Kenya Lee Sheppard

Kenya Lee Sheppard was born on September 21, 1994 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City to Clarence Sheppard and Natalie Byfield-Sheppard.

He grew up in Mastic Beach, NY, a small community on the east end of Brookhaven Township on Long Island. Summers during his childhood were spent in Southampton and visiting friends in the Shinnecock Nation. For his elementary education he attended the Hampton Day School (now the Ross School), the Riverhead Charter School, and Tangier Elementary School in the William Floyd School District. He graduated from William Floyd High School in June 2012 with awards for excellence in music and academic performance. From there he attended Cornell University to study art at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

From an early age Kenya displayed prodigious creativity in the areas of fine arts and music. His kindergarten art teacher described him as prolific and inspiring. At the age of six he tried to solve the problems of illustrating perspective and movement in his drawings. Some of his early studies were of the characters and scenes in the computer game “Pajama Sam” and the science-based animation TV show “The Magic School Bus.” Most of his artistic studies during his childhood centered anime, its characters and scenes, particularly from Naruto and Dragon Ball Z.

Beginning at age 6, Kenya started studying electric guitar with Joe at the Family Music Center and then at age 8 he began studying under Stan Wright, a protégé of jazz guitarists Pat Martino and John Scofield. In addition to the electric guitar, Kenya also played the cello, piano, electric bass, and the harmonica. Kenya was also an accomplished vocal artist.

Kenya developed a love for Jimi Hendrix and his blend of blues, jazz, and rock. By age of 11, he began composing his own songs, the first major one titled “Journey.” He also began leading the Sheppard Brothers band with his brother Camara (on keyboards), and Ryan McCloskey (on drums). The band would expand to later include Angelica Franzino (on bass).

Throughout his high school and early college years, Kenya, with the Sheppard Brothers band, performed in over 121 gigs in the New York metropolitan area. Highpoints include: a performance with New Orleans blues legend, Kenny Neal, at the Great South Bay Music Festival, when in 2008 they were the youngest band to perform in the history of the festival. Other highlights include a performance at Jacob Javits Center in New York City; their performances for Long Island Pulse magazine events; and a performance at Terra Blues in Greenwich Village where their names were added to the venue’s signature wall with the roster of famed jazz musicians who performed there.

Artistically, Kenya was a conceptual artist driven by a desire to transcend all genres of music and art and to combine his music with his visual/fine arts. By his sophomore year at Cornell, Kenya had expanded his range of genres in which he composed music to include EDM (electronic dance music), hip hop, influenced by R & B, Southern trap, rock, and emo, with its emotional and confessional lyrics. He would bring all these together in his productions of house music, emo rap, and R&B songs that were totally original in their combinations of sounds, lyrics, images, and cultural influences (from anime, to Marvel comics, to realism).

In his transcendental approach to his music and art, Kenya sought to create his own unique aesthetic sonically, lyrically, and visually that many were not always prepared to hear because it incorporated all the elements of his life including his struggles with condition defined as mental illness. Beginning in 2016, Kenya received his first of a number of diagnoses of various forms of severe mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenic form disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. Through all this he continued to create, and he leaves behind a collection of about 200 original songs and pieces of original artwork.

Kenya predeceases his parents Clarence Sheppard and Natalie Byfield-Sheppard; his brother Camara Sheppard; his grand-parents Hugh and Ruby Byfield; six aunts, Judith Byfield, Karen Dock, Ellen Gould-Byfield, Gloria Sheppard, Veronica Sheppard, and Francine Wright; four uncles, Byron Byfield, Lorenzo Dock, Louis Bernard Sheppard, and Wayne Wright. He was predeceased by his grandmother Sarah Dock. Kenya also leaves behind many cousins: Amanda Byfield, Andrew Byfield, Khaden Dock, Khasey Dock, Khole Dock, Lheia Dock, Jada Wright, and Lauren Wright. There are a host of other cousins he leaves behind in the Byfield family, the Flash family, the Taylor family, and the Sheppard family, who reside across the U.S. in California, Upstate New York, New York City, Long Island, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, as well as overseas in Jamaica, the U.K., Canada, and the Gambia.

A memorial service to celebrate Kenya will be held on Saturday, July 22, 2023 from 2:00pm to 5:30pm at the Robert Ross Johnson Family Life Center, 172-17 Linden Blvd., St. Albans, NY 11434. Please register here to let us know if you will attend remotely: http://bit.ly/3OLc08y