KeSTine told David Hennesy about his new album, being inspired by seeing how they celebrated life at his grandmother’s funeral in Nigeria and being the victim of a racist attack at a festival in Cork.
Cork hip-hop star KeSTine recently released his latest album, Another Season.
The album followed Options, a deeply personal track that contemplated the crossroads everyone can face in life, urging listeners to find strength amid grief and hardship.
Drawing from his own experiences following the recent loss of his grandmother, Options saw KeSTine reflect on the celebration of life he witnessed during his return to Nigeria.
Witnessing Nigerian funeral rituals shifted KeSTine’s view on death, transforming sorrow into an appreciation for life’s fleeting beauty and imbuing the single with themes of hope and acceptance.
Influenced by the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Kojey Radical, and the rich textures of South African Amapiano, KeSTine’s evolution from a young Cork rapper to an award-winning artist recognized at the Rome Music Video Awards reflects a journey steeped in resilience and passion.
He has played Electric Picnic, Indiependence, and other major UK and Irish festivals.
You may have seen him at this year’s St Patrick’s Day concert in Trafalgar Square.
It was a young age that KeSTine was moved by the music of artists such as Michael Jackson after his father recorded some music videos hoping he could pick up some English having moved to Cork from Germany where he was born.
He picked up the English but a lot more besides.
His solo EP Reflection was released in April of 2021, and received high appraisal from Hot Press Magazine, Golden Plec, Irish Times, Echo live and the Irish examiner.
He has also endured hard times telling us that he was the victim of a hate crime and a assault so severe he was doused with lighter fluid and lost his hearing for a period.
But that is all behind him now as he is back making music and smiling again.
It is certainly a reflective album, isn’t it?
“Absolutely, Another Season is just me putting it all together: Being appreciative of what I have right now and looking to the future, choosing to not be angry, to let go, to be happy and at peace with what I have right now.”
There is also grief in there, you were inspired by going to Nigeria and seeing how they celebrate life..
“I’ve been in Ireland for the past 25, 26, 27 years.
“I was brought up here.
“I’ve been here since the age of six or seven so in terms of culture and adapting to tradition, I know what the Irish know.
“It was a celebration of life and the impact that she had.
“I really adhered to that and something that I took back home to be like, ‘Look, regardless of my ups and downs’- And I’ve gone through a load of ups and downs in this season in particular- It’s to really put a smile on and be like, ‘You know what? I’m still here. I’m still standing at the end of the day, we’ll make it through’.
“Because the title of the project is called Another Season.
“I’m grateful that I have one more season to be with my family.
“I’m grateful for the seasons that have gone by and while I’m here, I’ll just appreciate every aspect of it: The good, the ugly, everything about it.
“We’ll live through it and we just appreciate what we have.”
Time seems to be another theme of the record..
“Yeah, absolutely.
“Because time is so short.
“In a twinkle of light, anything could happen.
“I’m just reminiscing because my birthday was on Sunday so I was just reflecting back over the last 30 years, just being like, ‘Wow, look at how far me and my family have come’. And again, just being so, so grateful reflecting back on my childhood, on the sacrifices my mum and dad made just to put me on this path that I am on right now.
“I can say I’m a rapper but I’m a scientist at the same time.
“How many people can say that?”
Happy birthday. 30 is a big one, how does it feel?
“It’s weird.
“My dad’s a preacher and we were at church.
“My dad was just flashing through a couple of memories.
“There was one memory in particular that he mentioned.
“Because we didn’t have a car back then, he had the bike and we were cycling through and it was a wet day, and we fell and I started crying.
“My dad picked me up and I was sad, and he told me, ‘Look, it’s not going to be like this forever. We’re going to be better’.
“Now we’re in a situation where everyone in the family has a car.
“Again, it was just being reflective and like, ‘Oh, wow, look at how far we’ve come’.”
Let’s go back to the beginning of your story. You were born in Germany and came to Ireland when you were very young, that must have been a culture shock…
“It was.
