Start Here: My Story
I am Kyle Holloway and I have spent most of my life hiding in public. Whether it was behind a rapper name or more recently religion, I was always trying to convince people I had it figured out. Truth is, I didn't and I still don't. hyFen8ed is the bridge between the kid I was and the man I am still becoming. Here is how I got to the middle of the bridge.
THE ARMOR (2007 TO 2025)
For over fifteen years, I existed as K-Holla. I started writing lyrics at thirteen as an outlet for the grief of losing my grandma. By eighteen, I had built a persona that was arrogant, fearless, and loud. It was armor for a kid who was actually terrified and insecure. As K-Holla, I opened for Alien Ant Farm, Kottonmouth Kings, and Tom MacDonald. I built a career on polished production and bravado. I was everyone's shadow put together, mixing the attitudes of my idols to hide the fact that I didn't like myself.
THE LLC NIGHTMARE (2018)
In March 2018, I tried to turn the persona into an empire by starting hyFen8ed Entertainment LLC. I took out a $20,000 loan without a real plan and blew half of it on advertising. At the same time my life was speeding up and falling apart. I was deep in meth, acid, and ecstasy. I eventually lost control so I did the only thing I knew how to. I ignored everything and left. I spent two years living in my car out west, running from my own shadow. I got all the way to the ocean just to remember I can’t swim.
THE BAPTISM (JULY 2024)
I eventually moved back to Wisconsin in 2021 but soon after my car died, I got dumped and ended up back in my mom's attic. This heartbreak led to me relapsing and going overboard on an elliptical for weeks, literally running in place sixty minutes a night for five nights a week, I found myself stuck on the floor with a fucked up back and suicidal thoughts. I used to joke with my mom and ask her how you gonna ground me to the attic? God had to be laughing when he replied this is how! I had really hit an all time low so I finally thought that was enough and got professional help. Fast forward to the end of 2023 after making much progress in therapy, I got caught up messing around with my high school girlfriend. This wasn't just an ex. This was my first ex. We had lost our virginity to one another twenty years earlier. So in June 2024, after five months of fun, I lost my mind from all the dopamine stacking and turned a fun thing into the most toxic relationship of my life. What started as nostalgia mixed with sex and drugs ended in a ten day engagement and a realization that changed my entire life. I had been lying to myself about who she really was for two decades. Ending that relationship was the end of a self destructive cycle of lust as the primary way to gain validation from women. I had been stuck in that loop for twenty years until I gave my life uo to be reborn when I got baptized and declared Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior in July of 2024.
THE NECESSARY RELAPSE (SEPTEMBER 1, 2025)
I thought that water would wash away the person I was. It did change me but after I spent ten and a half months off of meth, on September 1st, 2025, I relapsed. I got lost in drinking and smoking too much weed again to deal with the lack of dopamine and my inability to do anything without meth. I felt shame while trying to be a perfect Christian. I realized I have a history of overcorrecting because all or nothing is all I have ever known. I realized white knuckling sobriety through willpower was just another form of self sabotage though. Pride led to my downfall but thankfully I recognized my mistake instantly this time. I knew I had to humble myself and start looking to Jesus instead of thinking I was strong enough to do this all by myself. I wasn't falling into denial, I was falling into unfinished healing and His grace. I had to admit that He is God and I am not. I had to stop trying to control everything and just focus on accepting the man in the mirror and trusting the man upstairs.
THE INTEGRATION (OCTOBER 11, 2025)
On October 11, 2025, which would have been my one year sober date, I had an epiphany. I didn't need to kill K-Holla, I needed to integrate him. I am Boffum. I am that innocent boy and I am that wild guy I became to survive. I officially dropped the rap name and committed to just being Kyle Holloway. hyFen8ed stopped being a record label and became the functional bridge of radical honesty.
THE NOW: MIDWEST SHADOW FOLK
Today I make music that doesn't clean itself up before it walks out the door. After releasing the Christian hip hop album “Surrender” on Christmas 2025, I picked up my late cousin Skyler's guitar that my Aunt Paula let me have and finally made the album I've waited my whole life for. I am now pioneering a genre called Midwest Shadow Folk. My album “Playing With Shadows” is an unpolished, acoustic record that explores the parts of ourselves we usually bury. Find me recording at 3 AM in the hyFen8ed attic even when the fire sirens are blaring through the window because life doesn't stop for a perfect take and neither do I anymore.
WHAT “#EmbraceF8” ACTUALLY MEANS
You see the slogan everywhere, but it isn't just a hashtag. #EmbraceF8 is a call to action. The F and 8 stand for Fate. We all share the same fate, we just don't share the same date. Most people spend their lives unaware or ignoring their shadows because they think they have time. You don't. Embracing your fate means you stop performing and start living authentically now. It means owning your mess because your imperfections are what actually make you real.
I am not across the bridge yet. I am standing in the middle of it playing guitar and singing with the lights on as my shadow does the same.
