“Growing up and seeing my mother sing in the gospel circuit created in me this drive to want to do something. I never fo...

“Growing up and seeing my mother sing in the gospel circuit created in me this drive to want to do something. I never forget she [once] took me by a church cemetery and she said, ‘There’s people in here who could sing like Whitney [Houston]…who could sing like [the] amazing artists of the world, but they chose to stay here. She said ‘Take the opportunity and go and do whatever you need to do and go out into the world and share your gift with the world.’ And so I always try to do that in any way, shape or form.”- Kyng Bea Born and raised in Raeford, North Carolina, Kyng Bea’s first exposure to music came through his mother, a popular gospel singer who taught him the basics of piano. His music fuses the many strains he grew up hearing in Robeson County: R&B, gospel, blues and pop. Alt text: A man sits with hands raised on a pink upholstered couch in an ornate drawing room.