A highly skilled beatmaker and classically trained musician, Oakland-based Chris Keys produces heartfelt, nostalgic hip-hop, mixing off-beat samples with his own keyboard melodies, which are often improvised. While his vocal productions, including 2012's Ashes with Oh No and several collaborations with Quelle Chris, are abstract yet bold and immediate, his instrumental albums and EPs, such as 2018's Badnewsfirst, are more reserved and introspective. Chris Keys was virtually unknown when Ashes, his collaboration with rapper/producer Oh No, was released in 2012. Following that album, Keys produced tracks for Georgia Anne Muldrow, Declaime, MED, and Jean Grae, in addition to regularly collaborating with Quelle Chris. Their first full-length together, Innocent Country, appeared in 2015, and garnered positive attention. Keys' first solo release, a set of downbeat instrumentals titled Bridges, was released in late 2017; all of the album's track titles were named after Bay Area bridges. Four instrumental solo releases appeared in 2018: Fences, Detour, Greyscale, and Badnewsfirst. A brief, vocal-based single titled "Can I Come Home" was released in 2019. Innocent Country 2, a sequel to his 2015 album with Quelle Chris, was issued by Mello Music Group in 2020. The album's extensive guest list included Earl Sweatshirt, Merrill Garbus, Homeboy Sandman, and Pink Siifu. ~ Paul Simpson