Liverpudlian rapper Kof provides Semper with the lowdown on recording his new album and upcoming gigs

SEMPER: How are you doing and what you have you been up to?

KOF: Well, I am just in the studio right now.

SEMPER: Is that a home studio you have then?

KOF: Yes, it has all the basics, so I am just going through stuff and creating.

SEMPER: Rolling with this a bit more, are all your tracks finished and mastered at your home studio then?

KOF: Well, recently I have been sending stuff to people to master it, because that is their speciality. But at the moment, I am just working on tracks and laying down vocals. I will however send out stuff again to see what people think. But I try and do almost everything in my own studio.

SEMPER: Starting out as an independent is notoriously difficult - having been in the game for sometime, has it progressively become easier for you as an artist?

KOF: You know what - it has actually got harder. Back when I came out, there were not many independents as such, and so I was different which I think helped. Nowadays everybody has a home set up and so it is much harder to get played on the radio. It is good however because it makes you progress.

SEMPER: Competition is definitely a good thing and it refines and enhances the standard.

KOF: Definitely. I mean when I broke out in Liverpool, I was shining because in truth, there was not really that much competition. But now there are some great artists in Liverpool and so I need to step my game up. They keep me on my toes.

SEMPER: OK, I speak to a few artists and some of them speak of music being like a destiny. Is that something that rings true for you as well?

KOF: I think I was but for a certain time in my life I never realised that I was. When I was younger, I remember watching a lot of music videos and listening to a lot of my dad’s music, like Earth Wind and Fire, and so I always enjoyed music. But at the age of seventeen, I kind of left music for a while.

SEMPER: What brought about that break?

KOF: I had been in a group called Urban Soul as the lead vocalist. but the group broke up and I ended up going to university to study. While I was at university however, I started getting back into music and began picking up bits of software for music production and from there it just kind of grew.

SEMPER: So what kind of moves did you make to take this from “getting bits of stuff” to actually a serious career move?

KOF: It was more a case of recording my own music and then trying to get people to listen to it. My first big break was really with Ras Kwame from 1xtra. I gave him a few mix-tapes and he gave me feedback saying basically the stuff that I had given him was good, but it was just a matter of getting the production aspect up in quality. From that, I just went onto radio and so on, so he gave me a nice boost.

SEMPER: How did you get Ras Kwame’s attention initially, because he obviously gets loads of mix-tapes given to him everyday?

KOF: Well, it was actually a 1xtra event down in Liverpool, and well, he took a shine to us - what with us all being Ghanaians and that, and so we just took his contact details from there and got back in contact with him.

SEMPER: Touching on the whole trying to get London DJs interested, do you think that there is too much focus on talent from London at the expense of big and talented artists outside of the London scene?

KOF: I do not think that it is. A lot of the radio stations are based in London, but it should not really stop people outside of London from making music and being successful. At the end of the day, if the music is good then people will listen. Also, if you want to make a name, then you do need to come down to London instead of waiting for it to come to you.

SEMPER: OK, well you are the proof that the London scene can and will be broken with good music. So talking about your music firstly, can you just explain “meshing”, a word that you coined?

KOF: Well “mesh” music is a combination of different styles. If you look at fashion, you have people mixing urban wear with indie wear and that is what I am kind of doing with my music. I like so many genres of music and so for me to make just one genre of music, say hip-hop, it would not represent me. I mean in Liverpool there is a massive dance scene and so I just try and incorporate it all.

SEMPER: I know you were saying your dad was into Earth Wind and Fire and so do you try and also incorporate that old soul vibe as well?

KOF: In a sense yes. Vocally on some tracks I have incorporated a bit of soca so to speak. But not really on a conscious level, but more just because that is the music I grew up with.

SEMPER: So will you be going for this whole mesh of genres again in your album that you are working on at the moment?

KOF: It will be released in June, July time. It was about eighty percent done, but now with the new producers, I am about twenty percent done! I mean these new producers are trying to take it all to a new level and so there are tracks that have been moved in a sense now to the bottom of the pile.

SEMPER: Do you think that these tracks will still get a look in on the new album however?

KOF: Well definitely. What I have done is put together an EP, which will have tracks on there that I was going to use for the album.

SEMPER: When are you looking to release that?

KOF: Well, it is not really a release as such. I plan to just give them away free at places where I perform.

SEMPER: Why have you decided to do that as opposed to an official release?

KOF: It’s just because of the fact that we are going on tour and so we thought it would be good that when people come then they have something to take away from the shows. It is like a merchandising thing and people can get a flavour of what I am doing. It’s like fresh music for a fresh tour.

SEMPER: So with the album, I know that it is a work in progress, but do you have an inspiration behind it? What is the driving force for the album?

KOF: Well, I have brought out a number of mix-tapes which have allowed me to find my style. At the same time when you make music and then go and perform it, you can see what works and does not work. I did a bunch of festivals over at Glastonbury, and so I want to try and make music that can fit those types of shows.

SEMPER: Are you speaking about music that can smoothly go from the studio to a live setting and still keep its original sound?

KOF: Definitely. Because I have a band, but obviously you cannot always take the band to a night club. I want that type of music that can be performed in its original state anywhere. When I am creating music it is always in the back of my mind that I want the music to easily make the transition into performing it live.

SEMPER: The word “commercial” is a bit of a nasty word almost, but will this album be more geared towards the commercial market?

KOF: It’s strange but even from when I started out, I always had a kind of commercial sound anyway. Well, a lot of people told me anyway. My aim is to reach as many people as possible.

SEMPER: I know you spoke about live performances - will London be a big part of those live performance plans?

KOF: We will be doing loads of stuff in London, so that will be great. I got to admit though, sometimes the London crew can be a bit funny and they just stand there, rather than dance.

SEMPER: What? They’re profiling…

KOF: Yes, you know they give you a bit of a harder time? In other places, they just jam out. But it will still be great to perform in London.

SEMPER: Before we end, I just wanted to talk about your community work, because I know that you are deeply involved in helping the youth in Liverpool.  What is it that you do?

KOF: We basically do workshops around Liverpool talking about anti-racism using the music to get through to the kids. They obviously can sometimes relate to us more than say their teachers. We recently did a thing called Crossing the Line. We basically have areas that are exclusively black and areas that are exclusively white. Kids were like ‘You cannot go to this area and that area’, and so what we did is got these kids to go to these other areas and then we documented it and did a bunch of workshops on it.

SEMPER: That is really important input because I must admit I came to Liverpool and saw a sign saying the cultural capital of Europe, but then I was a victim of racism from some young kids.

KOF: Yes it was great for us to be able to do that. This year we actually did a programme called The Legacy looking at how Liverpool was affected by the slave trade. So we are really doing a lot of stuff.

SEMPER: Well thanks KOF for all of the time you have given me, and good luck for the future. Peace.