- Tuesday, July 05, 2022
By: Manju Chandran
RISING music star Kzr has been surrounded by music his whole life and grew up in the East London grime scene. He had diverse musical inspirations growing up and used his natural ability to create a unique style, which was apparent in his song Come To Me. With more music, big collaborations and live performances on the way, Kzr is one to watch and was happy to select 10 songs he loves.
‘Incredible’ Jungle Is Massive by General Levy: I grew up playing this song back to back – my older brothers were into drum ‘n’ bass, and this is one of my all time favourites. I always tried imitating this song. Even now if the song comes on, the place lights up.
Oi by More Fire Crew: This takes me to my school days, with everyone singing it and dancing in class. I knew Fumin, so he told me to listen to it before it became mainstream. I love this song to this day.
21 Seconds by So Solid Crew: This song triggered me to start writing my own lyrics, so it’s significant to me. Grime was in its early days and this was one of the first tracks to hit the mainstream. I memorised every word to be better than everyone.
Boom Shack-A-Lack by Apache Indian: I related to Apache a lot, coming from similar backgrounds. This song was the reason I started dancing seriously and for my school performance, made my own dance moves on it.
Aja Mahi by RDB: When I saw RDB, Metz and Trix blowing up, I saw the door open up for Asian artists. This is one of the songs that made me believe I could make it one day.
Angel Eyes by Raghav: Performers like him were committed to going to every mela, which committed us. This song always stuck with me. My family used to ask me, who is this person with angel eyes?
Ride It by Jay Sean: Jay Sean was a big influence to my ‘burban’ roots. He resonated with me in a genre I’m singing in today. Everyone was rapping and Jay Sean came with a bang as an Asian artist who normalised singing instead. I wrote my own lyrics to Ride It, and it was the first song I sang, so it really helped shape my style.
7 Days by Craig David: This song brought r’n’b and soul to my flow. It made me realise how rapping and singing could go together and be on another level. The remix version made this morning radio beat into a raving until the morning beat. Craig David showed me a rapper can go into singing. His songs really clicked with me.
Dilemma by Nelly Ft Kelly Rowland: I think they should’ve turned this into a movie. Can you believe back then Nelly was having a texting relationship with Kelly through Microsoft Excel? All when I was trying to get my mum off the home phone, so I could use the dial up internet to download songs Dil Nai Lagda by Aman Hayer: The first song that caught my attention from the traditional Indian style sound my sisters used to listen to. I loved the bass and beat. Before this, I didn’t think they’d produce a song that became so popular.
Hit Em Up by 2 Pac: I want to finish off by saying Tupac taught me to speak my truth. I would think deeply about his lyrics and meaning behind them. It made me realise that I need to think about my lyrics and where they came from.
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