Kennard Built Proceed 2 for R&B Listeners Who Want the Whole Story in 22 Minutes
A Baltimore Singer’s Eight-Song Album Found Its People in Lounges, Pop-Ups and a French Webzine
Proceed 2 came out on 22 August 2025, with eight songs in about 22 minutes. Its one guest is Jamonie Lee, on I Just Gotta Know. Kennard, the Baltimore singer behind Proceed 2, keeps old-school R&B at the centre, with hip-hop and neo-soul at the edges. No track runs past 3:14, so it works as a self-contained record for listeners who want new independent R&B.
Kennard’s songs are in the playlist below, and his full run of coverage sits on his artist profile. Proceed 2 reached IndieMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Start with the playlist and give it a spin, then keep reading for the people around the record.
Who Kennard Made Proceed 2 For, From Neo-Soul Regulars to Hip-Hop Fans Who Want a Singer
The listener this album serves is easy to describe. They play alternative and indie R&B, and they keep neo-soul in rotation. They also come to hip-hop for the beats as much as the bars. Above all, they are looking for new names, which is where an independent album from Baltimore comes in.
First, the format helps. Six of the eight songs finish under three minutes. The opener, Cater 2 U, Pt. 2, is done in 1:59, and the longest cut, True Colors, runs 3:14. Nothing outstays its idea, so the album works as one sitting rather than a playlist to dip into.
Then the writing does the rest. The songs come from Kennard’s own life. The French webzine Pull-Up MAG described them as conversations with the people listening, a bridge between his experiences and theirs. That is the appeal for this audience: R&B that sounds like someone talking to you, built on the old-school R&B he grew up singing.
Listeners Who Already Play Musiq Soulchild, Raheem DeVaughn and Bryson Tiller
Three better-known acts help place the record. Philadelphia’s Musiq Soulchild made conversational, story-led R&B singing his signature from his 2000 debut, Aijuswanaseing. Similarly, Kennard’s narrative writing sits in that lane. Raheem DeVaughn, raised in Washington, DC, and Maryland, has spent two decades on slow, grown love songs. His recent albums have come out independently, too. Bryson Tiller showed on Trapsoul in 2015 how much R&B singing a hip-hop beat can carry. That overlap is where Proceed 2 lives.
None of those names is a claim of influence. Instead, they are a guide for US listeners who already live in those catalogues and want a new independent voice to add to them.
Proceed 2 Reached Listeners Through a Brooklyn Showcase, a French Webzine and Independent Blogs
On 21 August 2025, the night before release, Kennard played The Next Up Concert Series. The show was at Gems Lounge in Brooklyn. New York is a city he plays regularly, so the album arrived with a room already behind it.
A week later, Pull-Up MAG ran its review. It called Proceed 2 an intimate trip into authentic R&B and credited the patience behind two years of work. Kennard has since republished that review, in English, on his own site. The independent outlets NewIndieRadar and Mesmerized Mag covered the album too. Meanwhile, the record sells as a download on his site, at $12, with single tracks at $1.99.
The Community Around Kennard and Proceed 2 Runs From a Baltimore Church to Brooklyn Pop-Ups
The name came first. Kennard released a mixtape called Proceed in 2014, and the word now covers a fan club, a clothing line and this album. Fans gather on a Facebook page called The Fans of Proceed Fan Club. His site also sells Proceed hoodies, hats and shirts next to the music.
The live calendar follows the same circle. His shows page lists a Black Diamond DMV artist showcase in Washington, DC, in March 2025. It also lists a live jazz and poetry session in Baltimore in February 2026 and a Raw Philadelphia showcase in March 2026. Then, in April 2026, a Brooklyn fashion show and pop-up put the music and the clothing in one room.
Still, the roots go back further. He started singing at 13 at Israel Baptist Church in Baltimore. At 16 he began writing songs at Frederick Douglass High School. On the album, his one collaborator is Jamonie Lee, a Los Angeles musician who joins him on I Just Gotta Know.
IndieMusic.News curator team: “Proceed 2 is the rare R&B album you can hear front to back on a short commute and still come away knowing exactly who made it. Eight songs, one guest, and a singer whose audience has grown one room at a time.”
Proceed 2 is out now on Spotify and Apple Music, and his official site sells the download.
Follow Kennard across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X.
