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HIP HOP / 30 www.guestlist.net RNB Issue 49 / 2013 IEW RV TE IN K KOKE We are joined by a man who truly represents the streets, his Pure Koke mixtapes have been downloaded tens of thousands of times. As independent releases, his videos have racked up in excess of tens of millions of views on YouTube and his combined and unbelievable performance on ���Charlies Sloths Fire In The Booth��� alone has clocked up 3.9 million views on YouTube. The first UK artist to be signed with Roc Nation personally by Jay Z. WAYNE | guestlist.net Wow things are on fire right now you have a big album coming up in the summer the single right now with Rita Ora, some big things are going down right now for K. Koke? It���s definitely popping off you get me, I���m on the grind trying to make it happen right now you know how it goes. Your new single ���Lay Down Your Weapons��� with Rita Ora comes out this month? Yeah it was out on 10th March so make sure you all go and get that man! Wow things are poppin��� right about now, you are signed to Roc Nation, you have the hot new single with Rita Ora and the video is very engaging and got about 2 million hits on YouTube when it wasn���t even released! You understand that all eyes are on K. Koke right about now, it���s a long way from the Stonebridge estate? Of course yeah man, mans come a very long way you get me. And I���ve been through all kinds of trials and tribulations along the way and mans still here and fighting the cause. So let���s rewind the clock a little, people have been seeing you do all these fantastic things, obviously Jay Z signing you personally that���s an excellent look right there but let���s rewind the clock and let people know exactly what life was like growing up when you first started. What were your inspirations and which artists in particular engaged you and made you think I want to do this? I was going through and it would ease the pressure off my head a little and let the weight off. Instead of bottling it all up, man would get it out on record and that���s kind of how music happened for man you get me. You spit vivid and real, gritty lyrics that���s one thing everybody ever talks about K. Koke, so what artists inspired you to go down that road? Growing up I was inspired by a lot of artists: Tupac of course, Biggie when man was fully in it, man was fully living that life, after man released that the reception, the way everything was going it was like raa maybe something could happen here, so then man got into ���Pure Koke: Volume 2��� and obviously I went to jail and then that got released and it never quite got what it was supposed to because I wasn���t there to support the thing but obviously as I���m going through things are changing and my music is telling that story too. So yeah obviously you���re signed ���I���ve been through all kinds of trials and tribulations along the way and mans still here and fighting the cause.��� To be honest fam, music was never a profession for me I never dreamed that like ���yeah this is my dream I want to be a rapper.��� I wanted to be a footballer, obviously growing up on Stonebridge estate when I got to a certain age life got real innit, and man had to provide and man had to do certain things in order to get by. So the whole football thing went out of the window and a lot of other bad shit was going on and boom boom boom, that���s when man found music. I���ve always had a genuine love for music but I found it in a different way where I could start writing about certain things Smalls, Jay Z, Nas, Eminem, 50 Cent, Jadakiss, enough West Coast rap as well as like mob figures Yuck Mouth and all that kind of stuff. They made music that spoke about life, you get me and I could relate and that���s what my influence was. So you had a Pure Koke mixtape, you flood the streets with them what three volumes of that man, what was your vision with that when you started recording those mixtapes? ���Pure Koke: Volume 1��� was just the raw uncut full 100% that was poppin��� off and everyone is saying my name innit, I think they looked at my Fire In The Booth thing, see that thing there was mental, and yeah I had a conversation with Tai Tai on the phone when I was in Stonebridge outside the pub and I was previously about to sign something else but Tai was like yo don���t sign nothing, I���m coming over there in two weeks and I���m going to chat to you. So obviously I waited and when he came over the conversation we had made sense, and it kinda just went from there. to Roc Nation and thats Jay Z right there, so that���s hip hop right there. The bigman you understand, so tell me the story behind you getting signed personally by J himself? Not personally by J himself I���m sure he had to give the green light on it, it was Tai Tai Jay���s business partner and friend and it was him that come and got man you get me. Basically around that time they were looking for an artist and obviously when they���re going to all these label meetings and asking who is gwarnin right now who is Woah, woah so the talent was there from day though, that���s the thing. So you touch on that Fire In The Booth session, but you really have to break that one down what���s that 3.9 million views on YouTube, was it all a head top thing? No head top thing, if it was a off the top of my head then I���d be slapping albums out daily, you feel me, nah it���s stuff that I had previously had before but it wasn���t no memorising thing it wasn���t no I���m gonna go in there and I���m gonna do this and that, it was just fun. I went in there half liquored up, you get me I just had fun and that���s what it was Fire In The Booth was fun, I had fun in there and it shows in my performance I���m having fun with it and that���s what it was for man. More information check out www. rocnation.com/artists/k-koke