Bones (rapper)

Elmo Kennedy O'Connor^[3] (born January 11, 1994), known professionally as Bones (sometimes stylized as BONES), is an American rapper from Howell, Michigan.^[4]

Very influential to hip-hop's underground scene due to his experimental music^[5][6] which sampled emo, metal and indie rock,^[7] Bones helped pioneer a sub-genre of hip-hop often referred to as "emo rap"^[8][9] and is often outspoken about his resistance and dislike for record labels despite his significant popularity and label interest.^[4][10]

Early life

Elmo Kennedy O'Connor was born in Marin County, California^[11] to a mother who designed clothing and a father who was a web designer. His grandfather was actor Robert Culp.^[12] His family lived in Muir Beach, California, before moving to New York City. When O'Connor was 7 years old, his family moved to Howell, Michigan.^[13] O'Connor has also lived in Minnesota for two years when he was thirteen where he met members of his future collective Seshollowaterboyz on the internet.^[14]

When he was 16, he dropped out of high school and moved to Los Angeles where his brother, Elliott, had already been living.^[4] Despite leaving his parents’ home in Howell at 16, O'Connor spoke positively of them, stating, "If I tried to write a book about, 'oh, what would be dream parents?', I couldn't even make anything better than them. All they do is shower me in love. Unconditional love, forever."^[15] He described Howell as a "mundane" place where its residents are "born and they die there" though he calls it home.^[15][14]

Musical career

O'Connor originally started releasing music in 2010 at age 16 under the name Th@ Kid. After moving to Los Angeles to live with his brother Elliott, O'Connor was able to connect with other artists he met online including Raider Klan member Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis and Eddy Baker who all met on the internet when O'Connor was 13 years old.^[14] He later officially changed his stage name to Bones in late 2012.

O'Connor's first mixtape as Bones was released on July 4, 2012 titled Bones, eventually releasing twelve more mixtapes^[16] before gaining mainstream major recognition for his mixtape TeenWitch which gained controversy for its theme based around the Columbine High School Massacre.^[6][17][18] The mixtape following TeenWitch, titled Garbage was released on June 9, 2014 and caught the attention of TheNeedleDrop,^[19] Complex,^[20] Fader^[21] who labelled the mixtape as "massive" and "boundary-pushing."^[22]

O'Connor uploaded several mixtapes in 2015^{[23][24][25][26]} and headlined his first sold out show at House of Blues on March 4, 2015^[27][28] before opening for electronic artist Shlohmo at The Fonda Theatre.^[29] O'Connor was later featured on ASAP Rocky's "Canal St." which was a remix of O'Connor's song "Dirt." The song later became O'Connor's first feature on a Billboard chart.^[30][31] Bones performed "Canal St." with ASAP Rocky on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show, but was cut from the TV broadcast. Videos of the performance were made available online.^[32][33]

O'Connor has released 10 mixtapes between 2015 and 2017^[16] and on January 19, 2018, O'Connor performed in KOKO, London, thus starting his first ever European tour, called the Deadboy Tour. It took him to countries such as Germany, Ukraine, Russia and Italy.

O'Connor is one of the four members in the collective Seshollowaterboyz, which consists of himself, and former Raider Klan members Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, and Eddy Baker, whom he often performs and collaborates with.^[34][35] He has also released music with fellow TeamSesh member and producer Greaf, under the names Surrenderdorothy and Oregontrail.

Musical style

Genre-wise, O'Connor often says he has no genre though has been characterized as cloud rap, experimental hip-hop and "sad rap" which later became known as emo rap which O'Connor is a pioneer of.^[8][9][35] O'Connor's earlier music is a lot more futuristic (and is often compared to SpaceGhostPurpp's^[7]) than his current music, which is very acoustic guitar centric due to producer Greaf which spawned a notable style which had influenced artists such as Lil Peep and XXXTentacion.^[5] O'Connors vocal style is often compared to grunge singing with screaming over dark trap beats^[6] with his flow described as sounding like a "rapper out of Memphis in the 90's."^[36]

O'Connor's influences are 90's southern rappers, Lil Wayne, Marvin Gaye, Earth Wind and Fire, Bootsy Collins, Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell.^[8]

Over the years of his music career, O'Connor has developed a large fanbase where he helped underground hip hop develop into new styles and has been noted as "one of the greatest underground artists".^[15]

Personal life

O'Connor lives in Glendale, California with his fiancee Sam, whom he met at Disneyland.^[8]

Discography

References

External links

• Official website