Houston’s Kenneth Millyun and TeeZol have released “Call It Whatever,” a new single that doubles as the latest chapter in a partnership that goes back years before either of them had a catalog. Millyun and TeeZol trade verses in quick succession over a driving instrumental, neither one easing up, and the result is a record that runs on friction rather than polish. MDawgBeatz handles production, building beats that reward aggression over restraint and give both rappers room to attack them however they see fit.
The two go back further than most collaborators. TeeZol was the one who first pushed Kenneth Millyun toward recording seriously, catching one of his freestyles at a house party and convincing him to get into a real studio for the first time. That early push set Millyun’s whole career in motion, and the two have stayed creatively linked ever since, most recently on “Lots of It,” TeeZol’s feature on Millyun’s EP Crossing Streets. “Call It Whatever” reads like the next round of that same ongoing dialogue, just turned up.
Crossing Streets itself dropped April 30 via EMPIRE, a compact three-song project that finds Millyun working rock textures into a hip-hop frame across “Lots of It,” “Chapter 5,” and “Risks.” It’s less a full statement than a marker, a sign of where he’s headed before a bigger project arrives. That instinct to blend genres instead of picking one traces back to his upbringing in North Houston, where everything from Motown to OutKast to Linkin Park and Deftones shaped how he hears music, and where he eventually decided there was no single lane he wanted to commit to.
What ties “Call It Whatever” to that earlier project isn’t sound alone; it’s the same restless energy and the same partnership behind it. Kenneth Millyun has talked openly about spending years trying to find some kind of formula for breaking through, only to realize there wasn’t one to find, that the only way forward was to keep releasing music and trust the right listeners would catch up. Two projects in as many months suggest he’s not waiting around for that formula anymore.