The Break Presents: Loski
Loski has rapidly become the face of the UK’s thriving drill scene. An affiliate of Harlem Spartans, his growth has been truly organic coming from the district of Kennington in South London. Whilst he’s always held a talent for rapping, it was his mother that pushed him into making it more than just a hobby, “2017 summer, I had a conversation with my mum and she was edging me to take it more seriously and that.” Along with his mother, his friends were also pivotal in showing him that he could really carve out a career in music, “Then my friends were like, ‘Everyone’s feeling your music. Bro you need to make sure you carry on,’ this that and this that. Then I put a little team together and then it started from there.”
Not so long after these conversations, by October 2017, Loski’s breakout single, “Money and Beef” was on the lips of every UK rap fan. This was followed up by “Cool Kid” in early 2018, and summer anthem “Forrest Gump” which was already a hit to many underground UK fans for some time. In April 2018, Loski released his mixtape, Call Me Loose, a 16-track project putting together a solid offering which entered the UK charts despite being an independent release.
Loski’s repeatedly proven that his rhythmic rap style and witty wordplay is what has allowed him to create banger after banger. And it’s not just Loski’s local fans who have come to know about this. He’s recruited some serious fans with the likes of UK rapper Stormzy and of course hip-hop’s heavyweight Drake who credited Loski as an influence for his Scorpion album. For the young rapper, despite meeting Drizzy, such praise has been a surreal experience proving only humbleness despite his success so far, “It just felt fake really. But it’s gonna get further. It can only get better. It’s like getting used to a stage of life, like realizing this is your job, all of that stuff. He was biggin,’ me up and I was thinking, how? It should be the other way round.”
Find out more about London’s newest rising star Loski in the latest installment of XXL’s The Break.
Age: 19
Hometown: Kennington, London
I grew up listening to: Like proper, proper listened to? It was probably the Chicago drill scene, like rappers like Lil Jojo, Chief Keef and all those people, for me personally.
People compare your style to: Nah, I don’t know man. Me personally? I think I have my own style. There’s no particular rapper, or genre, nah man I think I’m my own person. People don’t really tell me that I rap like this person or that person.
Most people don’t know: The only time that I get nervous is before I step out on stage.
My standout moment: My headline show at the O2 Academy, Islington, London, that was live. Literally seeing all those people come out for me, that’s sick. I wouldn’t say that I thought that’s going to happen as I wouldn’t try something if I didn’t have an aim to make those things happen. I wanted it to happen, I should say that. I’d seen other people’s headline shows, like my bredrin K-Trap, he had the same headline show. When I went out to his one, I didn’t have a clue that I would be doing it in the same place so when it happened, it was mad.
My goal in hip-hop is: Maybe like, what’s them awards? The big gold trophy? Yeah The Grammys! I want to get one of those. Maybe if I got one of those, I’d be done, but probably not, because once you do one thing, you always want to do more. That’s the goal right now. Once I get that…and of course going international hopefully.
I’m going to be the next…I’m not going to be the next anything, I’m going to be the FIRST!
Standouts:
Source: The Break Presents: Loski
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