GENA outdoes themselves in Houston at Historic Eldorado Ballroom
- Jared Jones
- Apr 4
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
There are shows you go to because you like the music. And then there are nights that feel like they were waiting on you to show up.
GENA is one of those.
The duo, made up of Liv.e and Kareem Riggins, just released their debut album The Pleasure Is Yours on Lex Records. GENA stands for God, Energy, Naturally Amazing. It sounds like a mantra, but the way it lands is effortless.
Their music doesn’t feel like it’s forming. It feels like it already knows what it is.
It’s the kind of music that makes you lean back in your seat. Pour something warm. Maybe throw your shades on inside and not even think twice about it. It’s cool without trying to convince you it’s cool.
Underneath that ease is a real understanding. Both of them, individually, have already carved out their own lanes.If you know Liv.e, you know she’s been there. Records like Couldn’t Wait to Tell You… carry their own world. Songs like “Playinthesegames (feat. Liv.e)” with Mndsgn, “Lessons From My Mistakes… But I Lost Your Number,” “U the One Fish in the Sea.” There’s a looseness to her work, but it’s intentional. She’s always been building her own language.
And then there’s Kareem Riggins. Calling him just a drummer undersells it. He’s a Detroit-rooted musician who’s moved between jazz, hip-hop, and soul with ease. He’s worked alongside artists like Kanye West, Common, and J Dilla, building a reputation as someone who knows how to support a record without overcrowding it. That’s really his signature. Restraint.
Projects like Headnod Suite show it clearly. Tracks like “Bahia Dreamin’” don’t try to impress you. They just sit in a pocket so deep you don’t want to leave it. It’s not even his most popular track, but it’s one I keep going back to. Something about it just locks you in.
So when you see him on stage, locked in behind the kit, it makes sense. He’s not there to take over. He’s there to hold it down. And that’s what allows everything else to breathe.
On stage, Kareem stayed in pocket the entire night. Not flashy. Not reaching. Just locked. The kind of drumming that holds everything together without asking for credit. Liv.e even let the crowd in on it. A lot of the textures, the falsetto samples, the layers across the project, that’s him. He built the foundation first.
And then Liv.e brought it to life in her own way. At one point, she shared how it all started. Kareem sent her a beat. She recorded something over it. He heard it and was like, that’s cool. Then it happened again. And again. At a certain point, it stopped being a one-off exchange. It became a group.
That kind of origin makes sense when you watch them. There’s a trust there that you can’t fake. Kareem holds it down without overplaying. Liv.e moves freely on top of it. Nothing feels forced.
The crowd felt it too. A room full of people who don’t usually gather like that. Not loud. Not performative. Just present. The kind of people who stay out of the way but always end up in the right places. It felt like a reunion for the introverts. The thinkers. The ones building something quietly.
And then she broke the distance completely.
“Thank you for acknowledging that. Oh my God… what’s up y’all? Again, some of y’all for the first time, maybe some of y’all… shit, I hope y’all enjoying yourselves thus far.”
She paused, scanning the room like she was placing faces in real time.
“All right… come on. I know that nigga! That’s crazy. What’s up nigga? What the fuck?”
The room cracked open.
“Oh, we gonna talk after this, motherfucker. Yes, you. I know your face, nigga.”
No separation. No performance voice. Just recognition.
“Anywhomst… this is Kareem Riggins. My name is Liv.e. I am a native to your state… I know that’s right. And you are you. Make some noise for yourselves.”
It felt less like a crowd and more like a room she already knew. She’d take the room somewhere deep through the music, something internal, almost spiritual, and then bring everybody right back down. Reset it. Crack a joke. Say something off the wall. Remind you that you’re still here, still together. That balance is what opened the room up.
It gave people permission to relax. To not overthink the moment. To just exist in it.
It felt less like watching a performance and more like being around someone comfortable enough to be fully themselves. And because of that, everybody else got a little closer to that too.
View the full gallery from the night here.
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