“It really was.
“I was speaking German outside of the household.
“My dad would record these American music videos just to help with my English.
“I’m not sure how much English I picked up but with that, I fell in love with the music.
“I fell in love with Michael Jackson in particular.
“It was just a huge culture shock and then coming here, just kind of trying to adapt, trying to belong, trying not to be an outsider.
“We really made a home for ourselves.”
When you want to be a rapper, where do you go if you’re in Cork? I’m guessing there was no such thing as an Irish hip hop scene then..
“There wasn’t.
“From the age of seven, eight, I always told my mum, ‘I’m going to be a rapper and I’m going to be a doctor’.
“And that’s what I said.
“Growing up there wasn’t a scene but I think everybody that grew up at my time was influenced by was the Eminems and 50 cents.
“There would be a scene that was bubbling but of course, when I was growing up, there wasn’t anybody that I could look to apart from the Americans.
“That was my influence, the Americans and then slowly but surely, I was able to adapt my own sound and interpretation of what I thought to be hip hop.
“Yes, I am Nigerian but there’s a bit of Irish flavour in there.
“And yes, you’ve got the American influence, of course the church influence because I grew up in the church.”
But where could you go with it? When you’re a rapper in Cork, it’s not the case that you can get a gig in a local pub and away you go..
“Not at all, I’m part of a collective called Outsiders Entertainment, and one of the pillars of what we’re trying to do is set up the scene, establish a scene for any upcoming artist.
“Though there wasn’t much of a scene and opportunity for myself- Now, if you are a rapper or any type of artist coming up, you can come to us down at Outsiders Entertainment.
“We rent out Cypress Avenue.
“Last time we were able to sell out again, give opportunities for anybody that’s from any genre that really kind of wants to start off.
“Like I said, there’s a scene bubbling here now and there’s something definitely much more established than what was there when I grew up.
“If you are an upcoming kid who wants to start rapping, you’ve got a platform to definitely show your skills and talents.”
I wanted to ask about the song Forgiveness is a Lonely Road, can you tell us what inspired that?
“I was performing at Midsummer Festival (in Cork) and I got attacked.
“I got lighter fluid thrown on me.
“My left ear got burnt.
“I was taken to the hospital.
“I’m six foot two, 105 kg right now.
“I’m a big fella, I was crying and shout out to my brother Outsider YP who held me up while I was being rushed to the ICU.
“I lost my hearing for some time and in that period, I was angry because it was a hate crime.
“What I was hired to do at the time was reinterpret an 18th century German poet and put a nice hip hop spin into it.
“Unfortunately, I was the only black Irish feen that was kind of listed to perform.
“Gardai did mention that, ‘We’re going to categorise this as a hate crime’.
“I was angry, just because of the reaction I saw from my mother, my wife, who were bawling crying, God forbid he had a lightere on hand.
“It could have gone to a very, very dire situation.
“Thank God that my hearing is back.
“I’m a musician, I need my ears to do my job but thankfully, I got my hearing back.
“And thought the culprit was not caught, I had to let go. I had to be grateful the situation that I was in where I have my hearing back.
“Worse case scenario, something worse could have happened bu the best happened in the worst situation.
“I had to let go.
“The second aspect (to that song) was my grandmother’s death because I was very disappointed in myself.
“I’m always constantly busy and the week of her death I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll give her a call, I’ll give her a call, I’ll give her a call’.
“I never rang her and we got the call she passed.
“I was so annoyed at myself because I let life, I guess, get the best of me and there was a sense of guilt.
“Then unfortunately I have two very close female friends of mine who had miscarriages and then I was just kind of questioning, ‘Why? Why is this happening to people that I love, that I care about?’
“And I put myself in their scenario where, if my missus kind of went through the scenario that they went through, how angry I would feel.
“But for you to grow, you had to let go for something better to happen, you had to let go.
“I could have held on to the fact that I got attacked.
