KEKS MAFIA

KEKS MAFIA (sometimes written Keks Mafia, civil identity Kev Leonard) is one of the historic nodes in the crystallisation of the Bouyon Warm Up sub-genre. The central marker of his trajectory is the release of the single "Bouyon Warm Up" on 15 December 2022, the first solid official catalogue title of the sub-genre, after two earlier public traces: "1T1-bouyon warm up akiyo" of 15 November 2021 (the first spotted public use) and "Kay'J × Ckay - Emiliana (Warm Up Bouyon)" of 30 December 2021 (a close second trace). Those three markers form the documented family tree of Warm Up across 13 months, and KEKS MAFIA plays the role of official discographic registration in it.

His path doesn't start there, though. As early as 2017 he makes a name with "You Draw", a sharp-humoured track that draws a notable response: Carlyn XP, the Dominican Bouyon Queen, answers with her own version, "You Score". Keks Mafia takes it as a spotlight. "a counteraction is a response, not necessarily a diss", and claims keeping the Dominican accent in his music.

Warm Up is defined as the slower-tempo branch of Bouyon: between 125 and 134 BPM against 155-164 BPM for hardcore Act II Gwada / new wave Bouyon. It therefore stands apart from Mr Ridge's Nasty Business (defined by a rawer attitude and lyrics, not by tempo) and from Fallon's RnBouyon (a stylistic fusion of R&B vocals). Its zone is temporal and functional: it is the Bouyon DJs play to prepare the dancefloor before climbing into the hardcore. KEKS MAFIA holds a key place in that 2021-2022 chronology: without his single, the genealogy of Warm Up stays fragile.