If you’re looking for a place to catch a vibe and listen to a variety of ‘90s R&B with a splash of neo-soul and current jams, then Kevin White is the person you’ll need to see. The 29-year-old South Side native hosts an R&B lounge called “The Red Room R&B Party” in the basement of Yours Truly, a speakeasy and oyster bar located in River North at 613 N. Wells Street.
An event curator and social media influencer, White has been catering to R&B lovers, like himself, with events and activations for the past year. White’s “The Red Room” parties have become some of the hottest tickets in town. In Beyoncé fashion, he drops the dates for his parties with no warning. Tickets for the Jan. 16 party sold out in 20 minutes. Tickets for the Jan. 31 party will drop soon. He wants his audience to stay tuned to his Instagram page at @kevin.p.white for ticket details.
“It’s just like finding your level of purpose in this life,” he told The TRiiBE. “Especially young Black men, navigating through this life, it’s just, like, how can I be impactful? That was what my dad always taught me.”
White’s journey to curating parties started in 2023. While working as an IT manager, White saw a need for a space where R&B tracks were the main feature.
“February 26, 2023, I woke up and was like, “I want to get very big on social media. I want to be impactful in Chicago,’” he said.
He started on TikTok in March 2023, focusing his videos on how to navigate the corporate world as a professional. He made 73 videos that month.
“I just wanted it bad, you know. I just wanted to figure out how to get my name out there,” he said.
By August 2023, he said, he had gained around 10,000 followers. That’s when he started his slow transition into Chicago’s hospitality and restaurant scene. Soon, he reviewed the West Loop’s Hide and Seek, an American restaurant with Spanish, French, and Italian influences. In the TikTok video, White told his viewers that he had a great time. After giving a glowing review, he says, “Tell them Kevin White sent you.”
“The GM and the manager were very kind to me and my two buddies,” White said. When he returned to the restaurant a week later, White said management informed him that hundreds of people came to visit the restaurant — all saying that White had sent them.
“So I was just, like, ‘Yo, I got some motion!’” White said.
White had found his social media niche. He started consistently covering and reviewing Chicago restaurants, as well as cocktail bars, and lounges.
As White’s online audience grew, so did his influence in Chicago’s club scene. So much so, that White says a businessman based in LA saw his content and reached out to him in February 2024, asking for help promoting events in Chicago.
White helped promote the guy’s first party at The Delta in Wicker Park for St. Patrick’s Day weekend that same year. With the help of White’s massive social media following, the party quickly sold out.
White continued to curate vibes that summer, going on to promote some of Chicago’s livest summer rooftop parties, which he held at Puttery on 932 W. Randolph St. He also started his own event company, the Kevin White Experience. Today, he has 123,500 followers on TikTok.
“Going out should be fun. It should be a great turn up,” he said. “How I view partying? I want to provide that to people who haven’t really experienced that yet in Chicago.”
White said his parties address a common issue many have with today’s club scene in Chicago; it’s boring.
“They go to events [and] they don’t have fun,” he said, referring to party goers. “A lot of people are sitting on their phones or [the party is] not interactive. So I just wanted to create a space that was lively, that was social.”
That brings us to “The Red Room,” White’s answer to the hundreds of DMs from people asking where they can go to listen to R&B music in Chicago. In 2024, the owners of Yours Truly reached out to White, he said, asking him to activate a dormant space inside the speakeasy. He refers to “The Red Room” as “a lounge that he operates.”
He held his first “The Red Room R&B Party” in the second week of November 2024. Within four minutes of releasing the tickets, White said, 200 had been purchased. Since November 2024, White has thrown six parties.
“It’s just creating safe spaces for people to enjoy themselves, to have a good time, [and] to meet people,” he said.
White said his parties have been a hotbed for networking, and attracting content creators, influencers, celebrities and, most importantly, people who want to meet other people.
“I’m probably one of the only events that people come to solo, because they know they’re going to leave with a new connection,” he said.
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