In Loving Memory

Kendall Meralus, our beloved friend passed away on April 12th, 2020 due to complications with diabetes and the COVID-19 virus that plagued the world. His twin brother, has decided to build a website upon his request to remove his social media accounts when he expires. In his honor this site is dedicated to share his life through his work and pictures. Kenny’s life was the perfect combination of a wise old soul, brilliant technical mind, and lover of story telling, horror movies, humor and fun. He was often referred to as a mentor, lyricist, and brother whose smile made everything better. Kenny, who later went by a few names, will always be remembered, as a brother, an artist, and forever, a friend.

Born as a twin in Brooklyn New York his parents moved to West Palm Beach Florida where Kenny grew up. Lantana Florida is where he would learn to find a passion for music and story telling. Spending much time at home listening to DMX, Lupe Fiasco, Tech N9ne, and Eminem as some of his favorite artists, he began freestyling his own poems and raps on the school bus in elementary school with his twin brother and friends. In middle school, he was a part of the chorus team where he was able to stretch his vocals and learn more about his honing his own personal style. After receiving a microphone and Lupe Fiasco’s “The Cool” album one christmas holiday Kenny took it upon himself to create the hip-hop moniker known as “The Surgeon”. He continued to sharpen his skills like a doctor in surgery, breaking apart rap styles, rhyme schemes, and studying music theory.

The Surgeon, soon created a myspace page and changed his alias to “Surge Elite”. An Elite artist who can switch up his rap style and outperform anyone anywhere. His creativity lead to projects like “Rap City the Closet”, where he was able to turn his closet and bedroom into a recording studio that would provoke artists who entered to freestyle and perform on the spot!

With the outbreak of the internet and media skits Kenny found interest in writing and producing sketch comedy with close friends.The real real Boneheads channel became an early youtube channel that allowed Kenny to create comedy skits similar to the Dave Chappelle skits commonly found on tv at the time. Kenny used these skits as a platform to learn more about video production and video editing, which allowed him to turn his passion into a profitable career.

During his high school years Kenny, aka Surge Elite would spend his time battle rapping friends like “Neffarious” and “Cannibal” at the lunchroom tables and collaborate with local Lake Worth rap groups to record music videos. He fell in love with the art and knew that breaking into the music industry was the only thing he wanted to do after high school. He would continue to work with local artist and producers to create a unique sound and share his love for the art on websites like myspace, soundcloud, and sites likes spotify later down the line.

During his time in college and his adult life, he found that he had been diagnosed with Diabetes. Even through the hardships of his parents divorce, economic struggles, and the various things life throws any growing adult Kenny was always able to stay focused on find a way to broadcast his talent and music skills. His open mic poetry slams,his time as a battle rapper for the Art of War 305, would all be building blocks to his resume of talent. He changed his name to “Kenny Mercury” and began building a new alias that used his first name and shed light on the new direction and outlook he had for his art. Much of his previous work has been lost to corrupted hard drives, but his music and artwork before his untimely passing will eventually be shared here to remember his love for the creative arts and honor his legacy he has built.

Through his adult life he found himself stuck in Florida without finding the right way to grow his career. He then moved back to Brooklyn New York where he would go to school and become a certified audio engineer. By this time his type 2 diabetes had become type 1 diabetes. Through his struggles with staying healthy while working through sleepless nights working on mixing and mastering music for artists in the tri-county area, he would find himself exhausted, with shortness of breath, confused and dehydrated with high blood sugar levels of 400+. After getting checked in and out of the hospital multiple times he found out that he was suffering from DKA, orDiabetic ketoacidosis. This made his day to day life more difficult, but through conversations with his brothers and friends he was able to find solace in knowing that himself, along with his brothers, all chose creative endeavors, and chased their dreams. His brothers continue to chase their dreams in his honor.

Through his adult life he found himself stuck in Florida without finding the right way to grow his career. He then moved back to Brooklyn New York where he would go to school and become a certified audio engineer. By this time his type 2 diabetes had become type 1 diabetes. Through his struggles with staying healthy while working through sleepless nights working on mixing and mastering music for artists in the tri-county area, he would find himself exhausted, with shortness of breath, confused and dehydrated with high blood sugar levels of 400+. After getting checked in and out of the hospital multiple times he found out that he was suffering from DKA, or Diabetic ketoacidosis. This made his day to day life more difficult, but through conversations with his brothers and friends he was able to find solace in knowing that himself, along with his brothers, all chose creative endeavors, and chased their dreams. His brothers continue to chase their dreams in his honor.

Kenny’s passion and pursuit of happiness definitely came with its own set of internal challenges. If he were still here and was able to help others battling with ailments like diabetes he would for sure be looking for a place to help out in some shape or form. He would not have wanted people to pool money together for a sob story funeral where people cry today and forget about you tomorrow. His name will continue to be said through his niece and his fight for diabetes may be over, but others are still fighting. It is because of this we the family ask you to donate, however much you can, to a charity or a cause to help aide Diabetes research or help others with diabetes or diabetic like ailments.

Donations

• Diabetes.org
• JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Stay Informed

• Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition
• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

There will not be a formal service or funeral, as that was not what Kenny wanted. He was cremated and his ashes will stay within the family.

We will remember him with this quote and hope that this quote helps others think of him and continue through their journeys.

Our dreams are often at odds with our realities, demanding freedoms and resources we may not have. But this doesn’t make them impossible to achieve. Never stop dreaming.

Kenny’s Music was recovered and will be shared in a creative way soon

In loving memory of Kendall Meralus