A rapper from Clondalkin has said that he is "really pleased" to be chosen as the grand marshal for the community's annual St Patrick's Day Parade later this month.
Selló went to school at Moyle Park College, and much of his lyrics feature the area where he grew up. Last year Selló released his debut EP Selló Tape as well as a video for his catchy single 'Dublin' which gives a nice shout-out to his home town.
Last week Cllr Francis Timmons confirmed that Selló will be the grand marshal for the Clondalkin St Patrick's Day Parade. Cllr Timmons described the Selló as a "great and positive role model" for young people in the area.
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Speaking to Dublin Live, Selló said that he was delighted to be chosen to be the grand marshal for the Clondalkin St Patrick's Day parade. He said: "It's a really big deal for me to be chosen as grand marshal, I'm very happy and so pleased. I was so surprised by it, they just texted do you want to do it and I said why not?"
Selló said that he loved his secondary school experience at Moyle Park College in Clondalkin, and how from the age of seven or eight he started writing three or four line rhymes. He said: "When I got to secondary school from about third year to sixth year I started free-styling on the yard, and people started coming around me and I would do rap battles and stuff like that.
"So people used to come around me and get me to rap against this guy or recite a track that I was working on when I was in secondary school. It was amazing, but it caused a lot of havoc. I got in trouble a couple of times. I even got banned from rapping on the yard, but it's all good now."
When asked about the artists he listened to growing up, Selló explained that he listened to R&B and then rap. "At the time it was mainly R&B, a lot of Michael Jackson and Bob Marley didn't rerally listen to rap until Drake, he was the first rapper I really got into and Wiz Khalifa's California, I really got into him as well.
"My earliest memory is I used to have this Nokia phone voice recorder to record songs, say on tv a song I like came on one of the music channels I literally would just record the songs so I would have it on my phone and in primary school I would listen back to the songs on the voice recorder," he added.
The Clondalkin native also released his hit song 'Dublin' in which he gives a shout-out to his hometown, and it was filmed in and around Bawnogue. Selló said: "Everyone loved it, for the video shoot everyone just came out. Whoever was outside joined the shoot, everyone whoever was inside came outside and joined the shoot, it was real community spirit and the song did well too."
The rapper who is signed to Warner Music Ireland, also recently appeared on The Late Late Show to perform his single 'Dublin' in studio. He also chatted to Ryan Tubridy about what it means to be an Irish rapper on the back of his three Choice Music Award nominations. Selló explained that he had also just finished a concert in Amsterdam and he then got a flight home to appear on the Late Late Show.
He said: "My experience on The Late Late Show was amazing, the lights were amazing and the mic was really good as well. Just literally performing in front of the whole country was a really sweet experience for me personally, because I never thought that rap would go that far. Like for Irish rap music to go as far as national television, especially to the type of rap music I make."
The theme of this year's Clondalkin St Patrick's Day Parade is Diversity – The United Colours of Clondalkin in a bid to make it “the most colourful and diverse parade yet”. The Clondalkin St Patrick’s Day parade is due to start in Clondalkin Village at 2.30pm on Friday, March 17.
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