known for his uniquely introspective approach to Lofi Rap and Drill, South East London rapper Kay9ine gets deep with VIPER…

What five words define your sound?

Powerful, meaningful, relatable, expressive and comfortability.

Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?

I’d say ‘2:30AM’ just because I feel like the quick pace flow along with the relatable lyrics would get peoples attention.

What inspired you to make that song?

I was up at 2:30AM and I just found a beat and started writing. I would say the idea of how complicated and difficult love is in our generation inspired me to write that track.

What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music? 

I’ve definitely allowed myself to be very vulnerable as all my music is talking about my real life experiences. At times I do have to dig deep into my past to really express myself through my music.

What’s the best experience you’ve had on stage?

Best experience I’ve had on stage is probably when Comfy brought me and Ronzo out at Reading Festival. The energy us three brought to that stage was just different and it was definitely an experience to remember.

What is your favourite song to perform?

My favourite song to perform is ‘Better With You Than On My Own’ just because that’s the song the fans know the most and it’s such a good feeling to hear your supporters singing all your lyrics back to you.

Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?

I wouldn’t say any artist made me want to make music it was more of an original idea from myself as I was in a bad place and wanted to be able to express myself without being judged or looked at a certain way, music generally saved my life and I don’t think I would be here without it. But if I had to choose an artist I’d either choose XXXTentacion, Dave or 50 Cent.

What’s the meaning behind your name?

Kay is obviously short for my real name, then if you type up on google what the meaning of the number 9 is, it comes up with love, eternity and faith. This means I love music I wanna do it for eternity and I’ll always keep my faith in it and keep my faith in god. The number 9 is also the position of a striker in football and strikers always finish the move, meaning I’ll always finish what I start no giving up. I also really used to hate my teeth in school times and in order to get my braces I had to get an operation on my Kay9ine teeth, meaning I want my fans to embrace their insecurities no matter what.

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?

I would be a professional Fifa player 100%. On Fifa ’23 ultimate team, I’m in the elite division and I’ve managed to be inside the top 3% of elite players in division rivals.

What’s success to you?

Success to me is peace, peace for my family, making sure my mother never has to work again and being up with all my guys sharing that success with them. I just wanna help as many people out there through my music because I feel like the world is going in the wrong direction these days and there needs to be someone to step up to help and save the broken people out there going through things they feel like they can’t talk about. Well that someone is going to be me!

What moment in your career forced you to change direction?

I feel like when I dropped ‘Better With You Than On My Own’ things changed direction, for the better of course. So I kinda had to step up majorly and put my all into the music at that point. 

Where can people keep in touch with you?

People can keep in touch with me on any one of my social medias:

TikTok: OfficialKay9ine_

Instagram: OfficialKay9ine_

Snapchat: mrcantcap.0