Dean: KhakiKid and Travy are among the Irish rap elite

It was somewhere between Ely Place and El Dorado that I became convinced by the argument that rap music is at its nadir. For sure, the genre is in as sunken a state as I’ve known since the low of the early 2000s – when Nas himself declared hip-hop to be deceased. I recognise that I turn 40 years old this year and, thus, am right on time to believe that pop culture just ain’t what it used to be. But I can’t help it – that rap is in a condition of depression is a thing I believe.

There are always green shoots in the killing fields. For me, they’re visible in emerging American talent such as Papo2oo4, ANKLEJOHN, and Errol Eats Everything, to deal out three lesser-known names that you can investigate yourself. And, happily for Dubliners, there are a number of local rappers who also inspire. Last month, we looked at the city’s avante-garde archduke, Jehnova. Now, we move onto two more artists – a pair of gifted boy wonders on very different ends of the stylistic spectrum from each other.

There is KhakiKid, easy to like because of his dedication to the timeless principles of cool. Of Irish-Libyan descent, the Kid (real name Abdu Huss) hails from Crumlin, where he grew up on Lee Evans comedy routines and 50 Cent tunes. Lessons in singing and various instruments have been channelled into an eclectic form of rap music that, even from its embryonic stages, showed an aptitude for the outrageous. Turn the page back to “TOPSPIN demo”, available via Khakikid’s Soundcloud page, often the home of an artist’s unkempt origin stories. Even if the mix is slightly grubby, as you might expect from a song bearing the word “demo” in the title, it’s a funky power-up that blends hip-hop, house, and the sounds of a 1990s arcade.

His best showcase thus far is the six-song EP Elevator Music, released in 2022, a collection of soft-thump hip-hop and vibey funk tunes that positions KhakiKid in the same universe as genre stars Anderson .Paak and Chance The Rapper, as well as fellow local artists Kendino and Why-Axis.

Among the most striking tunes is “Cozy”, which is built around a warbling synth riff, throbbing bass line and very little else. It must have been an intimidating piece of music to rap over, but KhakiKid reins the arrangement in with his knack for streetwise trash talking. His flow is loose and without limits; his chief currency is charisma. And on signature tune “Shlumped Up”, he sets his voice to pure playalistic mode, no hard consonants in his enunciation. There is a risk in these moments that KhakiKid might come across as cartoonish and ridiculous, but you can get away with everything when dripping in such a thick coat of finesse.

​​Released in February, new EP Moanbag represents a stylistic change-up as the instrumentals feature a more live-music feel. “Date Nite” could almost pass for the follow-up hit to ubiquitous indie pop classic “Young Folks” that Peter Bjorn and John never recorded: tidy guitar lines, simple drum line, a “ooh ooh” vocal refrain. Though I doubt the three twee Swedes would have uttered something as boastful as, “Man of your dreams, I guess you haven’t been dreaming”. Meanwhile, “Boy Racer” has a dusty acoustic guitar underpinning its summertime sing-along vibe, while the smooth contemporary R&B “Germ” flexes yet another side of the artist’s kaleidoscopic versatility.

Regardless of what cloak KhakiKid dons, he’s never going to match fellow Dubliner Travy in terms of sheer raw power. This rising star trades in Irish and UK drill, a rap subgenre that has slipped from the front of the zeitgeist since the late 2010s, when its uncompromising content sparked something of a moral panic in Britain, but nevertheless still has a large enough audience to command huge streaming numbers.

Like KhakiKid, Travy is said to have been inspired by 50 Cent after discovering his debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ on his dad’s iPod Nano. And for sure, there’s some of the G Unit elder’s DNA in Travy’s wrought-iron voice and punchy cadences.

His new album SPOOKY is full of monstrous bangers. The single “Eurostar” invites not just fellow Irish drill rapper Reggie, but French star Yvnnis, who spits in his native language, facilitating a cultural exchange to rival the reciprocity seen on the Silk Road.

Like many of our homegrown drill rappers, Travy loves to shout out Ireland, even peppering his rhymes with the odd bit of Irish language here and there. It’s a trait that I suspect stems from artists, so often aligned to their UK counterparts, wishing to assert their own national allegiances. In a world where the very idea of patriotism is being advanced by some to spark division, drill rappers are representing Ireland without horror or contempt for their fellow citizens.

But what lifts SPOOKY above most other drill albums is its sonic versatility. “Typical Rapper” includes elements of industrial and electronic music, while “Master Shifu” takes advantage of a sample of what appears to be a traditional stringed Chinese instrument to honor the wise old grandmaster from Kung Fu Panda.SPOOKY also benefits from clever sequencing: the softer, open-hearted “Conversations” is placed at the album’s centre, giving the listener a chance to take breath while adding a sense of nuance to Travy’s writing. It’s right and proper, however, that the album ends with a heater. “Reload” is a crushing duet with the demon-voiced Elzzz. The song rounds out a set that is not only the Irish rap album of the year for all others to beat, but positions Travy alongside Khakikid as rappers among the nation’s elite at a time when true inspiration may just count for double.