'I felt lost, angry and alone'

Kyron DuPont lost half his family by the time he reached 18. He was 12 when his older brother committed suicide, and 18 when his father died of pneumonia. DuPont, who is now 22 and lives with his mother and sister in Elmont, remembers exactly how those deaths affected him and spurred him on to pursue his life’s true passion: singing.

DuPont, who was born in Brooklyn and moved to Elmont with his family in 2006, said that his brother’s and father’s deaths led him to the realization that life can be short, and that he had no time to waste. “[My brother] died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” he told the Herald. “No warning, no note, nothing. I felt lost, angry and alone. Lost because my father wasn’t really there for us the way he should have, so [after my brother’s death], I never really had an older male figure to talk to or help guide me. I never felt I had the family presence I needed.”

By the time his father died, DuPont had grown accustomed to living independently. “When [my father] died, I was angry, but had to quickly suck up my emotions because his death gave me purpose,” he said. “I feel like it was God’s way of showing me that there is no one out there that’s going to take care of me, my mom and my sister, so I have to step up and be that person. In this situation, I couldn’t be that 12-year-old boy who needed consoling. I had to be the man that took care of business.”

He decided to take vocal lessons, and dedicated himself to becoming a better singer. He particularly enjoyed rhythm and blues. He had started singing at age 5, and won his first R&B competition when he was 18.

He recalled his first nerve-racking performance, when he auditioned for the Canarsie Brooklyn Public School 115’s Glee Club and sang “Happy Birthday.” DuPont, who was shy while growing up, said that despite his nerves, his love for music grew from that audition.

“Before I knew it, I was 17, in the studio, recording my first track,” he said. “The night I recorded [it], I will never forget: I was in a small studio room in the back of a barber shop, and as I lay down my last vocal, I came out of the booth and Mop, a well-known rapper from Brooklyn, was there.”