Irish hip-hop prodigy Kojaque has announced details of his incredible debut album ‘Town’s Dead’, which will see a release on Kojaque’s label Soft Boy Records via Different Recordings/ [PIAS] on June 25th.
With support across Radio 1, 1xtra, 6Music and more, ‘Town’s Dead’ is launched alongside its powerful title track and includes recent singles ‘Shmelly’ (as debuted on COLORS), ‘Coming Up’, and ‘No Hands’. It’s the much-anticipated follow-up to debut mixtape ‘Deli Daydreams’, a concept piece which became the first release of its kind to be nominated for the prestigious Choice Music Prize and took Kojaque everywhere from tours with slowthai and Lana Del Rey to a Boiler Room documentary on the influence of his label and collective ‘Soft Boy’…
Little of which will prepare you for Kojaque’s debut album, ‘Town’s Dead’: an expansive and urgent tour-de-force that speeds headlong into sex, violence, depression, and the calustrophobia of your hometown. In this landmark project, Kojaque documents a tumultuous love triangle that unfolds across New Year's Eve, with results that are as cinematic as they are deeply personal. Dark corners of parks, bedrooms, clubs, streets, and psyches are excavated, and pouring over the rubble is an artist unafraid of the vulnerabilities that are exposed when the voice rings true, because there’s just no point in being anything else. Through breakups and breakdowns, 'Town’s Dead' teeters on the brink, spilling from the mind of a singular talent onto streets scaffolded by a broken system but still suffused with love.
Introducing his debut album for the first time today, Kojaque writes
“Town’s Dead comes from the potential that I see in Dublin and in the people I’m surrounded by day in and day out. There’s nothing but talent and ambition among young people, I’m constantly reminded of that through the art and music that I see being made but I think so often the city grinds you down, it takes your hope and your ambition. I know that it can change because so many of my friend express the exact same wants, desires and frustrations with living in Ireland. If so many of us are on the same page then I know that things can change, there just needs to be some sort of catalyst to kick start that change and for me that’s always been art and music. Time and time again, amazing art continues to be made in spite of the struggles and setbacks that are presented when living here. The title track and the album is a fight against what can sometimes feel inevitable, it’s a rejection of what people tell you is your destiny as a young person in the city, Town’s NOT dead it’s just Dormant.”
‘Town’s Dead’ sees Kojaque build a distinct world and invite the listener inside it - and it’s one in which music, film, humour and at times visceral storytelling all go hand in hand. Few contemporary rappers, after all, can claim to be an award-winning film-maker (for his ‘Love In Technicolor’ film), have been invited to talk at Trinity College’s Philosophical Society, or develop work in residence for the RHA gallery. Kojaque is part of a new wave of Irish artists making the world sit-up with blistering and sophisticated art - ideas and work that emerged from a social revolution, stonewalled by late-stage capitalism. Welcome to ‘Town’s Dead’, where it is - despite everything - New Year’s Eve, the countdown to midnight is on, and Betty’s fella’s got a gun…
‘Town’s Dead’ Tracklisting:
1. Heartbreak
2. New Year, Who’s This? (Interlude)
3. Town's Dead
4. Wickid Tongues
5. Shmelly
6. That Deep
7. Black Sheep Part I
8. Rover
9. Jinty Boy Blues
10. No Hands
11. Part II
12. Sex N’ Drugs ft. Celia Tiab
13. Fallin For It
14. Coming Up
15. Casio ft. Maverick Sabre
16. Curtains
Listen to ‘Town’s Dead’: https://kojaque.ffm.to/towns-dead-single
Pre-order ‘Town’s Dead’ (available on Digital, CD, 2LP, 2LP deluxe, & Cassette): https://kojaque.ffm.to/towns-dead
Follow Kojaque:
https://www.instagram.com/ogkojaque
https://www.facebook.com/Kojaque
