Kid Maestro has been thinking about ideas lately.
Not “ideas” in the inspirational quote way. More like: Why do certain thoughts stay with us? Why do some of them change a whole room, a family, a neighborhood—while others never make it out of the Notes app?
He doesn’t have a neat answer. That’s probably why there’s a show.
IDEAS ARE SEEDS happens Saturday, July 25 at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts. Kid is bringing Bartholomew Jones with him. Two artists who know something about taking a thought seriously—even when it sounds strange at first.
KID
Before Kid Maestro was Kid Maestro, he was Keynan, a University of Memphis student who saw IMAKEMADBEATS playing an MPC at a production showcase. He walked up after the set and asked if he could come talk. Then he showed up the next morning.
That small decision ended up mattering. A lot.
Kid became one of the first people beside MAD as UNAPOLOGETIC. took shape. He helped find AWFM. He and AWFM locked in for a summer and came out with something like 60 or 70 songs. He produced. Engineered. Built systems. Solved problems. Became president of this weird thing we were building.
That story is in MAD’s PBS interview, but the short version is this: Kid pulled up and kept pulling up.
His music feels like that, too. Curious. Restless. Sometimes beautiful. Sometimes uncomfortable on purpose. His Tajin Tapes have song titles like “Growth Is Fun Growing Sucks,” “Count The Costs,” “God Help Me,” “Momentum Catcher” and “We Made It.” That’s basically a whole life conversation right there.
You can hear experimental hip-hop, soul, electronics and cinematic stuff in what he makes. But genre isn’t really the point. Kid uses sound to figure out what he thinks. Sometimes he figures it out with us standing there.
That’s the part worth seeing live.
AND THEN THERE’S BARTHOLOMEW.
Bartholomew Jones is an emcee, educator and culture maker. He also co-founded Cxffeeblack with Renata Henderson.
Cxffeeblack built an all-Black coffee supply chain connecting Africa to Memphis. The work includes coffee, obviously, but also education, jobs, travel, ownership, culture and a serious rethinking of who gets to benefit from the things Black people grow.
Bartholomew talks about hip-hop like an agricultural product. Grown. Harvested. Rooted in soil and people. His song “Coffee Black” became bigger than a song: a movement, a documentary, a TEDx talk and more than a million streams. His music moves through blues, jazz, boom bap and electronica. His larger practice moves through all of it—music, coffee, Black history, Southern Futurism, faith, economics, Memphis.
So when Kid said IDEAS ARE SEEDS, Bartholomew made sense. Immediately.
WHAT IS THE SHOW?
We could write a long paragraph pretending we know exactly what will happen.
We don’t.
We know Kid will be performing. We know Bartholomew is featured. We know the work is about ideas, the things that feed them, the things that kill them, and the strange responsibility of being given one. We know Kid has spent years pushing through fear, doubt and perfectionism to get his ideas out of his head and into the room.
The rest, you should probably experience without us explaining it to death.
PULL UP.
Saturday, July 25, 2026
The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
1350 Concourse Avenue, Suite 280
Memphis, Tennessee
Doors open at 7:00 PM.
Show starts at 7:30 PM.
$20 in advance, plus fees.
$30 at the door.
LINKS, BECAUSE Y’ALL ASK.
- FULL EVENT INFO — CROSSTOWN ARTS
- TICKETS — DICE
- FOLLOW KID MAESTRO ON INSTAGRAM
- MORE ABOUT KID MAESTRO
- LISTEN TO KID MAESTRO
- FOLLOW BARTHOLOMEW JONES
- VISIT CXFFEEBLACK
- SEE WHAT KID + UNAPOLOGETIC. ARE BUILDING AT MIDNIGHT MARAUDER
Bring somebody who has an idea they keep talking themselves out of.