Before Lul Kel would drop the song “Wrong” which
now has close to 50 million views on YouTube and close to 50 million streams on Spotify
at the time of this recording.
Before he would say “BRB” and come right back with another hit
And Before his Ne-Yo inspired song “Pull Up” would have more than 2 million views
in less than 2 weeks at the time of this recording
Before Luh would land on Billboard’s emerging artists chart and head out on tour with Polo
G
And Before he would have more than a million followers on Instagram and more than 600k
subscribers on YouTube at the time of this recording.
And Luh Kel did all of this while he’s still not even old enough to get into a club.
Luh Kel is only 17 years old but he is on pace to become one of RnB’s next big stars.
In a world where autotune is used to cover up lack of ability, Luh has one of the best
voices in the game, autotune or not.
And his journey is really only just beginning.
But before he got signed, Luh Kel actually got his start in a local boy band!
But we’re going to walk you through his story in this video.
I always feel weird about calling it a story when they’re under 20 cause they still have
such a long way to go, but he’s lived a pretty interesting life already.
What’s going on good people in the comment section?
I hope you’re having one Hecht of a Day, my name is Jeremy Hecht, and today I’ll
be your host as I take you through the life and career of Luh Kel prior to fame, here
for you on Before They Were Famous.
If you’re new here, I’m the LA host for this channel.
Shout out to everyone watching after work, after school, at school, with their friends,
with their family, shout out to my family and shoutout to whoever else I missed!
But I can’t forget to give a shoutout to the toilet gang!
I see you, yeah you.
We’ve covered other artist recently like YK Osiris and Polo G so be sure to check those
out after you finish watching this one, and let us know who to cover next by hitting me
up on Instagram or in the comments down below!
Before we start, I’ve got a Trivia question for you that I’ll answer at the end of the
video.
Today’s question is:
What was Luh Kel’s favorite football team growing up?
Alright, Let’s get into it!
INTRO
Lul Kel was born Turran Coleman on May 20, 2002 in Tennessee but he grew up in University
City, St. Louis, Missouri.
University City has a population of around 35 thousand people and while I’m not sure
if University City has a University in the city, I have a feeling Luh won’t need college
for anything.
Luh Kel is the middle child of three siblings and he began singing at the age of two.
His family could always spot his talent, even from an early age, even auditioning for a
few things:
As he grew, he began listening to a lot of RnB and was influenced by Usher, Chris Brown
and Tank.
He also played football growing up:
One of those auditions payed off and at 14 years old, Luh Kel began singing and performing
as part of the St. Louis based group called ProjecX
and it had nothing to do with the massive party movie.
Although both are great in their own right.
The group was formed through an audition process that included singing, dancing, rapping and
fashion, you basically had to have the whole package.
And the 4 who had the best chemistry and the most talent, would become the newest boy band.
There were about 25 people who auditioned, but Luh was one of the 4 chosen to be a part
of the group and he was the youngest member of the four.
The group was formed on March 21st, 2015 and here is a young Luh practicing his backflips
as a part of their training, because, what is a great boyband without at least a couple
of backflips:
Luh described their sound as:
It was a mindless behavior Pop-ish R&B type of feel.
The ProjecX YouTube page described their mission as:
St. Louis is being watched by people from around the world.
Unfortunately, too often for the wrong reasons.
Many negative images are being seen throughout our country and even the world.
It is up to all of us to help turn this around by putting out positive messages and images.
It is refreshing and encouraging to find young people who are willing to put aside their
differences and work together for a common good.
The group at one point got the opportunity to sing for Ronnie DeVe from New Edition.
The group threw local parties and concerts with their first performance being at Harris
Stowe State University.
And the group even got to perform on their local Fox channel.
An agent saw their talent at their initial show and hired them to appear as a cover band
for The Jackson 5 at the Missouri Historical Museum’s event called Twilight Tuesday,
Although I guess they would have just been the Jackson 4 at that point?
And based on this old audition I found of him singing, he was probably the Michael of
the group.
The event had 6000 people who were impressed by the performance.
That’s a lot of people to be performing in front of at 14 years old.
I remember performing in front of like 100 people at a school talent night and I was
nervous but 6000, AND having to live up to the expectations for The Jackson 5, that’s
a lot to handle for a teenager.
ProjecX kept getting booked for gigs, next getting flown out to California to perform
in front of troops.
They performed alongside an orchestra at Washington University and even at Disneyland!
Their song “Slay” was actually played on the local radio stations.
And the group had some dedicated fans who were posting about them.
That was the cutest thing ever.
He even kept the part with his parents calling him, in the video.
Luh if you see this please reach out to that kid and make his life!
He loved you guys.
And kid if you’re watching this, you’re a legend.
I love you okay!
You’re a stars.
I’m not exactly sure what happened to the group, but after a couple of years, Luh went
solo and started posting his own singing videos online, covering popular songs.
Luh tried everything possible to blow up through social media but nothing seemed to be working.
So he got a regular job and decided to take a step back from music.
He was experiencing some hate in his city and says that people didn’t want to see
him succeed.
Especially when you’re creating or trying to do something different in high school,
it can be a lot to deal with.
Luh decided to come back to music but he wanted to post some original songs.
After searching YouTube and trying to find the right sound, he found a beat online that
was produced by BubbaGotBeatz and he wrote to it.
I’m Jewish and we call our grandma’s “baba” and I can say that my Baba doesn’t got beats.
Great woman just not a producer, so good to see this Bubba had beats.
People loved the snippet and wanted to hear the whole song and it began to blow up online.
He caught the attention of industry manager London Smith, who helped signed Luh to a deal
with Cinematic Music Group.
Cinematic CEO and Producer Jonny Snipes reached out on Instagram and along with 11VN, produced
a full studio version of the track Wrong.
The song was inspired by a girl who broke his heart.
Apparently she was messing around with his good friend…
Can’t trust these, girls.
Along with the label, Kel has been in the studio working with Grammy winning producers
to help develop his sound and he’s going through the artist development process, which,
you don’t see enough of anymore.
Together, they released the video for “Wrong” as his debut single.
And in classic 2019 fashion, it was a challenge that gave the song a huge buzz.
Fans began posting their own version of the #WrongChallenge onto YouTube.
But it was on Tik Tok that, like so many other songs today, Wrong blew up.
There were more than 5 million Tik Tok videos created using his song, which helped it blow
up long before it hit the mainstream airwaves.
The song debuted on the Billboard hot R&B and hip-hop charts at number 39.
In terms of all the success, his favorite part has been traveling to New York and experiencing
fans running up on him.
And ack in the day, it looks like Luh was a Steelers fan.
This was his old profile picture on Facebook so that’s my best guess.
I have a feeling Luh Kel still has a long way to go with his career and that this is
just the start.
I would put him in the same category of young talents as YK Osiris, Lil TJay and Polo G.
They’re all guys who understand melody really well and have really raw voices and talent
that once groomed are going to be hard to stop.
Luh also has a star power that few kids his age have, so I’m really looking forward
to seeing his progression.
But as for the rest of the story, we’ll have to wait and see, because this is Before
They Were Famous.
Here are two more videos for you to check out!
As always, my name is Jeremy, Dream Good Live Better, be sure to follow me on Instagram
and let me know who to cover next and I’ll see you in another video!