Team Effort

From the name alone, it could easily be assumed that Remi is the solo project of rapper Remi Kolawole; however he emphasises that his producing buddies Sensible J and Dutch have been an intrinsic part of the operation from day one: “Remi is really more of a three-piece than just an individual thing. I actually worked with [Sensible J's] lady friend (and one of my good friends) before I started rapping, and once I eventually did start rapping, she played me some of his beats and I thought they were crazy!

“I was a really bad rapper at that point,” he confesses, “but J was like, 'if you want to work hard, let's hang out and work on it until you get better.' He basically mentored me – he's the reason why I'm where I'm at today.”

On the advice of Sensible J, Kolawole decided to retreat in the early stages of his career, a journey he reveals consisted mainly of listening. “I was listening to people like Outkast, Mos Def, Common, J Dilla, The Roots – really lots of people, to try and pick up different skills.”

Looking at him now, with a string of successful releases under his belt, as well new single, Livin, you wouldn't know it had been an effort at all. “Livin is the most straight to the point title,” Kolawole laughs, “it's literally just about living; it's my perspective on how we live. It starts off talking about the options we're given when you're young, then goes on to look at all the different ways people decide to live their lives, and then the realities of that. We'll just have to see if that's cool or not.”

The new single comes from his forthcoming album, scheduled for release in May, Kolawole revealing the album “is going to be called Raw, and that's pretty much the whole vibe of it too. Everything we've done so far is super fun kind of stuff, and that's not to say there's none of that on this album as well, but I kind of want to address more things that affect me. It's not about to get too deep, but I just think that's also part of the natural progression of an artist.”

With his national Livin tour set to make waves this February, Remi will be bringing his comfortable yet exciting stage presence to deliver a set he guarantees will be a good time for all involved. He'll also be enlisting the help of a few handy allies. “I'm lucky enough to have the boys, J and Dutch, coming along with me acting as the band. J is the drummer and Dutch runs all the samples. Then I'm also lucky enough to have N'Fa Jones from 1200 Techniques along as well. He's going solo now, doing his own thing and he's the support act, but he's also my hype man, so that'll be my extra wild card!”