Style. Swagger. Charisma. Confidence. Four reasons why you wouldn't want to try to compete with this Young female. Haling from south London, 23-year-old Kay Young is emerging quite rapidly on the horizon of the UK music scene. She is a young woman of many talents, none of which include washing up, cooking up a Sunday roast or doing mass amounts of ironing. No, no, no. Ms Young is a producer, rapper, singer, songwriter, drummer... and the list goes on. So I met up with Kay Young and her skate board at Cantalowes Skate Park in Camden and discovered that she's a little bit Sasha Fierce, with her stage presence very extrovert and attention grabbing, as though a Ferrari had appeared in the room, however, off-stage a more direct and humble person appears.
Trying to avoid being tackled by the reckless kids skating up and down the ramps at high speed, we decided to lean up against the park fence and get chatting. Firstly, I wanted to know why she'd brought me to the skate park. "I haven't been down here for a while but it's always been a way of escape for me," she explains "So I figured it would be the best place to meet. I've got a lot of memories here." I see her mind travel back in time as she watches the younger skaters practice their tricks on the ramps. My own past experiences of skateboarding aren't as pleasant, as they involve me falling hard onto my bottom lip! Slightly embarrassed by the lack of laughter from my icebreaker, I swiftly move on.You would have assumed that the blending of skating and Hip-Hip cultures, thanks to artists such as Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell, is what had influenced her to transition to music however I'm soon corrected. "Music has always come first, this is just a hobby," she says contrarily, signalling to her board. "Although I skate, I wouldn't really consider myself a skater girl." Kay Young is definitely not your Avril Lavigne. Her exceptional performance on The Cordless Show confirms that she is a natural performer "There's no better feeling than when you've come off stage after a good show" she tells me openly. "I love being on stage and entertaining. Performing in front of people gives me such a buzz."Taking a walk up the slope, I decide to take it back a bit, and discover that her influences lie very close to home. Not only in the form of her cousin DeeTee (Masters Of The Ceremonies), but her parents, who were both musicians, also influenced her creative direction in life. "My Dad, who's a guitarist, brought me to a lot of his shows and had a vast record collection from Pink Floyd to Bob Marley and more. I definitely drew inspiration from him." To be precise it was at the age of 11 that the ambitious little girl decided to pick up the pad, the pen, the mic and the mixing desk and make a dash for her dreams. Never 'too cool for school', Kay received an A* in music and went on to do Live Performance and Music Technology at Lewisham College. Combine this with the ability to create an entire album from scratch, and you have an artist which record labels see as a major investment.
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We reach the top of the slope, the highest point in the entire park. With the falling sun casting our shadows over the people below I'm reminded of the biggest difference between the young lady in front of me and the string of mediocre artists who have launched themselves into the limelight, only to fall into the shadows of the great. Kay Young has a number of unique elements to her music, which is not easy to say in a time when the word 'unique' is being branded on every artist with odd coloured laces. From the boyish swagger on the mic and the subjects of her songs, to the fact that Kay is a female producer in a very male dominated field. She is not ignorant to the fact but doesn't feel threatened by it either, seeing it as an opportunity to stand out. "That sort of thing doesn't get to me" she says openly. "People may say 'how are you going to manage when it's so male dominated?' but if anything it pushes me and makes me work harder". And work hard she does. Determined to take full control of her musical direction, the young rapper has produced 99% of her her tracks, meaning when you buy her music, you get Kay Young in her entirety. "The only track made by someone else was For The Whip. I worked with a German producer called Flako on that one."For The Whip is one of the many tracks on her Myspace racking up thousands of plays. We make our way back down, taking a seat on a cement block made for the more highly skilled skaters. My personal favourite is Waterboy ft Wretch 32. A banger that had me visualising the smoke coming from the booth when they'd finished with it! "There definitely was!" Kay nods to me. "I made a track and I thought [Wretch] would sound heavy on it. My management spoke to his, he came to the studio and wrote to it there and then. We had great chemistry on that track, I respect him a lot." Other collaborations include Scorcher, Lioness, Kersha Bailey and more. Kay doesn't mind lending her skills to those in need. The high demand stems from the genius of her sound; combining such a distinguished and swaggeristic rhyming style with rather random lyrical content. "It's all inspired from life experiences." She reveals "It could be my friends' dilemmas or things that happen day to day." Going by her current tracklisting it would seem her life consists of Brown Bags, Cherryaid and Chocolate bars! Not a bad life if you ask me.
We take a walk toward the pit, taking a seat on the edge as I tried to pretend I wasn't scared of falling to my death. Kay sat next to me comfortably, making me look like even more of an awkward outsider! Kay Young is currently represented by Top Boy Music who handle the business side of things and she agrees that having a competent team beside you is essential. "Yeah, it's extremely important to have a good management team; one you can believe in and one that believes in you. Good management will give you a good sense of direction in the music industry." Despite being a newcomer to the music scene Kay has some strong advice for anyone thinking about starting a career in music. "Just do you. Don't be afraid to be yourself." she says with a heightened sense of belief. "You will get knock backs and let downs but just try to rise above it." She doesn't come across as the type to run at the first sign of problems, as the fighter spirit runs through her veins and spills like lava onto the mic. Much of this you can hear on her upcoming EP entitled P45. "A P45 is what you get when you finish work, so for me it signifies the end of my 9-5 and my ticket into a full time music career." She explains "From this point there's no turning back and once I've made break or released that hit track I'm gone!"
The EP P45 due for release end of August
Look out for single releases of For The World and DJ Save My Life
Look out for single releases of For The World and DJ Save My Life
Follow Lawrence Gichigi daily on his blog
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