It’s UK rap. No scratch that. It’s something more nuanced than that. It’s Hull grown Rap and it’s dominated the audience of the Lone Star State.
The only type of Rap that can be curated if you’ve grown up in the 01482. And if you haven’t, well you’re about be taken on an incredible journey.
Joe the Third is spinning the beats. Stepping back, rapping along with his brothers, feeling the groove. Deezkid, if the crowd was a box of play-doh then Deez is the kid that mashes all the colours together into a giant ball, and plays with it to his heart’s content.
And then there’s Chiedu Oraka, the Black Yorkshire mayyyyyyyne. Throwing kung-fu kicks and beasty bars into the Austin air and the audience is just lapping it up, as if it’s the English Breakfast section at an all you can eat buffet.
Sounds banging right? Hmmmm, not quite. Why? Chiedu Oraka is not happy. Well, a week ago he wasn’t happy. Not impressed at his first ever international show, opening up for Skepta at the British Music Embassy’s showcase where the rapper debuted his film ‘Tribal Mark’ (a film he wrote and directed). The audience came for Skepta, but I can assure you they left thinking of Chiedu and the Lockdown boys.
Now though, sitting here outdoors on wooden tree stumps, surrounded by tall trees, sprawling with full leaves, forming a colosseum around us. Chiedu looks like that sad Keanu Reeves meme, as he sits back, reminiscing over the past two few days. Two major showcases. One Night. The first at Austin’s famed Velveeta Room on 6th street. A showcase by Selector Radio hosted by the stylish and smooth Sian Eleri of BBC Radio 1, who else to curate a cornucopia of emerging talent from the UK sporting a vending machine of international musical flavours?
Chiedu’s performance was something to behold. Haltemprice, his 12 year long football team’s football shirt, flying high, chants of “UP THE PRICE” could be heard along the streets of Austin up to the Northern cattle ranches. A performance full of love, energy, swagger and spin-kicks. Chiedu reflects.
“A lot of the time it’s getting the job done. Get the job done and making sure everybody in the crowd has a good time. It was a small venue. The crowd were rocking with it. The energy levels were were mad. I’d say the energy levels were probably higher than the Skepta gig, but only on a smaller stage.” All that being said, still the festival goers have been all over Chiedu. Stopping him in the street. Getting selfies, swapping IGs, asking for collabs. Just showing him love. Southern Hospitality in full effect.
“People have been saying, ‘Oh, this is the best gig we’ve seen all week because you don’t really sound like everybody and it’s refreshing to hear something different’, so I’m happy with that.”
And he’s no stranger to being different. An outlier. A MISFIT. Retaining his full name, wearing his Nigerian heritage as both a suit of armour and his Sunday best, he’s never been swayed to be anyone other than that kid from the North Hull estate.
“Do you know what I mean? I can only represent where I come from, and I want people in big places like Austin, Texas, to know that it’s not just London.” Followers of Chiedu will know that one of his earlier EPs donned the title “WORKRATE” flaunting not only his commitment to his craft but his bonafide attitude and mindset of what he’s shown is needed and required to make waves in this rap game, so many feel success can be found going viral or stunting on the gram.
“It’s a very, unique experience that has just happened like I don’t think there’s too many words that can describe this. I feel like I needed this trip right, to make me realise that my music is global now. It’s not just I’m making music for the people in North, or I’m making music for the people in Hull or I’m making music for the people in England. I feel like my sound now is is international now, right?”
He looks to me with conviction, not searching for approval. No stranger to hard work and that’s this is what has got him here. No sensei. No teachers. No local role models to pave the way, offer advice or guide him on how to come from Hull, and make it as a rapper. It’s all come from the gravel in his guts and the bittersweet experiences in his mind.
Kofi Smiles: “Where do you get that drive from where do you get this relentless work ethic from this idea?”
Chiedu Oraka: “I’m just going to put the time in, put the work in and the effort to be good. But also there’s the pressure that I put on myself, the sense that no one from my city or my area has ever made music like mine and made it.
But my real inspiration comes from my upbringing. The estate that I come from. One thing that I don’t like is when artists say, “Oh, I’m not a role model!”. Yeah, like you don’t want young kids to do exactly everything that you’ve done. But you need to understand that you’ve got a position of power in your community. So for me, you know, I’m a very passionate North Hull guy and North Hull is one of the most deprived areas in the city. So for me, I always think like if at least one kid can see Chiedu Oraka and think they can perform in America, then I’ve done my job properly.”
