When an artist chooses to stay faceless, people often assume it’s about mystery. But for Walt Kin, the anonymity isn’t a gimmick—it’s a strategy. Created by Philadelphia native Justin Marquese DeWalt and Los Angeles-based Eric Watkins, the project was conceived as an “audience project” to show peers, the industry, and potential fans that they could make music worth paying attention to. It wasn’t meant to build a traditional recording artist. It was proof of concept—music, visuals, and storytelling built as one cohesive world, free from the limits of image.
Anonymity gave Walt Kin the freedom to be eclectic without the weight of expectation—musical, cultural, or otherwise. Without the pressure to conform to the industry’s perception of what Black artists “should” sound like, they could experiment freely. That freedom extended beyond the music into the visuals, with every illustration and animation created in-house, giving the project a unified identity no matter how much the sound shifted. Sonically, their work carries the same boundary-pushing energy as N.E.R.D.—blending genres, bending rules, and creating music that feels as visual as it sounds.
Their self-titled debut EP, released in March 2025, was intentionally introspective, pulling from themes of fractured friendships and failed relationships. This summer’s follow-up single, Play In My Face, shifted the tone, trading emotional processing for a club-ready, boundary-setting anthem rooted in Philly BLIK, Jersey club, and ballroom energy. Still, the strategy remained: keep the focus on the work, not the person.
“Walt Kin was meant to be thought of like a butterfly—love his life for a season and then transition into something else.” — Justin Marquese DeWalt
In a culture obsessed with faces and constant visibility, that choice might be their most powerful creative decision yet. Stream the EP, play the new single loud, and step into the world they’ve built—while it’s still here.