OfficialBekoe

Stephen Bekoe was born on the westside of Chicago. As a child, Bekoe grew up on Kostner & Kenneth also known as the Ktown area. This area was high in crime, drug operations, and prostitution. As Bekoe started elementary school. He started out an honor roll student. He was known for having an aggressive attitude which led him to getting kicked out of Sumner Academy elementary, and moving with his father to Bolingbrook, Illinois. Even with all the negative things going on. Bekoe’s father kept music a tool for success. His father traveled from Ghana to America to pursue his dream of music with his band. While Bekoe was growing up, he sat in studio sessions, attended concerts, and watched his father in rehearsals with his band. He quickly became familiar with the music industry and the sacrifice it took to be a successful musician.
“What influenced me is how much work I saw being put into just one song or an entire album. I knew then that I wanted to carry the torch and build my empire in music in America.”
While growing up, Bekoe was introduced to various different kinds of music. Listening to R&B, soul, jazz, “good feeling music”, put something inside of Bekoe that he can’t describe. It brought him a clear vision of what he wanted to create through music. He was already exposed to living a musician lifestyle and he always knew that he had to work hard to get where he wanted to go.
In his teenage years, Bekoe began to write poetry more and more. He would sit in class while consistently thinking of words that rhyme. In high school during lunch, he and his friends would bang on lunch tables to make different beats. Bekoe started to create instrumentals and felt an urge to begin writing and recording his own songs.
In 2008 Bekoe graduate Bolingbrook High school and attended College of Dupage where he started recording freestyles, and writing songs in between classes. It wasn’t until 2009 when Bekoe met Tracy gardener and recorded his first song titled Goof Ball. He let a lot of people listen to it and got feedback that he wasn’t expecting. His listeners absolutely loved the song, while Bekoe didn’t think it was his best work. They kept asking him why his song wasn’t on the radio yet. This however, showed him that he was onto something and it koe continued to work on his music and wrote Bounce. This song had more of upbeat tempo, his listeners wanted to hear more, and that pushed Bekoe to continue growing. Not too long of time after, Bekoe stepped outside of himself and told a story about who he is and where he is from. This is when Bekoe started his own movement.
His newest single iLLANOiZE is his anthem. Bekoe wrote the song in 2012 but he didn’t take things serious with it until 2013 when he recorded a video for it. Before going to perform at a show, Bekoe went to a custom t-shirt shop to get a shirt made. The shirt read “ILLANOIZE” and when he got to the show, everyone was asking him about it. This is where the demand for “iLLANOiZE” became extreme. This led to his clothing line called “iLLANOiZE” that sells different types of clothing ranging from hooded sweatshirts for adults to t-shirts for children.
“Some people don’t even know that I am the creator. They think I work for the company when they see me wearing the clothes. That’s how great the marketing is.”
Currently, Bekoe is working on iLLANOiZE mixtape which will have an album feel to it. The songs will be based on his everyday life issues of living in Chicago. He also will have visuals of artists as well as the city of Chicago. In the past he has worked with artists such as L Streets, Dreezy (Chicago), AzaeProduction (Videographer of Chicago), Sinna Video Vixen (Chicago) and Dj Freddy B (Chicago Heavy Hittas). Bekoe plans to work with many more artists and continue to strengthen his craft.
“I’ve always look to the future. Everything happens for a reason. Let everything you have dealt with motivate you. It’s building you up for bigger things. Make you become the person you are today. Don’t let negativity bring you down.”