I let this one hang for a bit. It’s a strong statement isn’t it? Stepping into the role. Owning the responsibility of the role model. But this isn’t a statement, this is clarification of the actions he takes back home. A community leader, many know through Chiedu’s music he speaks up and speak out through his bars but you can also see him telling his truth at protests and rallies, facilitating and mentorship with Hull’s Black Heritage Collective and collaborating with mental health organisations nothing is off limits when it comes to being open and laying out all the uncomfortable bits that make us who we are.
KS: “Did you have any reservations before coming into it?”
CO: “I feel like I didn’t know how the American crowd. would take to my sound. Obviously I’ve seen videos of UK artists performing in America, and the crowds have looked pretty stiff and people haven’t really understood what’s even going on. But I cannot say, that’s happened in any of the shows that I’ve had, like all four shows.”
The journey to SXSW, facilitated by the PRS Foundation Showcase Fund, was filled with anticipation and gratitude. Something which Chiedu has repeated, over and over and over agin in his shows here in Austin that “expressing thanks” and “Thank you PRS Foundation” might be mistaken for his own lyrics or his own complimentary ad-libs. Not quite your Rick Ross “Unnh” but it’ll get there.
“I feel so privileged and so blessed that the PRS foundation chose me as one of the artists to come and represent here!”
The privileged being propped up by a craving and a thirst to perform. Knowing how well he writes, I was shocked to hear how much he dislikes recording in the studio.
“I aren’t really that keen on it, because I’ve got too much OCD. So it will take me 100 takes to do one verse. So it’s not really good for my mind sometimes being in the studio. Obviously, I have to write and I have to go to the studio. But my favourite part is being on the stage and performing music to people who haven’t seen you before. Shocking them!”
KS: Shocking them?
CO: I am building a reputation now of being an unreal live performer. It is very hard because a lot of people, you’d be surprised, Bro. How many artists don’t like performing, but me? I’m totally the opposite?”
His demeanour shifts from the hunched over Keanu Reeves meme one of the strutting, happy, smiling one of Leonardo DiCaprio:
“I would rather perform. That’s just where I get my buzz from.
Every time you come and see me perform. Every time you come and see a Chiedu Oraka show, I want you to leave thinking, Wow, that’s blew me away. The energy was mad. I learned that, that’s the vibe I wanna come with and build a community. People who come to my shows like you’re part of my community. Do you know what I mean? You’re a MISFIT, just like me. You’re part of my community.”
Check the name MISFIT. The forthcoming mixtape due out on April 26th. Peppered with stormy tracks like ‘Mayne’, ‘Rhythm Of My Pain’ and teaming up with Manga Saint Hilare on ‘Own Kind’ far from cautionary tales but yarns none-the-less, all about overcoming loneliness and isolation punching through the floorboards and finding strength in deepest and darkest times. And then there’s “Counselling” a rattling delivery behind sitting down and opening up to a stranger, exposing your pride and shedding it like skin. Not often you hear black men stepping into the space and promoting but a necessary one. Respect for this.
“I consider myself a misfit. I think Hull’s got a lot of misfits in it, especially the estates. People feel left out, forgotten, deprived, and often, you know, people will be doing their own thing in order to make it to survive. We might not exactly gel with the social norms.”
KS: “Are you finding that your following of misfits is growing bigger and bigger?”
CO: “I feel like the following’s gone mad like this year. Like I think I did 12 [SHOWS] last year. Obviously supporting Manga Saint Hilare. Supported Cassieisdead, which I think has changed my whole perspective. That’s what I want.”
KS: You do put the time in the effort don’t you, to communicate and get to know the people that are trying to get to know you. Why is that important for you?
CO: “Because I feel like we’re on this journey together. Life’s hard and people need a spokesman. And I feel like I’m the spokesman for that. I don’t mind being the guy that climbs up the mountain and gets shot in the back by loads of arrows for everyone else to have an easy ride. I’ve always been a leader and I’ve always thrived in that sort of environment.”
Taking on the role of the leader, taking on the world and taking on a fourth show of the trip to Austin Texas also mean a second show of the night. It was such a random show Swan Dive Patio on Sixth Street. All for the publication Line of best Fit, who managed to curate a really, really sound lineup that night of HotWax and Divorce with DBMK, waterbaby and Victoria Bigelow – just looking at this tells you what SXSW is all about-genre bending and stretching the range of whatever the sound operators can handle.
