Kojaque releases video for debut album title track, ‘Town’s Dead’

Watch here
Headline shows on sale now
‘Town’s Dead’ released June 25th on Soft Boy Records / Different Recordings

“Hints of Odd Future and its offspring…Kojaque is not your average rapper” i-D
“Dublin’s hip-hop community are making waves right now…an intimate introduction to the world this bold artist inhabits” Clash
“Social realist rhymes set to silky hip-hop” NME
“Likeable and funny” Trench
“The Dublin MC forcing us to face real life; both the gory and the glory” Wonderland
“Ireland’s freshest hip-hop hope, Kojaque, serves “soft hip hop” with a side order of poetry and performance art” Notion

Kojaque has today dropped the incredible video for ‘Town’s Dead’, the title track from his much-anticipated debut album (which will see a release on Kojaque’s label Soft Boy Records via PIAS on June 25^th), with the video co-directed by Kojaque and Sam McGrath. Pre-order here, with Kojaque’s headline tour for late 2021 also on sale now, here.

With support across Radio 1, 1xtra, 6Music and more, ‘Town’s Dead’ also 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’…

The ‘Town’s Dead’ video – says Kojaque – began with the ominous sign that “everyone we approached about this told us that it would be impossible to pull off. The concept, the locations, the time frame, they all said the same thing, re-think the idea, minimise it and try again, we chose to ignore that advice and do it ourselves. I have to commend Sam McGrath and Freddie O’Donohue on this, I was so ready to give up and do something less ambitious but they convinced me it could be done and I think the finished product speaks for itself. I’ve never worked on something more ambitious or left of field than this, I still can’t believe that we pulled it off. Have to give a special shout to Jack Needham on VFX, I don’t know how he did it and we couldn’t have done it without him. This video went through at least 10 to 15 different iterations before we finally came to this idea, it started with Sam suggesting that my head gets knocked off the minute the track begins, it all kind of just snowballed from there. There were a lot of different influences that inspired both the idea and aesthetics, from Sleepy Hallows, to A BOY IS A GUN even Aphex Twin and Remains of The Day, it was a pretty extensive mood board. We storyboarded the whole thing out within an inch of its life, as we usually do, and powered through it in two days. Without a shadow of a doubt it’s the best video I’ve made. There were so many amazing people working on it, from the cast to the crew and everyone in between, there’s far too many to thank but I’m so appreciative of every single one.”

Kojaque’s debut album, ‘Town’s Dead,’ is 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.

‘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…

Tue-Nov-02-21  – Holland – Amsterdam, Paradiso Upstairs

Wed-Nov-03-21 – Germany – Berlin, Kantine am Berghain

Thu-Nov-04-21  – Belgium – Brussels, Botanique/Witloofbar

Sat-Nov-06-21 – France – Paris , La Boule Noire

Tue-Nov-09-21 – UK – Glasgow , King Tuts

Wed-Nov-10-21 – UK – Leeds, Belgrave Music Hall

Thu-Nov-11-21 – UK – Manchester, Yes (Pink Room)

Sat-Nov-13-21 – UK – Bristol, Rough Trade

Sun-Nov-14-21 – UK – Birmingham, Institute 3

Tue-Nov-16-21 – UK – London, Village Underground

Fri-Nov-19-21 – Ireland – Dublin, Olympia

Sat-Nov-20-21 – Ireland – Galway , Black Box

Fri-Nov-26-21 –  Ireland – Limerick, Dolans Warehouse

Sat-Nov-27-21 – Ireland – Cork, Cyprus Avenue