Tricky beast that it is, the music industry has a horrible habit of presenting its most promising talent with an impossible dichotomy. Release your music too soon, and you might fumble your first impression; take too long, and you risk getting lost in the crowd, sentenced for ever to “underrated” status as your faster-acting peers ascend.
Fortunately for him and us, Kojey Radical has never been too bothered about following anybody else’s path. While the London rapper is a dexterous amalgamator of genres, he knew that he needed time to incubate his best ideas, warming up across a near decade of well-received projects before committing to a debut album, Reason to Smile, a cohesive yet varied offering that makes no bones about its own ambition.