“Big up Line oF Best Fit cos that’s a publication that’s been really supporting me at the minute so when the opportunity came for me to headline that stage, I had to take it. It was about an hour or two after the Selector Radio Show and you know how much energy we put into that? So even people were saying, “What?!?!? Are you going to do that again?” And we did it again and the crowd was mad!”
I feel like that was the most American crowd! There was another guy who was loving us, and he came in the green room and he was jumping up and down to Tinie Tempah, mad guy. And there was another American guy with, like, a proper American guy, and he was like spitting Skepta word for word. And I thought, “Whoa, this music has really travelled. You know what I mean? And then there was a couple of proper cowboy girls. Like that was the most American crowd.”
He sits back, the Texas sun bouncing off his trademark black frame glasses, looking up into the sky, the sky blue void of hope and opportunities.
“Gotta mention these Asian boys just like loving it, having the time of their life. They came up to me like, Do you like Nando’s? Is it worth going because there’s a Nando’s three hours away from here. So asking me, is it worth the trip?
I’ll leave you to decide how he answered this one.
“But God, they’ve [Americans] been so forthcoming, like they’re so forward. And they’re so like, passionate with their love. And that’s what I’m gonna get out of this trip like it’s mad, like how forthcoming and how full of praise they were. And they’re very straight talking. So, you know, if they didn’t like it, they would tell you. But they seem to love it. So yeah, Mad Gig liked it. He definitely liked it. Definitely liked it. Energy was there.”
I’m a big believer that more often than not you get out what you put in and there seems to be a equilibrium of energy here. A trip that when first announced seemed so far away but has come and is gone, ebbed and flowed like the waves of the travelled North Atlantic Ocean he’s flown over. When you look down at the sea from the seat of your plane, it looks like a solid, smooth blue mass, shimmering and vibrating. Contained and together. But should you take a second to zoom and focus in, the waves are moshing. Moving to a tune only they know, that they feel, that they want and anyone who encounters them goes along with what they’re putting out there. Their kinetic energy is too much to be ignored and too infectious to resist. Much like the sea, Chiedu’s creating waves, the waves of a new sound and new approach to grime and UK hip-hop. When you see him out and about town and I mean it’s hard not to, the guy is 6f 7’, chill, relaxed and moving in his own time, in his own space but you gotta know that under the surface at any moment’s notice, my guy is ready to grab the mic and deliver beastie bars, riding super sonic waves of pure northern grit.
Reflecting on what Austin has taught him he says, “It’s not only about yourself, but about the world around your music. No matter where you are in the world, if the music’s sick and you feel some sort of energy it’s always gonna resonate. They might not even understand what I’m saying and they won’t do, I spit in the broadest Yorkshire accent ever but you know why they rated me cos they could feel it. Music’s a feeling.”
When you’re in the creative industry it’s rare for artists to take some time and just sit and linger in the present and the highs and lows of it just wash over you. I get why many do like to move on and think about the next show, next project, next studio session, next festival. It’s good, it’s natural to keep thinking and working toward those possibilities and what’s next to come. I’ve got a good feeling that Chiedu is going to be sitting in the moment, feet still in Austin even though his toes might be touching the North Hull soil. It’s been an impactful trip that will allow him to look at the future differently. With Brighton’s Great Escape festival on the horizon, a mixtape to drop at the end of April with a Leeds headline show accompany it he isn’t short of project and no doubt what he’s going to create after the US experience, it’ll find it’s way into the music for sure.
“All them young black kids who grew up in a white area. who’ve who’ve been pushed down all the time by their friends, parents, kids on their streets who have suffered any sort of oppression, doesn’t have to be just racism. I represent you. The quest is bigger than Chiedu Oraka, I want you to to shine as well. So it’s not just about me man. It’s for the misfits and I’m the MISFITS’s spoke person.
His quest is sure to continue. I’d say he’d be picking up the baton from those who came before him but I won’t because I can’t. It’s a not race he’s running.
“There has been people who have done well in in Hull. You know what I mean? We know the names Beautiful South, Roland Gift, Mick Ronson. People like that and big up to them because they’re the forefathers but I feel like it’s a new day and it’s a new time and it’s a new generation and I feel like I’m that guy to inspire the next.”
Check out the full interview here:
