[FEATURE] VIPER PRESENTS: KFROMKWAY

One of the brightest young rappers emerging across the UK right now, Kfromkway follows up his incendiary debut mixtape ‘The Scars You Can’t See’ with this VIPER interview, get familiar…

What five words define your sound? 

Eclectic, boundary-less, genre-bending, introspective & Black. 

Tell me something unique about your creative process 

I sit through the entire process from beat to mixing. Whether I’m co-producing or just over seeing everything in the process to ensure everything is how I envisioned it. 

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

That’s a hard one, but I’d have to say right now ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ 

What inspired you to make that song? 

Just being introspective about life and the choices I’ve made. It’s about knowing you’re living an ‘unholy’ life but accepting it as for along time that’s all you’ve known. Hence the line ‘if the devil wears prada, she looks leng in it’. They say the devil doesn’t come to you as a big bad beast with horns but as something you want, so that line is basically me being aware of that but paying it no mind, because it feels good in the moment. Kinda dark tbh lol. 

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

I’d like to say I’m vulnerable in alot of my songs but my most vulnerable is actually a song that’s yet to be released. But a song that’s out I’d definitely say ‘Grow Old’. Most vulnerable I’ve been about a recent relationship I was in.

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

Best experience is definitely a show I had at Cargo, Shoreditch. The crowd just showed so much love and so many people came up to me after and told me how much they liked it. My worst is probably in Milton Keynes, I was going college there for a bit and some local artists invited me to a show. Tbh it was also good but the first 30 seconds I couldn’t hear properly so was slightly out of time kmt. Shout out them though. 

What is your favourite song to perform? 

‘Might Be’ or ‘All We Do’. I think that’s gonna change once I perform the tape for the first time live though. 

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

Michael Jackson, my pops had bare dvds of old MJ performances from Motown and Off The Wall era. Would sit and watch them for hours when I was like 7.

What’s the meaning behind your name? 

K is the initial of my first name, Kasim and the ‘from kway’ represents my home county Oxfordshire. Whenever I first started coming to London and interacting with people from the city through insta and that, they would always say that’s kway when I said I’m from Oxford. 

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

Would definitely be a film director and syncing all my favourite songs to the best scenes.

What’s success to you? 

Being able to support my family and friends off doing what I love and being able to make things that truly resonate with people.

What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction? 

Around 18, I was just doing a lot of things I wasn’t supposed too. I was kicked out of college, my dad had found something I was selling in the house and threatened to kick me out (can’t blame him looking back). Around this time I was introduced to Gavin my manager and I realised if I truly want to be the artist I know I can be, I have to focus only on music. 

Where can people keep in touch with you?

@kfromkway on all platforms! Thanks for having me!