INTERVIEW | UK HIP-HOP ARTIST J.KOSMOS TALKS TO US ABOUT HIS NEW SINGLE ‘MOMENTUM’

By Rishma • On Interviews

‘Momentum’ is OUT NOW

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Hip-Hop is life for North-West Lon­don rap­per J.Kosmos, an artist that brings the real­ism to lyr­i­cism. A tal­en­ted free­styler, song-writer and rap­per, J.Kosmos has just released his new track ‘Momentum’ which is pro­duced by Chris Rich. We catch up with him to find out more.

How did your jour­ney as a rap­per begin, were there any key influ­ences in your life that helped?

I’ve always loved music and had a spe­cial con­nec­tion to Hip-Hop that was almost spir­itu­al. I remem­ber being in primary school with my friends ima­gin­ing set­ting up a music label and get­ting man­agers and look­ing back it’s crazy to think how far back this dream star­ted. Listen­ing to the likes of ‘Out­kast’ and ‘The Notori­ous B.I.G.’, I was inspired from an early age to start rap­ping and writ­ing poems but also to become a founder of a music/entertainment busi­ness. What star­ted off as a form of expres­sion, trans­formed into a pas­sion and is now the essence of who I am.

Now that I’m a bit older, hav­ing exper­i­enced struggle, pain, suc­cess, loss, and pres­sure I feel like I have a lot to pour into my music. Grow­ing up, me and my friends were always hust­ling, try­ing to make money and I guess grow­ing up in the city you grow up with big ambi­tions of mak­ing it and tak­ing your fam­ily out of that environment.

My music is influ­enced by real life exper­i­ences, the good, the bad and the ugly.

You took part in a lot of free­style and rap battles grow­ing up. It takes a lot of skill to be an improv rap­per. How did this help with your stu­dio tracks and writing?

It really helps with the writ­ing pro­cess as battle rap is all about punch­lines and the way you deliv­er your bars, where­as free­styl­ing can be more about main­tain­ing and manip­u­lat­ing your flow and struc­ture. For example, I could be in the stu­dio, tell my engin­eer to rock on a col­lec­tion of beats and free­style a bunch of tracks and these tracks might not be com­pletely fin­ished but I’ll have the essence of the song ready to build on and perfect.

Tell us a bit about your new single ‘Momentum’ and the mean­ing behind it?

Momentum is all about build­ing in the meta­phor­ic­al sense. Build­ing some­thing big­ger, gain­ing trac­tion and break­ing through. The track is filled with real­isa­tions I’ve made on my jour­ney. I lay out the sac­ri­fices and codes I’ve fol­lowed along my path. Grow­ing up in school, I think most people would agree in say­ing that fin­an­cial know­ledge and under­stand­ing was not taught. This was some­thing I had to learn on my own and on many occa­sions I failed but the les­sons learnt were pivotal in shap­ing who I am today. This mes­sage is expressed in the hook and verses. The verses main­tain the same flow and as a res­ult the same rhythmic metre was used from start to fin­ish. The verses con­tain insights and little gems I’ve clocked along the way. I guess the last line in the last verse sums up my goal and vis­ion for my music and track ‘I’m rais­ing my speed, man I’m gain­ing momentum, tell them I’m not here to take part or lose’; it’s all about per­sever­ance and build­ing momentum.

What was it like work­ing with pro­du­cer Chris Rich? How did the col­lab come about?

I didn’t per­son­ally get to meet with Chris Rich but as soon I heard the beat I felt like the instru­ment­al was made for me. I man­aged to acquire the licence for the beat and in doing so chal­lenged myself to deliv­er a track that matches the work of Chris Rich. I look for­ward to col­lab­or­at­ing with him fur­ther down the road.

Tell us about the music video for it? What is the concept behind it?

The video for momentum is a cine­mat­ic depic­tion of the grind and the flex that comes when con­tinu­ous strug­gling begins to pay off. Jux­ta­pos­i­tions between lux­ury products and run down and indus­tri­al envir­on­ments look to explore the ten­sions between enjoy­ing the fruits of your labour without get­ting com­pla­cent about where you came from and where you want to be and what it will take to get there. Shoutout to Max Dent & Felix Samuels who man­aged to pull off some amaz­ing shots and trans­itions that all explore and tie togeth­er these ideas.

What are your thoughts on UK Hip-Hop? How would you define it and the cur­rent scene?

The UK Hip-Hop scene at the moment is crazy, there are so many tal­en­ted artists right now in the scene and I feel like the bar con­tin­ues to rise con­stantly. From legends like Ghetts, Kano, Skep­ta, Devlin and Giggs to new­er artists like Nines, Little Simz, Dave, Knucks, Benny Banks, Head­ie One and K‑Trap. It’s actu­ally mad, I feel like we’re enter­ing or have already entered the golden age of UK Hip-Hop.

Tell us about a time where Hip-Hop saved your life?

Nines man. That man’s music is under­rated and has helped keep me focused, groun­ded and motiv­ated in life, busi­ness and music.When decid­ing to make the leap of faith and pur­sue music full time which, while some­thing I’ve dreamt of since I was a kid is a daunt­ing pro­spect. It’s a dif­fi­cult way to sup­port your­self and your fam­ily fin­an­cially and many tal­en­ted people don’t make it, so see­ing Nines, someone who came from not far away in the same envir­on­ments, facing many of the same struggles I have faced make it, and make it in a way that is unique and his own provides huge inspir­a­tion to draw from. Nines has shown that it’s pos­sible to escape the envir­on­ments we were sur­roun­ded by and achieve things way bey­ond what people would think possible.

When can we expect the album?

Me and my broth­er ‘Wolfgang Santana’ have an EP drop­ping to kick off the start of 2023. It’ll be titled ‘Lost Hours’, and was com­pleted over the course of a week when ‘Wolfgang’ came to vis­it and we worked on a few tracks like we always do when we chill. He pro­duced all the tracks dur­ing his stay. The beats were titled using the timestamps of the files as they were being produced/created and saved hence the name ‘Lost Hours’. The title also means more but I’ll leave that for the audi­ence to digest and inter­pret when the pro­ject drops. This was an unex­pec­ted and organ­ic pro­ject that cap­tures a lot of raw emo­tion. I’ve been work­ing on anoth­er album that’s in the pipeline that should be ready for the middle of 2023, this will be a more sub­stan­tial project.

Where can we find out more?

@enterthekosmos on Ins­tagram is where you’ll find all the latest links to tracks, mer­chand­ise and inform­a­tion regard­ing upcom­ing shows, as well as teas­ers of future projects.

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Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.