{"id":159008,"date":"2025-07-07T18:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T18:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/159008\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T18:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T18:31:13","slug":"do-you-bleed-blue-kc-rappers-krizz-kaliko-and-frank-hensley-pour-royals-spirit-into-new-anthem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/159008\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you Bleed Blue? KC rappers Krizz Kaliko and Frank Hensley pour Royals spirit into new anthem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wide<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by Zach Bauman<\/p>\n

When the Kansas City Royals take the field Monday night at Kauffman Stadium, a new anthem will beckon our boys in blue forward. A song not born from a marketing team, but from the lifelong passions of two devoted fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cBleed Blue\u201d, a newly minted anthem by Kansas City rapper Krizz Kaliko and former rapper (X-Dash) turned L.A. music executive Frank Hensley will echo throughout The K. As lifelong Royals fans, the duo says this track was only a matter of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a Royals fan my entire life, since way back in the day with Willie Wilson, Frank White, George Brett,\u201d Kaliko says. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how I would connect to [the Royals] one day, but I knew I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song, having only been released for a few weeks, has already made the rounds in the Royals clubhouse, drawing praise from many Kansas City players already. For Hensley, that\u2019s all the validation he needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that after we won that ring in 2015, I just knew I could die happy,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cTo have any of them like [the song], the 12-year-old kid from Raymore inside me is going crazy right now because of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, though, this isn\u2019t Hensley\u2019s first time penning a Royals anthem. Back before the 2003 season, Hensley wrote an anthem named \u201cGet on the Bus\u201d. In 2011, former\u00a0Pitch writer Corban Goble called it<\/a> \u201cthe dopest baseball anthem of all time\u201d.<\/p>\n

During a trip down memory lane in late April, Hensley came across the old article. Though he had left his rapping career behind years ago, he found that his creative itch could finally be scratched; It was time for a new anthem.<\/p>\n

\"Fc6e7777<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBleed Blue\u201d by Krizz Kaliko and Frank Hensley<\/p>\n

After piecing together a draft, Hensley sent it off to Kaliko, as the two had been friends for decades. As a diehard Royals fan himself, Kaliko was all in, but not without some tweaks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard it, I thought that the hook needed to change,\u201d Kaliko says. \u201cI like his verses. I like that he paid homage to the 2015 Royals team and the 2025 Royals team, but I thought that the hook needed something. I am the hook guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Kaliko is currently on his first country tour Overtime, before he began his solo career, he was an integral part to Strange Music, the Kansas City-based hip hop label and home to Tech N9ne. For 20 years, Kaliko was Tech N9ne\u2019s hook guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to do something for a team, it needs to be a chant, something that the crowd could chant with you,\u201d Kaliko says. \u201cI also thought, What can I write that sounds like you could put it on a coffee mug or a t- shirt, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

As both Kaliko and Hensley discussed, writing for a team is different. You\u2019re not just selling songs, you\u2019re selling a brand, so they approached the track in hopes of immortalizing it. The chorus eventually struck Kaliko while taking his wife and two kids to WWE Monday Night Raw at T-Mobile Center.<\/p>\n

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Krizz Kaliko. Photo Courtesy of Frank Hensley<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything they come out to has this chant to it, and it just hit me,\u201d Kaliko says. \u201cThe whole hook hit me while I was sitting watching these wrestlers come out. I thought, \u2018Oh, I got it,\u2019 and wrote the words to the hook actually sitting there watching wrestling.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hensley got a hold of Kaliko\u2019s new track, he was blown away as he watched his dream come to fruition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so thankful when he sent it to me, I could have cried because it was so good,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cEverything has just felt right, felt natural, and felt like we were supposed to make this song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much like his 2003 track, Hensley\u2019s lyrics in \u201cBleed Blue\u201d are tailor-made for the 2025 team, but they also pay homage to the 2015 team that won the World Series and ended a 30-year drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you make a song for any sports team, it\u2019s tough, because players come and go, and so the 2015 team, that was easy to make because those guys are etched in history,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cWith the \u201825 team, it\u2019s a lot like developing artists. These guys are still developing their talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hensley\u2019s hope is that \u201cBleed Blue\u201d can become a staple to the team\u2019s culture, and that every year, they can pay homage to the 2015 team but can change the lyrics to represent next season\u2019s roster, maybe with another KC rapper\u2019s lyrics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis \u2018Bleed Blue\u2019 idea is more than just a song and is something that can translate well into the future,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cI think the things we said, the emotions we\u2019re evoking is Kansas City Royals baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cKrizz grew up going out there, I grew up going out there, we suffered for 29 years and didn\u2019t make the postseason,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cHow much more do you have to bleed blue than that?\u201d<\/p>\n

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frank. Photo Courtesy of Frank Hensley<\/p>\n

When the song was finally released, it first grew organically, starting with KC sports radio station 810 WHB and moving through Royals circles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just started spreading like a forest fire,\u201d Kaliko says. \u201cI got the personal barber of the Royals calling me like, \u2018Hey, man, I love that song.\u2019 He FaceTimed me with Michael Wacha sitting there with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excitement for the song has boiled over, as the Royals have created a music video to pair with \u201cBleed Blue\u201d, set to play on Monday night when Kansas City kicks off a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Kaliko and Hensley are hopeful that an opportunity for a live performance will come, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve asked us about what it would take to perform out there,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to jinx it. I don\u2019t want to say we are definitely doing that, but I think there\u2019s some interest in having Krizz and I perform the song out there when he\u2019s back from tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the rappers didn\u2019t release this track for advertising or merchandising, they\u2019re still hopeful that \u201cBleed Blue\u201d will find its way into Royals gift shops.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing it on T-shirts, and people in the crowd having hand towels that they whip around, I would love to see that happen, and us really join forces with the Royals like that,\u201d Kaliko says. \u201cAnd then it\u2019ll be something that they continue to play each year, and then it becomes this Royals\u2019 staple.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for now, Hensley and Kaliko are hopeful the song will reach as many ears as possible, confident that the city and Royals fans around the nation will unite and show what it means to bleed blue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat guy from The Pitch had said that it was one of the dopest baseball anthems of all time,\u201d Hensley says about his 2003 song. \u201cI think I would say talking to The Pitch now, I hope that we made the best baseball anthem of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

@lowercasedfrank<\/a> mama sent this to us, how cool! Honored to have a song that reps my hometown @Royals<\/a><\/p>\n

If you are a fan stream it now and even if not and you like, hit the link below https:\/\/t.co\/pYBVzkFTSQ<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/rlcb8ylBuq<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Krizz Kaliko (@KrizzKaliko) June 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTags: baseball anthem<\/a>, Frank Hensley<\/a>, kansas city royals<\/a>, Kauffman Stadium<\/a>, Krizz Kaliko<\/a>, music<\/a>, new song<\/a>, royals anthem<\/a>, Song Release<\/a>, Tech N9ne<\/a>, X-Dash<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\n