Kofi carving his own path
HIP-HOP STAR KOFI STONE TELLS DAVE FREAK HOW HE’S BEEN INFLUENCED BY JAZZ AND GUIDED BY ‘THE GREATS’
AFTER his 2020 gig plans were scrapped, Kofi Stone is finally hitting the road for his first UK tour, and he’s rather thrilled about it. ‘Very excited, yeah,’ he says.
‘Nervous, extremely nervous, too, but looking forward to it.’
Discussing the format of the show, he says: ‘I’ll be going out with a DJ, keeping the essence of hip-hop alive. We have a few tricks up our sleeves, though.’
Quietly released just before the pandemic, Kofi’s Nobody Cares Till Everybody Does was heralded as one of the finest UK hip-hop debut albums in recent years.
Praised for its variety and lyricism, it featured collaborations with Ady Suleiman, Loyle Carner and Maverick Sabre, and tapped into a lifelong fascination with jazz – a genre introduced to Kofi by his father, who had a fondness for Nat King Cole, Nina Simone and ‘all the greats’.
‘It has a huge, huge influence on me. The spirit of jazz, the being-free factor that it possesses, is something that I embodied,’ he says. ‘That led me to almost emulate that sound, but in a new way.
I feel like I’m a new jazz artist, or that I’m using jazz in a new format.
‘There are a few people out there doing that sound,’ Kofi adds, name-checking Manic
MC and Eerf Evil. ‘But it’s not that popular on the mainstream. [However] I feel like we’re moving closer to that, I feel like the soundscape is changing, definitely – more organic and instrumental-based music is finding it’s way back into rap, and pop as well, which is great!’
Establishing Kofi as an artist unconstrained by faddish trends, Nobody Cares Till Everybody Does is honest and soulful.
‘I feel proud of those words,’ says Kofi. ‘I feel like we need more honesty, and we need more honesty and soul in the music these days.
‘I’d love to be able to provide that, ’cos people feel reassured in themselves when they hear people speaking their truths – and sometimes your truth can be someone else’s.’
Since the LP, Kofi has continued to gain fans and push forward. The impressive Nothing
Ain’t Free cropped up in Michaela Coel’s groundbreaking I May Destroy You, and his team-up with Mr Jukes and Barney Artist on Check The Pulse soundtracks FIFA22.
He’s also reconnected with fellow Brummie Jacob Banks for Broken Chandeliers.
‘We met seven or eight years ago at a local talent show. Jacob called upon me to feature on a song of his, which was on his first ever EP,’ Kofi recalls of the track, which isn’t streaming due to sampling issues. ‘I did that with another Brummie actually, Knox Brown; so from that engagement me and Jacob sort of became friends and stayed in touch.’ Meanwhile, after numerous failed attempts to nail Broken Chandelier, Kofi called on jazz pianist/composer Ashley Henry. ‘The song was there but it didn’t have a chorus, so I thought about who would sound perfect on this and instantly I thought, Jacob! It just felt right.
‘We’ve known each other for so long, he’s a Brummie, I’m a Brummie, and he’s amazing. I sent it over to him and he loved it and the rest was history!’ Broken Chandeliers recalls Kofi’s negative experiences of working in the hospitality sector, coupled with observations on the treatment of black women and mental health – the latter being a theme he returns to on the just-out I Wish.
‘I Wish covers mental health again, how it isn’t down to the pandemic, and how being confined is not the best thing for your mind.’
As part of a ‘double drop’, I Wish is accompanied by On The First Day, in which Kofi – inspired by Nas’s I Gave You Power – takes on a character. ‘I sort of go deeper into the creation of light, and it goes deeper into how light is needed in everyday life,’ he explains. ‘I am basically light and I speak about what I do.
‘Rap is rhythm and poetry,’ he continues. ‘But the poetry element – sometimes you don’t see that as much. It’s so good to do something quite poetic, that has that personification and which makes you think.’
Recently quitting his ‘9-to-5’ at Digbeth vintage clothing store Cow, Kofi aims to make up for lost time, with more releases and projects planned. ‘Now is the time to just go full-steam ahead and dedicate all my time to the music and to writing songs. ‘I’m excited. After the tour I’ll be able to write a lot and to experiment; I feel the next project will come together quite quickly.’ n
‘I feel like I’m a new jazz artist, or I’m using jazz in a new format’