Rising Hull rapper Chiedu Oraka puts faith in Misfits ‘bible’

Last month he played four gigs at South By South West (SXSW) festival, the giant music industry gathering in Austin, Texas, and today he releases his debut mixtape, Misfit, via Launchpad+ and EMI North.

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The trip to SXSW and mixing, mastering, promotion and marketing of his mixtape were greatly assisted by the PPL Momentum Music Fund. “I applied not thinking I would get it, then I got an email saying I’d been accepted to play South By South West and the hard work starts there,” he says. “I was obviously excited but just because you’ve been accepted doesn’t mean you can actually afford to go. So big up the PRS Foundation, they selected me and 17 other artists and gave me the money to go and honestly, it is the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

The level of interest he discovered in the US boosted his confidence “massively”, he says. “I never actually thought about going to America with my music. Obviously, I grew up on American music but I just thought that (playing there was) so far-fetched an idea that I just didn’t think my dreams were big enough. All I cared about was conquering the UK, but then when I’ve gone there and realised the love that we got out there, it made me think the UK’s too small. I just want to go to other countries now and see what they’re saying.”

He even managed to make several industry contacts in the States. “Even people now are messaging my manager saying ‘can we have a meeting?’ That’s in terms of booking agents and people wanting me to perform at the events, people wanting me to trial their apps – because (SXSW) is like tech festival as well. I got interviewed by a college radio station. Even the UK presence was quite big. I’m in the USA but then I’m speaking to loads of UK artists.”

Oraka credits Scott Lewis, label manager at EMI North, for assisting him with applications for grants from the Help Musicians Fund, and Sam ‘Whiskas’ Nicholl and Claire Hamilton at Launchpad for their support. “I feel what they’re helping me with is a lot of organisation. Having a team, in a nutshell, that’s how they’re helping me.”

He believes the release of the 12-track mixtape Misfit is a “pivotal moment” in his career. “I’ve just done EPs before and put out singles, but this is the longest body of work I’ve ever put out,” he says. “It’s a big statement because I believe I’m telling stories that haven’t been told before. The whole black experience, I feel that it’s predominantly been told only in one way – and that’s normally quite a London-centric way. Don’t get me wrong, I listen to that type of music, but it’s done in a way that sort of glamorises a lot of negative stuff, there’s not much northern black experiences being told in, I suppose, a commercial sense.

“We all know that commercially at the moment the black experience is told through things like Top Boy and other inner city dramas. But the experience of a black kid who grew up on a predominantly white council estate, who’s had to fight so many different obstacles – racism and stuff like that – hasn’t really been told, so it’s important for me to tell that in this project.

“And it’s me as well reaching out to all the other misfits out there. I really want this to be like a misfit bible – anyone who feels like they don’t fit in but they really want to shine but at the same time they’re a little bit scared of what people think about them, I feel like this project is for you.”

Misfit is out on streaming services now. Chiedu Oraka plays at Hyde Park Book Club on May 1. https://chieduoraka.com/