KhakiKid shares brand new single ‘Switching Tongues’
KhakiKid
Shares brand new single ‘Switching Tongues’ with Carsten2x
and announces new EP Sand Bebé due August 4th
Ahead of performances at Pitchfork Festival this winter
Today’s track ‘Switching Tongues’ sees Khaki (Abdu Huss) team up with fellow Dublin artist Carsten2x, leaning into the mellow hip hop that characterised Khaki’s debut EP and his helped build his quickly growing fanbase. This year alone, KhakiKid has played packed out shows at The Great Escape, Sea Sessions and a sold out show downstairs at Whelan’s in Dublin. In November, he will play Pitchfork Festival’s European dates including Paris and London, the next step in KhakiKid’s incredible rise.
Speaking on today’s track, Khakikid states that “‘Switching Tongues’ is about being in a volatile relationship. Being with someone you know is gonna cause problems and things are not going to be easy but you always seem to fall back in with them.
“My favourite part of the song is the voice message I was sent by American country music legend Jake Owen. I’d been listening to him for years and one day I saw he followed me. I couldn’t believe it and I straight up asked him why he followed me and he left the voice message that’s now in the song. It’s kind of mad how far music can travel and the fact that my music has reached someone at his heights doesn’t seem real to me.”
Having not been aware of his Arab-Irish heritage or his dad’s refugee story until his adult years, Abdu is determined to cultivate a sense of belonging amongst future generations of his community in Dublin. “I’d love to be more attached to my Arab background, but it just didn’t happen in my life,” he says. “I feel like there are a lot of minority groups in Ireland that aren’t represented or spoken about, so I want to show that there are places for us to exist.” Shouldering this ambition, Abdu is ready to share “a lot of collaborations and some experimental music for sure, experimental for me anyways. I’m excited to share new music and to talk about real life and the good and bad times that come with it. I’m constantly working on my live shows too and can’t wait to show people on my upcoming dates”
After his older brother gave him 50 Cent’s ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ CD, Abdu discovered rap was the genre he related to most. Teaching himself to produce from his bedroom that he shared with his three brothers, and focusing on emotive lyrical storytelling, Abdu would record himself over beats found on YouTube. Years later his 2020 debut single ‘Late’ introduced an artist with a penchant for effortlessly mixing tongue-in-cheek, often self-deprecating lyrics with boisterous rapping. By 2021, a cult following was building at home in Ireland and his music began finding fans internationally. His debut EP, Elevator Music, arrived in September last year to critical acclaim, stay tuned for Khakikid’s most assured era to date.
