DUNKIRK, N.Y. (WKBW) — For an hour each week, an 11-year-old boy with a passion for music brings smiles to his community and gets their minds off of the pandemic.
“I feel like music is just that—to make people smile, it’s music,” said K'vion Tell of Dunkirk.
When the music comes on, Tell transforms into DJ KVbaby.
“Once the lights turn on, it’s like he has another character inside of him and it just takes control and he loves to entertain,” said Jamie Tell, K'vion's father.
He picked up DJ’ing as a hobby earlier this year while stuck at home in during COVID. Playing his favorite old school hits, from Tupac to the Biggie Smalls, music way before his time.
“I always thought that old school was better than new school, so I just play it a lot. My brother’s like ‘Can you play new school?’ and I really don’t want to,” said Tell.
After months of practice, his mom Kizzy Tell thought it was time to get this DJ an audience.
“One day I was like, you should just go live and we did and we got so many views, so many shares. People fell in love with it,” said Kizzy Tell.
For the past month or so, he’s turned his living room into his concert stage of sorts, taking people back in time, performing on Facebook Live, every Friday night at 9pm.
“I make things funny, I like to make things funny, doing weird dances and stuff, get your popcorn, stuff like that," said K'vion.
His audience enjoys it so much, they started offering tips. He eventually raised enough money to buy himself a laptop. The plan was to stop there, but people kept donating, so the Tell family decided to give back.
"We wanted to dedicate it to our hospital, Brooks Memorial Hospital and feed all the essential workers that work there," said Kizzy Tell.
The Tell family brought pizza to hospital workers on Wednesday morning.
"We're so incredibly touched that a young man of 11 years old would have it in his heart to think of the nurses and the doctors and everybody at the hospital," said Sheila Walier, Director of Marketing at Brooks Memorial.
And with some extra cash, they bought donuts for local police officers.
"Sometimes I look at him and I’m just like, I’m so proud of you," said Kizzy Tell.
He's now the official DJ for the Chautauqua Hurricanes, but this is just the beginning. It’s become a passion for K’vion.
"I want to keep DJ'ing, but my main goal is to be on TV,” said K'vion Tell.
Until then, he’ll keep the party going from his living room.