“I could have held on to the guilt of losing my grandmother.
“My two close female friends could have held on to the guilt of losing their child or not being able to go the full nine months but, at the end of the day, for growth to happen, for something better to happen down the line, they have to forgive themselves and they had to let go.
“That’s where that song came from.”
I’m shocked to hear about that attack..
“Just very unfortunate, very unfortunate. It was a representative of the alt right movement, I believe.
“But here we are. Here we are better, and we’re grateful.”
You say it took your hearing, the very tools of your trade..
“Exactly, because music is all I know.
“Music is all I know.
“It’s my heart, it’s my very fibre and it would have been very difficult to accept not being able to do it to the level that I am doing it and especially because I’m seeing the fruits of my labour.
“I’m seeing certain things come off and me being put in certain conversations and me being put on certain platforms because of the passion and because of the talent I’ve been blessed with and having that taken away from me would have been very, very difficult.
“Hence why I was so angry at the process of my recovery but at the end of the day, I had to let go.”
You have dealt with themes such as racism in your work in the past.
It may seem silly to ask after the story you have just told but where do you think Ireland is with it some years on from the period of reflection that came after George Floyd and with tensions now rising regarding immigration?
“Ireland, at the end of the day, will always be my home.
“There’s just a weird feeling of tension. There’s a weird feeling.
“And it’s weird because the Irish went through what blacks went through.
“Look at what happened in London: ‘No blacks, no Irish, no dogs’.
“The way that black people were suppressed is the same way the Irish were suppressed if you go through the history so I find it funny that some people just kind of forget what happened in the past.
“But right now there is definitely tension, especially what happened in Dublin. There was huge Dublin riots, again the basis of that was race so it is scary.
“What I’ve been saying to all my people is at the end of the day, we have to put the best foot forward and regardless of this, the majority of people in Ireland are lovely, are welcoming.
“That doesn’t take from the fact that there is that scary sense I could be put at risk because I’m not the only one that’s been attacked.
“We’ve heard several people in Dublin, in Cork, black people that have been attacked.
“But at the end of the day, we need to stand together.
“We need to stand strong and regardless of this hate, we need to overcome.
“It was shocking, but we’re okay.
“Ireland has been amazing.
“I’ve had my interactions of, ‘Oh, you’re black’.
“I’ve had that, but never to the point where I’m physically attacked so it was scary.
“But all I can say is I’m grateful that I have my hearing back.
“I’m grateful it wasn’t a worse situation.
“There was lighter fluid. Yes, I had a burning sensation, lost my hearing, but like I said, I could have ended up in a burn unit.
“It could have gone much, much worse.”
You say you have encountered racism. I imagine growing up you were one of very few if not the only black face in the school yard…
“It got me in a lot of fights because I was the outsider, really just kids being kids, looking to pick on me because, again, I was the outsider.
“I lost a couple of flights, I won a couple of flights. But that attack of mine just reminded me that I am a black man in a white man’s country and as much as this is my home, I’m different. I am an outsider.
“I will always represent Cork and Ireland to the best of my abilities.
“But it was just a sudden reminder, ‘Please be careful because you are different’.”
Let’s talk about something nicer and the day I met you at Trafalgar Square for the Mayor’s St Patrick’s party. That day there was no issues or tensions as everyone was green that day..
“We were all green that day, celebrating Paddy’s day.
“It was amazing.
“We were all there celebrating as one in unity and it didn’t matter what colour you were, we were all representing the green.
“And every act that went up there put their best foot forward. The crowd were great.
“I was really happy that the weather held up as well.
“If it was lashing, it would have been a different story but the weather held up and the atmosphere was high.
“Everybody came in with the mindset of rejoicing and celebrating and it was an epic, epic, epic gig, one of the biggest gigs that I’ve done.
“I’ve performed on a couple of big stages but 1500 people was amazing and for them to resonate with my music.”
Another Season is out now.
For more information, click here.
