Since initial interest in the grime infused viral hit One Day I went to Lidlled to guest appearances on an M.I.A Paper Planes remix & her Kala album, UK born Afrikan Boy’s musical output has been making a big noise on the UK urban scene.
As part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympics he shared a stage with Paul McCartney, Damon Albarn & Femi Kuti on the prestigious UKAfrican Express tour. He also collaborated with US Hip Hop veteran DJ Shadow on I’m Excited (which caught the attention of Zane Lowe who crowned it Hottest Record In the World).
When the single Hit Em Up saw Lauren Laverne get behind the release last autumn, a 6Music A-List was achieved and now Afrikan Boy looks set to reach new heights with the release of his debut album The ABCDthis summer.
Packed full of bass-heavy cuts The ABCD clearly demonstrates Afrikan Boy’s talent for fusing grime, rap & afrobeat with a good hook. “It’s a broadcast to the nation, a movement, foundation” he says on the album’s opening track and upcoming single YAM which stands for Young, Ambitious, Motivated as well as being the name of his label/imprint. Next up is Border Business, on which he speaks of social and geographical borders while telling tales of “sitting in Nando’s eating sour mangos”.
Then comes the previous single Hit Em Up (which samples Fela Kuti’s track Wa dele Wa Royin). As well as getting A-Listed on 6Music with support from Lauren Laverne when it came out last year, there was alsoRadio 1, 1Xtra & XFM support and an outing on ITV’s Jonathan Ross show alongside an interview with Frank Lampard.
Other tracks from the album include Who Stole Your Visa with its Asian tinged melody, the track Sunshine, on which Noisettes singer Shingai Shoniwa delivers a summery chorus hook in her highly distinctive vocal style, Grab Your Bottles featuring Lady Leshurr which talks about crowd interaction at gigs, and the Afrobeat track Lets Get On Down with it’s soulful vocal performance from German- Nigerian hip hop/soul singerNneka.
With appearances confirmed at this summer’s WOMAD festival,Walthamstow Garden Party (sharing the bill with Bobby Womack) and an album launch at The Old Blue Last, Shoreditch in August,Afrikan Boy will be busy promoting his debut album The ABCDthroughout the summer months.
AFRIKAN BOY
BIO:
It’s not often that you’d expect to find the bass-heavy sounds of urban London and the rhythmic beats of Nigeria sitting together on a track, but if there is one MC who’s not shying away from doing exactly that, then look no further than Afrikan Boy.
Born Olushola Ajose in southeast London to Nigerian parents, it’s not hard to spot the impact his Nigerian heritage and British upbringing has had. Fusing together his passion for grime, rap and afrobeat with a love for a good hook, Afrikan Boy is steadily carving out his own niche in the MC circle. With a self assured style - custom ankara threads and the obligatory pair of trendy kicks are staple part of his wardrobe - his lyrics are as dynamic as his musical tastes, citing everyone from Fela Kuti,Shina Peters and King Sunny Ade to 2Pac and Dizzee Rascal as influences.
Already championed by the likes of DJ Semtex (BBC Radio 1/ 1Xtra), The Guardian,
Wonderland, Afrikan Boy is a firm favourite among industry heavyweights. It was the grime infused ‘One Day I Went To Lidl’, a humorous ode to the discount supermarket, that caught the ear of underground fans and fellow British rapper and Grammy Award nominee, M.I.A, who reached out to him on MYSPACE that soon led to guest appearances on the ‘Paper Planes’ remix and ‘Hussel’ on her‘Kala’ album as well as a stint on both the ‘Kala’ and ‘People vs. Money’world tours.
Soon further collaborators came calling with US hip hop veteran DJ Shadow on ‘I’m Excited’ once again created the chance for Afrikan Boy to push his experimental boundaries, a feat that didn’t go unnoticed by BBC Radio 1 aficionado, Zane Lowe who crowned it ‘Hottest Record In The World’.
Following the release of his first mixtape ‘What Took You So Long’,Afrikan Boy continued to captivate audiences with the punchy freestyle‘Look At Me Now’ featuring Boya D, the ‘Pon Pon Remix’ (a tribute to the late Nigerian artist Dagrin) and the chilled out sounds of‘Dissertation’. AB showed no sign of slowing down the pace as he was doing all this while studying for his Psychology degree at the University of Brunel.
Afrikan Boy joined the prestigious ‘Africa Express’ 8 cities summer tour of the UK as part of the London 2012 cultural Olympics, where he shared the stage with the likes of the legendary Paul McCarthy, John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) Baaba Maal, Damon Albarn, Femi Kuti, The Noisettes, Fatoumata Diawara, Mark Ronson, Spoek Mathambo and M1 (Dead Prez) to name but a few, as he continues to make his presence felt on the live circuit.
Early 2013 saw another heavy collaboration with Danish super producersSilver Bullit with Afrikan Boy as main guest artist on a project called ‘Afrikans in Denmark’ As the summer of 2013 was winding up came the release of ‘Hit Em Up’ which samples the great FelaKuti’s 1965 track Wa dele wa royin’. The track spent 6 weeks on BBC 6Music A-list playlist championed by the Lauren Laverne. Afrikan Boy concluded the year touring France with Keziah Jones.
He stayed busy into 2014 concluding material for his highly anticipated debut LP‘The ABCD’ due for release on his recently created label Yam Records this August. After plenty of collaborations and supporting roles Afrikan Boy is fully ready to take centre stage.
Gbosa!
Related Links:
www.AfrikanBoy.com
www.twitter.com/AfrikanBoywww.facebook.com/afrikanboy
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