Inside Proceed 2: How Kennard Built a Baltimore R&B Album From Loss and Patience
A Baltimore Singer Spent Two Years on Eight Songs About Grief, Love and Old-School Soul
In 2011, after his grandmother died, Kennard thought about giving up music. He kept going instead, and the word he chose for that decision became a personal movement: proceed. Proceed 2, the eight-track album Kennard released on 22 August 2025 after two years of work, carries that name and mixes R&B, neo-soul and hip-hop.
Kennard’s Cater 2 U, Pt. 2 opens Proceed 2 and now sits in the playlist below with the desk’s other R&B and neo-soul picks, while Kennard’s artist profile keeps the full run of coverage. The album came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play before you read on.
Thirteen Months On, Kennard and Proceed 2 Still Carry the Movement He Started in 2011
Thirteen months later, the album is worth hearing again, and the timing makes sense. The Baltimore singer performs regularly in New York and has played events in Philadelphia. He has also named his next project, East vs West, featuring the Los Angeles musician Jamonie Lee. Until that arrives, Proceed 2 is the clearest statement of where he stands.
A Movement Named Proceed and a Debut Single in 2022
The recorded catalogue starts later than the movement. His debut single, 1 Life, came out in January 2022. Hello, Lay You Down, Good Time, Confused and All in My Mind followed across 2022 and 2023. Proceed 2 is the first album in that run, and he took his time with it. His own notes on the record put it plainly: Rome was not built in a day, and music is an art, so there is no reason to rush it.
Eight Songs Recorded at Wright Way Studios in Baltimore, With One Guest Verse From Jamonie Lee
The record runs for about 22 minutes across eight songs. It opens with Cater 2 U, Pt. 2, the shortest track at just under two minutes. Then it moves through Keep Me Company, Simple Things, True Colors, Maintenance, Feel Good Music and Rain before closing on I Just Gotta Know.
The music sits where Kennard says his heart is. He has said he loves old-school music, its stories and its authentic feel, and that he set out to tell a story and bring back the good old R&B. Mesmerized heard that in smooth, bouncy R&B, with modern, tropical and afro-infused rhythms under 90s-flavoured melodies. The site also pointed to the contrast between Cater 2 U, Pt. 2 and Simple Things. Meanwhile, Senocular Media heard lush melodies and slick bass lines, and Mexico’s End Sessions covered the album in September 2025.
Grief, Patience and One Guest Verse From Los Angeles
The writing comes from life. Kennard drew on daily experience and on loss: his aunt died four years before the release, and his uncle the year before. Rain is where that grief sits closest to the surface. Elsewhere, the songs turn to love and to the simple things.
I Just Gotta Know asks a question anyone in a new relationship will recognise: is the other person in as deep as you are? Kennard told BuzzSlayers the song came from watching people move fast in relationships without getting to know each other first. It is also the album’s only collaboration. Jamonie Lee comes in for a verse and plays the other side of the conversation. Like the rest of the album, the track was recorded at Wright Way Studios in Baltimore.
Why Proceed 2 Still Answers the Question Kennard Asked in 2011, and Where He Goes Next
The first answer is personal. Proceed 2 is what the 2011 decision looks like 14 years later: a singer who kept going, wrote through loss and took two years to get the record right.
The second answer is about lineage. Baltimore has its own R&B history, and Dru Hill is its best-known chapter. The group formed in the city in 1992 and found its audience in the late 1990s with singles such as In My Bed and Never Make a Promise, mixing soul, hip-hop soul and gospel. That 90s R&B is the sound Kennard says he wants back, and Mesmerized heard that decade in his melodies.
The third answer is about neo-soul. D’Angelo, widely regarded as a pioneer of the neo-soul movement, is the reference point for the warmer side of the record. Kennard works in the same blend, moving between R&B, neo-soul and rap across the album rather than switching once for effect.
So who is it for? First, listeners who grew up on 90s R&B and want new songs with the same storytelling. Second, neo-soul fans who like their albums short and personal. Finally, anyone in New York or Philadelphia who wants to hear these songs live.
From the NewMusic.News Curator Team: “Twenty-two minutes is a modest length for an album that took two years, and that is the point: Proceed 2 has no filler to skip. Start with Rain, then go back to the beginning and hear how the record gets there.”
How to Hear Proceed 2 and Where to Follow Kennard Across Every Platform
Play it in order, because the sequence moves from romance to grief and back to the question at the end. Then follow the singles back to 1 Life to hear where the movement started on record. The album is also on Apple Music.
Follow Kennard across platforms:
- Stream: Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer
- Watch: the YouTube channel
- Follow: Instagram and Facebook
- Read more: the official website
