KEY! marks his return with the release of his new project Marquis. The project serves as a key entry of KEY!’s ongoing partnership with Third & Hayden and Soundcloud. Entirely produced by DJ Marc B (21 Savage), Marquis includes his previous singles “Crank Dat” featuring Redd Smash and “You Need God” featuring Tony Shhnow. The project also includes guest features from past and present Atlanta contemporaries like Bear1Boss, Man Man Savage and fellow Two-9 Collective member Jace.
KEY! regards Marquis as his best work to date and sonically, it’s a testament to the decade of influence he’s had on hip-hop in Atlanta and beyond as an artist and an A&R behind the scenes. The rapper enters the release of Marquis with a renewed outlook on his career taking the form of open dialogues about his struggles with addiction and finding resolve in rehab; KEY!’s sets the tone for the next stage of his career with a refined resurrection of the sounds and energy that captured the hip-hop landscape.
For the uninitiated, KEY! has been an innovative rapper, producer, and songwriter in the Atlanta underground scene for over a decade, with a sound that has relentlessly pushed the boundaries and paved the way for several generations of Atlanta artists. First coming onto the scene as a founding member of the highly-regarded Two-9 collective, KEY! worked with Three 6 Mafia founder Juicy J and built a devoted fanbase that has followed him since his first release in 2012. As an Atlanta rap pioneer, KEY!’s renowned catalog contains over a dozen mixtapes and five studio albums, including the ahead-of-its-time 2013 album Fathers Are The Curse, 2020’s I Love You Say It Back, 2021’s The Alpha Jerk, and his industry-shaking joint album with Kenny Beats, 777, which Pitchfork called “the most ridiculously fun rap project of the year” in 2019.
