There’s something inherently magnetic about Khakikid. The way he’s able to balance charisma, humour and wit with vulnerability, both in his music and in his live shows. With his latest EP, Girl Bites Dog, Khakikid has proven once again that he’s in a lane of his own with playful lyricism, emotional honesty and a level of creative fearlessness that many artists aim for.
Raised in a Dublin council flat, the Irish-Libyan rapper is fast becoming one of Ireland’s most exciting alternative rappers with sold out shows, high profile co-signs and millions of streams under his belt, Khakikid seems to just be getting started.
Catching up with Khakikid following the buzz of his London EP launch party, we get into his career highlights, influences and dream collaborators, questionable pre-teen rap lyrics, what inspired Girl Bites Dog and what he’s planning to do next.
Congratulations on your EP coming out! How are you feeling about it so far?
Really good, especially after the listening parties. It always feels good to see people sing songs that are only a couple days old. I always get surprised when people rap my lyrics because I feel like I’m always worried about being illegible with my accent. So to hear British people sing the lyrics feels real good. Obviously, it feels better when Irish people sing it. Yeah, I don’t feel better when British people sing it. It’s just good to know that they understand.
How has the reception to the EP been for you compared to the others?
I think more people are appreciating the whole project. I feel like previous ones, people obviously like them and a song or two might do really well. Or people might be like, ‘This song is my favourite’, or there’s one song that takes off. I feel like with this one there’s no clear one song. I think people seem to not have a favourite. It’s kind of the whole record’s getting a bit of love, which is great. And myself, like, I can’t really pick a favorite right now. Whereas previously, I could be like, that was the one clearly.
If you could have any feature aside from those you already have on the EP, who would you pick? Also, if you could have had any feature in the world, who do you think would fit, first of all? Who is your dream feature?
For some reason, I’ve always wanted to make a song with Glorilla. I don’t know why. I just think that would be just so otherworldly. It wouldn’t make sense. You know what I mean? The combined accents, the like… sensibilities, the Catholic shame mixed with the American exceptionalism. Do you know what I mean? So I would like to hear it but I don’t know if she’d fit on any song, but maybe she’s just an any feature.
And then on a particular song, who would I love to hear? Love to hear Natasha Bedingfield on ‘Moved On’. She’s an icon, I just fuck with her. She just has a cool vibe. Or you know what? I love her, but do you know Dexter in the Newsagent? I fucking love her, man. She’s so sick. Her own ‘Moved On’ would have been crazy. I’m a mega fan.
You’ve had some huge career highlights, like opening for Denzel Curry, performing on The Late Late Show, some incredible cosigns from Anderson.Paak and Lola Young. What has been your favorite part of your career so far?
When I soloed the show in my hometown of Dublin in Olympia, it was a target. It’s still on my whiteboard. Selling that out was really cool. My Mum was in the cool seats on the balcony and I got the spotlight pulled on my Ma, and I was like, shit. And then I got a real cool picture from that.
Have all of your siblings and your Mum come to see you now?
Maybe one of my brothers has come to the show. I have three brothers, and maybe one’s come to the show. I don’t know if they’re gonna come anytime soon. It’s kind of like, we’re not that kind of a family, the supportive kind. You know what I mean? We kind of just do our own thing. But one of my little brothers, he looks a lot like me. Like, he gets pissed off because people will ask him if he’s me. And then he like, at some point for a while there, my song ‘Date Night’ was played everywhere, and it was doing his head in. He was so mad about it.
So your older brother introduced you to rap with Get Rich, Die Trying, how old were you when you first heard that?
I was, like, maybe eight years old, nine years old. And my brother didn’t give it to me… I stole it off him.
And you’ve been writing since not that long after that?
I feel like writing is an overstatement, I might have just taken other people’s songs and started rapping them to people and be like, ‘I wrote this, guys. Check it out’. That’s another memory that was probably deep in my head that you just brought up today. But I think I did that for a while probably. I probably just stole songs and said they were mine.
But do you remember anything that you did write from that era?
I can’t. I literally can’t say those lyrics. Like, they’re actually so crass. Like, I was 12 years old just being horrible. A horrible child, horrible words that shouldn’t be mentioned again. You know, like, ‘bitches this and then the bitch is that and with the bitch’ like, 11 years old just listening to 50 Cent and Chief Keef. Like, ‘I got the Glock on me’ but, like, just terrible, terrible stuff.
Are there any bars that you kind of come across now in your head that you’re like, that was actually hard. Like, I might still use that.
There was… what did I say? ‘I’m angry like a fat kid who missed lunch’
What is your go-to karaoke song? I’ve heard it’s Meek Mill’s ‘Dreams and Nightmares’
‘Dreams and Nightmares’ is for specific people I have to be with. But in general, it’s probably Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield.
It is very, very soon because your EP has just come out but what’s next? I know we’ve got the tour coming in October.
An album. A freaking album. We gotta make an album. We’re too many EPs deep. I’m getting right to work on it. I don’t know if I should be saying this, but it’s just a logical next step. I’m really proud of the EP, I want everyone to listen to it and hopefully enjoy it. But an album, that’s what I’m working on now.
Do you have any unused songs from Girl Bites Dog that you would put on the album?
Yeah. Actually I have, like, one or two. Sometimes when you make music, for me, the arc of me making music is: love the song when I make it, then it’s kind of arduous and kinda hard towards the end. Then you finish it, then I’m like, this is great. And then I hate it for six months, and then I come back and I’m like, that was really good. If I love it after six months, again, that’s probably a good song to me anyway.
How long did this EP take you to make?
Maybe a year, but it’s not like I made five songs in a year. I made a ridiculous amount of songs, and I finally got it but it took me so long to pick from the bunch of songs that I made, what I wanted out there. I played a lot of video games in that period, so I wouldn’t count it as a year. I’d say if I got rid of all the video games, it probably would have taken two weeks.
Where did the name come from?
I was playing basketball in America, and one of the coaches on the other team said to one of his players ‘Guard the khaki one’. And I guess I’m like a sandy kind of beige colour, and so he thought it was like a beige/khaki and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve never been called khaki before.’ And then a couple years later, I needed a name and it stuck.
What about the EP name?
‘Man Bites Dog’ is a phrase in journalism to grab attention. It’s like a headline grabber and then I wanted to flip it into a kind of romantic sense. So it’s ‘Girl Bites Dog’, and then it’s kind of trying to stop people in their tracks. I kinda just wanted to make a romantic version of the phrase man bites dog but it’s not really romantic at all now that I think about it. It’s just a strange collection of words, which I kinda like because I’ve never heard those words put together before. That’s why it interested me.
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Words: Cleopatra Bailey
Photography: Vicky Grout
Photography Assistant: Jivan West