Senay Kenfe was born and raised in the Wrigley neighborhood where he grew up with gang members. Though never a gang member himself, he was nevertheless associated with the lifestyle much of his young life and was prohibited from attending his neighborhood high school, Long Beach Poly, because he’d been placed on a gang injunction list.
School district officials wanted to send him to Jordan High but Kenfe knew that would surely lead to him being beaten up on a regular basis because of the neighborhood he called home, so his mother used the address of a friend to get him into Millikan High. The experience was life-changing: he met kids from well-off families and was not only amazed at the size of their homes—he and his six family members lived in a two-bedroom apartment—and extent of their afterschool snack choices, but was quick to see the musical possibilities of their laptops and turntables.
It was at their homes that he first learned to use a turntable and, upon graduating, took classes at Long Beach City College to continue his growth as an artist. Kenfe, 29, writes and performs his music and owns his own record label, Eddie’s Liquor.