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KENTON journeys through family, identity and healing in “Sweetmouth (Sugar Free)” (EP)

KENTON

“Sweetmouth (Sugar Free)” is an extremely reflective acoustic EP that guides you through its six tracks as it explores memory, identity, and emotional reconciliation. Created at a moment of deep discovery, the project reveals KENTON’s process of forgiving others, of realizing who he is within himself, and of internally processing what he experienced as a queer Asian American child growing up in the United States.

The EP opens with “I’m Breaking My Father’s Heart – Acoustic,” a gentle track about the disconnection between what parents desire and what you believe is true. “Never Born – Acoustic” is inward-looking, exploring the existential uncertainty of financial suffering at home and prayers that hang in the air, unanswered.

“Let Light In – Live” is a release that captures emotional awakening, where letting go of past pain is the first step toward recovery. “Without You – Acoustic” is one of the most affecting moments on the EP, which recounts a tough relationship with a sick father. “Wannabe American – Acoustic” laments the falseness of the American Dream and how it commodifies the Asian identity.

On the final song, “The Times – Acoustic,” KENTON directs strength toward a message of survival, hope, and endurance in an emotionally suffocating world. “Sweetmouth (Sugar Free)” is also the voice of the collective, and it’s a gift to immigrant and queer youth searching for belonging in spaces that often do not welcome them.

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Photo credit: Ricky Chavez

Connect with KENTON on Website | Spotify | Instagram | TikTok

A seasoned music writer at Honk Magazine, covering new releases and artist spotlights with a focus on blending insight with captivating storytelling, helping readers connect deeply with the music and the artists behind it.

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Artist Spotlight

Billy Jeter and Bobby Rush give struggle a voice on latest release “Hard Times”

Billy Jeter

Billy Jeter returns with “Hard Times,” a Blues-based Single Featuring Grammy-winning Blues Legend Bobby Rush. There is a deep tradition in Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta that this song taps into. It brings the raw emotional heaviness of hard times with the resilience and authenticity of the blues. The collaboration adds a layer of musical richness and legacy to the tune.

The main lyric of the song is very simple and clear, “A hard time a hard time is killing me.” And it’s the simplicity of that which makes the feeling immediately recognizable, difficulty can be overwhelming, exhausting, personal. “Hard Times” takes that reality and puts it front and center, instead of hiding it, and letting the emotional truth of the blues carry the message.

And “Hard Times” connects personal struggle to a musical tradition of singing what life can demand of people, with Billy Jeter on lead vocals and Bobby Rush on the record. That sense of authenticity is also fed by the song’s Arkansas and Mississippi Delta roots. It’s a release born of emotional truth, resilience, and the blues’ age-old ability to give voice to hard experience.

Connect with Billy Jeter on Spotify

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Artist Spotlight

MomoBaby unveils a relentless energy and dark ambition with latest release “Stupify”

MomoBaby

“Stupify” is delivered by MomoBaby with an urgency that leaves little doubt. The beat has dark, cinematic production, quick cadence switches, technical lyricism, and hard 808s. The track sets this mood for ambition to be the driving force. The song is about that thin line between believing something so much that it becomes delusion, and believing something so much that it becomes reality.

The first rap flow, “They call me the kid but i never play much,” sets a confident yet not passive tone. The production provides a heavy backdrop to the technical approach as the performance keeps shifting through changes in cadence. Another eye-catching line, “She heard I’m an artist, she want me to stroke it but now with no paint brush,” gives the writing a provocative edge and helps to reinforce the track’s character.

The difference with “Stupify” in this data is its dedication to intensity. Momo & Dank take the track into a darker, more cinematic hip-hop space, but the focus is still on lyricism, delivery, and ambition. It’s like the music is from the land where confidence no longer asks for permission. That attitude becomes the source of energy for “Stupify”.

Connect with MomoBaby on Spotify

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