Kojey Radical is not a rapper. He is a new breed of artist: a spoken word performer who seeks to bring music back to its roots in pure expression. At Oslo, he showed his flair for performance and demonstrated the power of his lyricism, despite the fact that he occasionally forgot his words (these errors were followed by ‘never in my life…’, to the amusement of the crowd). His combination of spoken word and heavy electric guitar accompaniment is a rare sound in music today, but no less compelling for it. His new songs were met with as much praise as his classics, and at the end of the show he announced the release date of his new EP, 23 Winters.
No one left the performance disappointed, especially given the long length of his set, yet his music leaves a slight sense of dissatisfaction. Maybe his desire to innovate falls short, but his vision is admirable. It would be hard for his style of music to reach the mainstream, and Kojey seems to recognise that, but because of his talent there is no doubt that if a spoken word performer were to break into the charts, it would be him.
Eleanor Robinson