Kevin Aviance Cements His Legacy With First Solo Album in Over Two Decades: ‘Music Saved My Life’

If there’s 1 happening that Kevin Aviance learned successful the past fewer years, it’s that timing is everything.

Sometimes, the timing takes overmuch longer than helium would person thought, similar erstwhile his 1996 nine azygous “C-nty” became the backbeat for a fan-favorite B-side connected Beyoncé’s 2022 medium Renaissance. But sometimes, the timing is overmuch much immediate, similar erstwhile helium settled connected the rubric of his caller album.

“I remembered seeing a hippopotamus astatine the zoo, and I was like, ‘They’re truthful fierce. If you spot hippo successful the wild, you amended run, bitch,” Aviance says, arsenic his glamorous constitution twinkles successful the airy of his machine screen. “So I said, ‘We’re calling the medium Hippopotamus!‘ The adjacent day, Moo Deng was born. And I thought, ‘You cannot constitute this s–t, b–ch!'”

The album’s rubric is acold from the lone happening that feels kismet connected Hippopotamus!, Aviance’s archetypal full-length solo medium successful much than 20 years retired Friday (Oct. 10). After helping signifier the location and ballroom scenes of New York City successful the mid-90s — and earning 3 Billboard Dance Club Songs No. 1s successful the process — Aviance returns a fewer decades aboriginal to his beloved genre, present anointed not lone by a brace of popular music’s paragons, but by himself arsenic a captious creator successful creation music’s history.

Oscillating betwixt retro-leaning ballroom-inspired singles — including a bid of bitch tracks, vogue numbers and interludes — and modern creation songs showing his forward-thinking worldview, Aviance goes retired of his mode to marque Hippopotamus! more than conscionable a triumph lap. “I conscionable truly wanted it to beryllium authentic,” helium says. “It’s truly hard to beryllium 57 retired present successful these streets doing this … but hopefully I’ll beryllium 80 and inactive doing this, and I anticipation that the euphony keeps evolving and teaches maine much astir myself.”

The process for creating the LP started conscionable implicit 3 years ago, soon aft Aviance earned the biggest recognition of his career connected “Pure/Honey,” the penultimate way of Beyoncé’s house-inspired masterwork Renaissance. Throughout the thundering track, Bey interpolated his vocal from “C-nty” to service arsenic a portion of the track’s bassline, alongside different salient ballroom samples from MikeQ, Kevin Jz Prodigy and the precocious Moi Renee. Even 3 years later, Aviance vividly remembers however life-altering his 2022 acquisition felt and inactive gives the popular superstar each owed credit

“I’ve seen a batch of radical take from the cheery community. I’ve ne'er seen anyone assistance up our community, a sub-genre, the Black queens the mode she did, wherever she said, ‘Look astatine this! Aren’t they talented?'” helium recalls, inactive moved by Beyoncé’s munificence toward him and his people. “I couldn’t adjacent speech astir it before, what it meant to me. She is 100 [percent] and her squad is 100 [percent], and they person been thing but truthful benignant and truthful real.”

Aviance’s instrumentality to the spotlight didn’t halt determination — during her Celebration World Tour, Madonna reunited with Aviance connected signifier 3 decades aft helium appeared successful her “Secret” video. The brace judged the on-stage voguing contention astatine her amusement successful Washington D.C., which Aviance cites arsenic different nighttime helium volition “never forget.”

“I’ve been obsessed with Madonna since I was 14 years old. To spell done each the worldly she went through, and each the lives that she saved, Madonna is The One,” Aviance says. “I mean, some of these women conscionable mean everything to me.”

As he...