Citizen Kay, Kojo Ansah, is quickly breaking out from a scene of emerging musicians and artists from Canberra. Born in Ghana and inspired by Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco, Ansah is based in Canberra and admits "I am a massive Canberra representative".
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Citizen Kay's star is most definitely on the rise – he has done high-profile tour supports for Ice Cube, Run the Jewels and Earl Sweatshirt & Danny Brown, and while he's inspired by the success of those international stars, he says, "Most people I look up to are in Canberra to be honest. Jimmy Partridge, bands like the Brass Knuckle Brass Band – I'm a massive sucker for brass – and in Australia as a whole, Remi from Melbourne and Tkay Maidza, of course. I think if you know them personally it's more inspirational. You go, I can see that you're doing that and I can see that it's possible to do that. I think in Australia, people I've seen go through the journey have really been keeping me going and keeping me hopeful that I'll also get there."
Ambitious yet realistic, Ansah says he's still getting his head around "the whole being a musician and artist thing". As a self-taught guitar player who used to play in bands, Ansah evolved into a hip-hop artist via the influence of an older cousin, as well as organic learning of the recording process.
"As a guitar player writing my own songs, I wanted to record them, so I would write them on guitar, I'd put it down, I'd record it and then I'd go, 'Oh, well, I guess I need some drums,' so I'd program some drums and end up programming other instruments around it, so playing guitar turned into learning how to produce. And then singing just somehow turned into rhyming and poetry, and then into rapping. It was a bit of a slow transition over a year or two. And before I knew it I was making hip-hop.
"I haven't really got it around my head that I am really part of the industry. I think I started realising it round last year when I started meeting a whole bunch of people, artists that are pretty big and stuff and I was like, 'hold on, I'm becoming friends with these people and I'm becoming one of the guys', and it blows my mind completely."
It's probably his job that keeps him grounded. "I cook chicken by day," he explains. "I usually work Monday night and because most of the shows are on weekends, for example I did the Seth Sentry tour, it was sold out, thousands of people for the weekend, and then it comes to the Monday and I just, like, cook chicken. It definitely kept me grounded!"
On his own national tour with Coda Conduct, Canberra will be treated to the Citizen Kay live show in full effect.
"For nearly all my live shows I bring at least my live drummer, just for that live element. Because my background is from bands, I absolutely love having the live element."
Citizen Kay
Where: ANU Bar
When: Friday October 30
Tickets: $18.91 from ticketek.com
