Israel Nkeki has lived a life worthy of a 100 films. A life journey that has taken Israel from Nigeria to Lewisham, from the streets to a stint in prison and eventually to becoming the soulful Croydon residing singer-songwriting he is today.
After a conflict filled childhood in Benin City (Nigeria), a young Israel relocated to New Cross (London). Young, impressionable and cast a drift Israel Nkeki descended into a life on the streets and eventually found himself serving a sentence in prison. Prison was the wakeup call Israel needed, a turning point in his life that prompted him to put his pain into a creative medium and tell his story through music.
‘Moonlight’, Israel’s debut single coming on 20th June, uses hard hitting lyrics to tell the story of his painful journey and how split second decisions can have lifelong impact. Set on a backdrop of contemporary soul beats the track is emotive, poetic and modern.
Israel’s music is rich with harsh realities, real life experiences and hard-learned lessons presented with soul, feeling and emotion. A story that needs to be told and a voice that needs to be heard.
When riding a carriage of the City line towards the daily grind, you’d be forgiven for making alluring assumptions of a better life elsewhere. The story behind ‘Conundrum‘ – the latest release from London urban artist D-Saro, would resonate with most who would consider themselves in amongst the continual plight of honest working people who are looking saturate their personal wealth to the point where they will finally be able to break free of what they might perceive as the great urban dungeon.
This track is about real people, going about their real life with as yet unfulfilled aspirations, with the track holding true to life as a perfect example of D-Saro’s motto of: ‘true stories, deep lyrics, real life, no gimmicks’. The links hold a kind of aspirational symmetry with a longing for fast cars, mirrored through his own current professional being that of a Jaguar salesman. From an early involvement in pirate radio, D-Saro had gone under a different artist name with urban music collective Roll Deep, including Wiley and J2K, as well as supporting The Game and Flo Rida. He had initially been noted for his hands on approach in terms of pushing CD sales by hand on Oxford Street, which fortuitously brought about a chance encounter that led him to being picked up by label 70’s Entertainment, with whom they released track ‘Old Skool‘.
With ‘Conundrum‘ being his third release under the name D-Saro, following on from his salvation themed ‘Save Me‘ and the touching, celebrity backed charity single ‘Fight Like Micky‘ – written for a local youngster struggling with a rare form of leukaemia, this track has a lighter feel than his previous releases with an upbeat afro-beat sound. It’s almost a miracle that these tracks were ever able to see the light of day, given the remarkable circumstances that D-Saro was declared deceased for a short period due to complications relating to a rare heart disease that he suffered with. After surviving this, he and a friend decided to set up the record label 4Front Records and make music truer to his own design, having grown tired with the politics and red tape that are endemic to the urban music scene.
Hailing from North London, CallMeTheKidd artist, (AKA Peter Elegbede) is certainly causing quite a stir on the UK urban scene. His latest song ‘Jungle’, from his debut EP ‘2ND2N: The Movie’. 7 out of 10 tracks he produced himself, and all of the songs on the EP were all written by him also. He has already opened up for other well-known artists such as Ghetts and Chipmunk, as well as MOBO award winner Stormzy & nominee Lil Slmz.
The video for hot track ‘Jungle’ see’s the dapper, CallMethekidd literally take it to the jungle with his beautiful date. Charming his way through his cool performance, CallMethekidd looks perfectly at home in front of the camera. After seeing the rising star in action, we doubt many girls will be turning down a date with him!
The official video is out Monday 10th November, for now feast your eyes on a sneak peek behind the scenes of the video production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO5ngztOjzI
After almost following a career in professional basketball in America, Peter found his true calling in the form of writing and producing grime music. CallMeTheKidd says ‘’I started off with grime music but I now write & produce all sorts of music – Rap, Pop, RnB etc’’, of which he has been an avid fan of since the young age of 12. The track ‘Jungle’ has insanely tight production, and the beat and lyrics are especially catchy. The track depicts what goes through a man’s head when first meeting a woman – the aspect of love vs. lust is incorporated as he battles a conflict of desires in his head.
After unfortunately losing a close family member to a 7-year battle with cancer very recently, Peter has vowed to donate the proceeds from this single towards Macmillan Cancer Support. Peter recently self-pressed over 500 copies of his EP on CD, and gave them away, with the purpose of just getting his music out there and heard. With his heart more in the music as opposed to the money, CallMeTheKidd’s attitude is a brilliant example to aspiring musicians all over the UK.
‘Jungle’ from ‘2ND2N: The Movie’ is due for release on 8th December.
Twitter: @CallMeTheKidd
Facebook: www.facebook.com/callmethekidd
Youtube: www.youtube.com/justcallmethekidd
Website: www.callmethekidd.com
SoundCloud www.soundcloud.com/callmethekidd
