Kevin Smith AKA Kojaque is a 24 year old Irish Hip Hop experimentalist, rapper and producer from Dublin who has built a global fanbase on the back of his breakout debut mixtape ‘Deli Daydreams’ from 2018 and his follow-up No.1 Alternative Irish album ‘Towns Dead’ in 2021. Co-founder of independent label Soft Boy Records, Kojaque mixes sampling and jazz beats with dynamic, poetic lyrics, showcasing life as a modern Dubliner. It Takes A Village brings Kojaque and his dynamic live band to Cork Opera House on Friday 14th October to perform ‘Town’s Dead’ in its entirety, along with more original tracks. Tickets are €26 + booking fee, on sale this [date/time].
Emerging in 2015 with a video performance piece for Midnight Flower, a literally breathtaking performance piece taking place underwater, Kojaque co-founded Soft Boy Records with Kean Kavanagh. Soft Boy quickly became a hub for experimental hip-hop, jazz, and the indiscernible genres that emerge when artists with vision find their voices.
‘Deli Daydreams’ arrived in 2018, ostensibly a concept album orientating around a week in the life of a deli worker, and loaded with heartbreak, tenderness, side-angle views of masculinity, and loneliness. The project was nominated for the Choice Music Prize, the prestigious album of the year award for music from Ireland. Green Diesel (2019), a collaboration with Luka Palm, followed.
Soft Boy became the subject of a Boiler Room documentary, Mercury Prize-nominated UK rapper Slowthai chose Kojaque to accompany him on his sold out European tour to promote his album Nothing Great About Britain, and festival appearances exploded at Glastonbury, SXSW, Pitchfork Music Festival Paris, alongside the multiple UK and Irish tours. Since the release of Town’s Dead Kojaque has performed for tastemaker YouTube channel COLORS, toured North America, sold out shows across the UK and Europe and high profile festival performances.
Kojaque’s directorial vision continues to create incredible videos for his tracks, vignettes that explore intimacy, isolation, and hedonism; offering a brilliantly surreal immersion into the Soft Boy world. This show will be no exception, a performance not to miss out on!
KOJAQUE SHOW DETAILS:
It Takes A Village presents
Kojaque & His Soft Boy Band
Friday 14th October
Cork Opera House
Tickets €26 + booking fee from www.corkoperahouse.ie
On sale Wednesday September 14
