NEW MUSIC | RAPPER KOJ RELEASES ‘VILLAIN WITH A CONSCIENCE’ EP

By Rishma • On What is New

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Upcom­ing Brit­ish rap­per KOJ con­tin­ues his ascent with the release of his highly anti­cip­ated debut EP, Vil­lain with a Con­science, is out now via Inter­val Records under EMI North.

Build­ing recog­ni­tion as one of the UK’s rising stars, Liverpool’s KOJ is a ver­sat­ile and intro­spect­ive rap­per who blends raw emo­tion with bold pro­duc­tion. His music explores themes of self-dis­cov­ery, power, and the con­sequences of ambition.

After mak­ing a state­ment of intent on 2024 single A Remind­er, KOJ went on to exam­ine the seduct­ive and destruct­ive power of Love Money Drugs, por­tray­ing them as forces that can elev­ate or ruin a per­son. A Roadman’s Tale of Home focused on iden­tity and belong­ing, and recent single Vil­lain With a Con­science con­tin­ued these themes, delving into feel­ing out of place in vari­ous worlds before finally step­ping into his own. On EP focus track SIN­ter­lude, fea­tur­ing Ni Max­ine, KOJ takes a real deep dive into the harsh real­ity of many young people’s lives, espe­cially in work­ing class communities:

“I touch on real life events as well as paint­ing a vivid pic­ture of what life can look like from my per­spect­ive — whereby I am glad I have sur­vived so much and have exper­i­enced so much but I also have to bal­ance survivor’s guilt and find­ing a way for­ward whilst car­ry­ing that baggage.

The record can be viewed as a time lapse of turn­ing neg­at­ives into pos­it­ives. Between the pro­duc­tion, by TEE, and Ni Maxine’s vocals — I think we artic­u­lated the light I tra­verse through the ‘dark­ness’. The video, which was con­cep­tu­al­ised and dir­ec­ted by YawOwusu and shot by my most fre­quent visu­al col­lab­or­at­or Ollie Brad­ley-Baker, is an apt visu­al rep­res­ent­a­tion of exactly that same jour­ney. We wanted to show the intense battle for sur­viv­al we face and ulti­mately the sal­va­tion that can be reached when we just get out of our own way and live free. I see this moment in this cam­paign, and in fact my career, to be a pivotal one and I am sure you will see why if you con­tin­ue to watch me on my path.”

Across the EP, KOJ delves into feel­ing out of place in vari­ous worlds before ulti­mately step­ping into his own. With a com­pel­ling mix of storytelling and sharp lyr­i­cism, this pro­ject cements him as a name to watch in the UK rap scene.

KOJ says: “I wanted to make a pro­ject that stretched me fur­ther than I’d ever gone before son­ic­ally; test­ing myself to craft records with a strong struc­ture and push­ing myself vocally in vari­ous ways. Lyr­ic­ally, I wanted to tell my story of survival.

Work­ing with TEE, who pro­duced a num­ber of spe­cif­ic records on the EP (‘Product of the Streets’, ‘SIN­ter­lude’ and ‘A Remind­er’) and also pretty much son­ic­ally stitched everything togeth­er was so vital to the pro­ject. He is a wiz­ard when it comes to pro­duc­tion — unlike any­thing I’ve seen before. A lot of the records star­ted with con­ver­sa­tions around me as a per­son. Not just “what is the story of this song” but also, “how do you feel today?” Or “how do you want to feel”. He would bring out the best from me.

Them­at­ic­ally, I noticed that the concept of vil­lainy is often a case of per­spect­ive. I’ve had to do things I’m not proud of along the way to get me here. But we can not judge before know­ing more about their story and inten­tions. And we can’t for­get that a vil­lain can become a hero with guid­ance and encour­age­ment — it’s nev­er too late to make a change for good and it is always worth it. Essen­tially it’s a pos­it­ive mes­sage of hope, self-improve­ment, reflec­tion and self-empower­ment. That to me is cent­ral to the EP and that is why the title is so.”

CON­NECT WITH KOJ:
INS­TAGRAM
SPO­TI­FY
YOU­TUBE

LIVE DATES:

WITH THE MOUSE OUT­FIT @ THE OLD QUEENS HEAD, ISLING­TON, LDN — 11 APRIL

TRiBE @ LSC — 2 May

SOUND CITY LIV­ER­POOL — 3 MAY

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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.