King
A three-year sonic drought ended this October for fans of North Preston R&B luminary Keonté Beals as he dropped his long-awaited LP,
King. Over nine tracks that evoke Elijah Blake, Ledisi and peak 2000s Usher, Beals delivered songs fit for everything from baby-making to breaking up to party starting to reckoning with personal identity. The self-produced effort sees Beals playing with shades of reggae (the rip-roaring opener “Let Go”) and returning to familiar slow-jam territory (the silk-sheet “Know Better”), all while finding his true voice and exploring aspects of his life as a Black man: “That’s with mental health, that’s with love, that’s with triumph, lust,” he explained to The Coast this fall. “Listening to