“Arguably, it’s album of the year,” Kojey Radical pondered, taking a moment to reflect on 2022’s Reason To Smile midway through his headline show at Brixton’s O2 Academy. “Who’s to say?” The Hoxton-raised rapper, fashion grad, and spoken-word poet took a moment to look around the stage, catching his bandmates’ eyes with a smirk before drawing his own self-assured conclusion. “Me”.
To be fair, the artist’s long-awaited debut album – released a full eight years after his first project Dear Daisy: Opium – is certainly up there. A rich blending together of spiky horns, viscous, velvety slow burners, and soulful, experimental hip-hop, Reason To Smile would’ve surely been a shoo-in for victory at this year’s Mercury Prize were it not for a couple of exceptional records – including the latest from eventual winner Little Simz – being eligible from 2021.
