Formerly known as Erk Tha Jerk, Kevin Allen is a rapper, producer, and photographer who's played a pivotal role in Bay Area hip-hop for the last 20 years. Growing up in Richmond but moving around Oakland, he got into hip hop in high school and started releasing music in the early days of MySpace and Twitter. His 2009 single "Right Here" went from the internet to constant radio play on KMEL, leading to a distribution deal with SMC for his debut album "Nerd's Eye View." Since then he has become a professional photographer and also co-founded the artist collective Grand Nationxl, which is continuing to gain momentum in the Bay and beyond. -- Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1xYfXcJoy5k --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historyofthebay/support