Keenan Jenkins

This musician of wandering to declarative styles uses music in his search for self

At the NC School of Science and Mathematics Keenan Jenkins met a roommate with a guitar. The instrument encouraged him to start analyzing music, and he hasn’t put it down since.

Keenan, stage name XOXOK, is guided by a wealth of influences who inform his style, which goes from pensive and wandering to pointed and declarative. Artists like Marvin Gaye (specifically “What’s Going On,” the full album, not just the titular track), and Frank Ocean all provide structure to Keenan's own musical search for self, feeding into tracks like his 2020 single “All In.” He’s philosophical about the process: “Somewhere in my failure to be them I will find myself and what makes me unique.”