KHAKIKID RELEASES NEW EP ’SAND BEBÉ’

ALONGSIDE THIS WEEK’S SPOTIFY RADAR UK FIRST LISTEN ARTIST PROMOTION

WITH OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE ‘MARADONA’

Performances at Pitchfork festival confirmed for this winter

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This week, rapper and rising star KhakiKid releases brand new EP ‘sand bebé’. Arriving alongside focus track and video ‘maradona’ ft. Bricknasty. KhakiKid’s star has been rising ever since bursting onto the scene with last year’s debut EP Elevator Music, which featured previous singles ‘Baby Brown’, ‘Cozy’ and ‘Shlumped Up’. Now amassing over 10 million streams, this year alone, KhakiKid has played packed out shows at The Great Escape, Sea Sessions and a sold out show in Whelan’s main room in Dublin. In November, he will play Pitchfork Festival’s European dates including Paris and London, the next step in KhakiKid’s incredible rise.

Today’s release sees Khaki (Abdu Huss) leaning into that mellow hip hop he’s made a name for himself with. With an energy and humour reminiscent of Atlanta legends Outkast, sand bebé is step up in production giving us glittering jazz-inflected beats with a dance floor-ready groove. On ‘maradona’, Khaki teams up with Dublin breakout and long standing collaborators, Bricknasty to create a track that brings to mind early aughts provocateurs ‘Republic Of Loose’. On ‘stress belly’, Khaki leans into rockier textures showing off his soulful vocals over a crunchy heavily distorted guitar whilst ‘stone washed denim’ brings an uptempo, uplifting feel-good finale characterised by his playful lyrics.

Having not been attached to his Arab-Irish heritage or his dad’s refugee story until his adult years, Abdu is determined to cultivate a sense of belonging amongst future generations of his community in Dublin. “I’d love to be more attached to my Arab background, but it just didn’t happen in my life,” he says. “I feel like there are a lot of minority groups in Ireland that aren’t represented or spoken about, so I want to show that there are places for us to exist.” Shouldering this ambition, Abdu is ready to share “a lot of collaborations and some experimental music for sure, experimental for me anyways. I’m excited to share new music and to talk about real life and the good and bad times that come with it.”

After his older brother gave him 50 Cent’s ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ CD, Abdu discovered rap was the genre he related to most. Teaching himself to produce from his bedroom that he shared with his three brothers, and focusing on emotive lyrical storytelling, Abdu would record himself over beats found on YouTube. Years later his 2020 debut single ‘Late’ introduced an artist with a penchant for effortlessly mixing tongue-in-cheek, often self-deprecating lyrics with boisterous rapping. By 2021, a cult following was building at home in Ireland and his music began finding fans internationally. His debut EP, Elevator Music, arrived in September last year to critical acclaim, stay tuned for Khakikid’s most assured era to date.