By Michael Kinney
Kid Lennon (aka Barrett Tarr, aka Chief Peace) is not afraid to tackle deep subjects in his music. In his song “20/20” off his newest album, “Letters to Lennon,” he spits out the verse “I was born in ’93. Never thought I’d make it past the age of 18.”
For the Southmoore High graduate, these aren’t just words to shock and awe his listeners; there was a time in his life when he wasn’t worried about longevity on this planet.
“I always thought I was so sad, I would give up at one point. You know, I don’t really want to be alive,” Kid Lennon said. “I didn’t want to ever kill myself as a kid, but I just didn’t want to be born. It was like I’d always tell my mom, ‘Why was I born? You don’t like me. I don’t get this. I’m confused. It feels like no one likes me around. Why am I even here?’ So, I think music helped me find that purpose. Purpose is everything in life.”
That period in Kid Lennon’s life may seem like a long time ago. Now he is living the life he has created for himself as a burgeoning rapper whose talents stretch into a variety of different realms.
However, as Kid Lennon nears almost a decade in the game, he stands at a precarious point in his career. He has made some noise in the music industry that has garnered the attention of big-name celebrities and obtained strong endorsements, such as Red Bull.
He has a plan on where he wants to go and how he wants to get there.
Yet, it’s a position countless artists have gotten to in the past, only to see themselves fall by the wayside to never be heard from again.
But Kid Lennon says that won’t be him for one undeniable reason.
“There’s no other me. That’s what I’m realizing,” Kid Lennon said. “I’m very much in my own lane, especially in Oklahoma City. I’m definitely in my own lane of rap. So, there’s never going to be another me. And that’s all I have to do, is be the best me. And I think if I can make great things, greatness always shows. People always see greatness, if you can do great things. If I can make something great that the world sees, then cool, I’m going to do that slowly but surely.”
This laser focus on becoming one of the best rappers in the world has not always been part of Kid Lennon’s plan. In fact, for much of his youth, he readily admits he just trying to figure out who he was.
“I didn’t feel very understood. My mother’s a teacher, a special ed teacher. She’s very strict, and I was, like, an opposer,” Kid Lennon said. “I wanted to question everything. And I don’t think that’s fun for any parent. But it takes certain people to want to sit and explain that to a kid. So it ended up just us butting heads at all times. I found with me and my mom, it was never that motherly love. I went to my grandma for that. Then my grandma passed away in fifth grade, and I kind of felt lost. I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m really alone.’”
It didn’t help that Kid Lennon and his mother were constantly on the move.
“I moved around Oklahoma and Texas a lot as a kid. I went to like six elementary schools. My mom was a single mom,” Kid Lennon said. “We were moving a lot. So it really wasn’t like getting used to a town. It was more like, I’d go from a big city in Texas to a small town in Oklahoma, to a big town in Oklahoma.”
While Kid Lennon found his purpose in life to keep him going, it has not shielded him from death. Even though he has yet to reach the age of 30, he’s already been to 15 funerals in his lifetime. Many are friends from his days at Southmoore High.
“I’d say 10 out of the 15 were opioids-related,” Kid Lennon said. “There’s always the harder stuff that got them. One of my good friends got shot, randomly robbed by a 14- and a 15-year-old. I had a friend get hit by a car right after high school. So it was some random ones. So it did seem cursed.”
It was because of all that he had been through and witnessed, Kid Lennon decided that his music was not going to be a reflection of that type of pain. He wanted to take his rap and life in a different direction.
That was reflected in his original stage name, “Chief Peace.” That was the name he went by when things started to build for him in 2016. That included releasing the “Blue Peace” EP.
On May 24, 2016, he then had a chance encounter with NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal at Hubbly Bubbly in Oklahoma City. As he was hosting a poetry night and saw Shaq walk in, he knew he had to take his shot. Or as he called it, his Eminem moment.
He departed from the script and performed a couple of his own rap songs. That included “Hippy Kid.”
“After I got done, they were like, ‘Hey, Shaq wants to see you,’” Kid Lennon said. “I went back and he was like, ‘Can you do that again?’ I was like, ‘If you’d be my hype man.’ So he literally ended up getting on stage. We did it again. It got on TMZ, all that crap just because, quick thinking. You got to be quick with it.”
Once the video with Shaq blew up on social media, Kid Lennon knew this was his moment. The very next day he built a website and hired someone to handle public relations. He then started getting calls from radio stations and promoters.
That eventually led to him opening for Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz at the Tulsa BOK Center in August of that year.
“Opening for Wayne was a crazy thing to me because he’s the reason I started. Started doing music was because of Wayne,” Kid Lennon said. “You can go from watching him on the screen to really being in a room where you deserve to be in a room on stage with him. It’s crazy you can do that. And it might take a little longer than you expect, but I felt ready when I was there and that’s all that mattered.”
He has also opened for Lil Uzi, Ludacris and Bone, Thugs n Harmony.
It wasn’t until he moved to California later that year that he took the next step his evolution. He decided it was time to part ways with Chief Peace and welcome Kid Lennon to the limelight.
“I think I was kind of boxing myself in with the Chief Peace name. I think when you see featuring Chief Peace, or by Chief Peace, you automatically assume what it will be about or what it should be about,” he said. “With Kid Lennon, it leaves a little more in the air of, like, there’s more to speak on. I feel more emotions than just peace. I need to be able to speak on more emotions. Peace comes from a dark place. You have to be an angry person to want peace so bad. I was such a sad, angry kid that I wanted peace so badly. And that’s where Kid Lennon comes from. That’s the kid who was like mad but still wants peace.”
Last summer, Kid Lennon signed on to do a TV show with Red Bull Music. It came out this spring.
Yet, while rapping is his Kid Lennon’s passion, it’s his ability to paint that still pays the bills. He was back in Oklahoma City this month painting several murals around the city. And with California on lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19, it allowed him to stay longer than he expected and painting more than he wanted.
Kid Lennon is looking forward to the day when he can put down his paintbrushes and work exclusively with a microphone and his lyrics. He says that moment is closer than what many might think.
“I’m too close. The show with Red Bull just aired. My album’s ready. I have meetings with labels that I’m supposed to have,” Kid Lennon said. “I finally have the momentum I need and the connections I need in California. Now it’s just about sitting and executing for a good six months. This is the plan. This is what we want. But I’m never in a rush. If I needed to be a gimmick at any point I could blow up. That’s not what I want. I’d rather have longevity.”
