the world had never seen before: Bluegrass mixed with spirituals to become the blues, and the blues mixed with tin pan alley to become jazz. There were the jazz greats: Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong. Nobody could play a horn like Louis Armstrong. Don’t you dare forget John Coltrane.
Later, there were Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and more.
Elvis made it big. The Beatles invaded the United States in the early to mid sixties. Then there was MoTown: Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and the Jackson Five. In the late sixties, there were the Mammas and the Pappas.
There were Lead Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Who. In the early 80’s Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna came along.
And then there was Kevin E. Mehmed. One of the co-founders of the dack-punk movement, an electronic form of music drawing elements from both dubstep as well as from punk’s screamo, dack-punk isn’t for the faint of heart. But it’s out there, and growing. And nobody can stop it. But Kevin Mehmed goes way beyond dack-punk, to beats ranging from light, bouncy tunes, to serious thick rhythms, from tracks with a great amount of techno influence, to pieces involving principally unaccompanied electric guitar. Like they say, still water runs deep.
Kevin Mehmed graduated from Montgomery College in Maryland and was the chief music review for their newspaper, “The Spur” (now “The Advocate”). An expert guitarist, he also has mastered the art of making music on the computer. He founded JJJDone Enterprises and also plays guitar at various venues.
Below are two samples from his Thor Chi series.