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Photo: Angelo Kritikos

Rarely does one simultaneously feel relieved to graduate high school and have the desire to take on the enormous task of creating music to “heal people,” but that oppositional energy is what makes Kanii a decidedly unique artist. At only 17, Kanii has achieved what many artists spend lifetimes chasing—an intrinsic comfort in himself, an earnest desire to make the world a better place, and a string of streaming successes boasting dizzying numbers.

Add to that nascent yet impressive catalog his latest EP exiit, a borderless collection of songs that hint not only at past influences but speak to a riotous sense of composition befitting his distinct, genreless approach. Kanii admits that exiit bridges some past experiences with a shift in future sounds, but as an early montage of his style, there is much medicine to take in, alongside the promise of much more to come. 

Kicking off with the eager-for-love "Five," exiit layers in hints of Kanii’s grandfathered-in love of The Temptations and Jackson 5, and that thread is weaved even higher in the subsequent track "Heart Racing." Aided by fellow up-and-coming dance purveyors Riovaz and Nimstarr, Kanii takes the tonalities of early MJ and along with punchy Rhodes-sounding chords, creates a dance-adjacent moment of euphoria, full of optimism but gracing for pain. "Invasion" and "Plastic Heart" are studies in contrast, the former a drum 'n' bass tempered R&B tune, the latter a more modern Usher-sounding ballad layered in deep confessional emotions, a testament to Kanii’s depth for honest songwriting.

The weight of the breakout single "I Know" is impossible to ignore in this EP, a sonic ballast that countenances all the normal approaches to pop obviousness but still leaves you with an indelible earworm, a song that is impossible to not join in with. Anchoring in "Clumsy Dancer," a hilariously light and retro tune that again hints to pop predecessors but is uniquely Kanii, a bottle of keen amalgamation between traditional narrative and imagination, a template all his, an energetic exit, leaving us wanting more. 

Listen to exiit below: