Krept & Konan have spoken to NME about their groovy new single ‘Smooth Lovin’, and their upcoming fourth studio album ‘Young Kingz II’.
The award-winning duo have dropped their first single of the year, with dancehall juggernaut Popcaan. The song is the lead single for ‘Young Kingz II’ – the follow-up to their 2019 Top Five album ‘Revenge Is Sweet’ and their first independent record in 10 years – which will be released next year.
The duo reunited with producer P2J Studio, who also created the beat for their laidback 2019 Afroswing-inspired single ‘G-Love’ with WizKid. Speaking to NME, Krept – real name Casyo Valentine Johnson – shared the process behind making ‘Smooth Lovin’.
“P2J sent us this beat and we had the beat for months and months,” he said. “We were like, ‘We need to get the right person on this beat to match the vibe, man,’ and we thought, ‘Popcaan will body this!’ So, we told him to come to the studio and he just laid [his verse] down. He caught the vibe instantly.”
Both Krept and Konan are British-Jamaican and maintain strong ties to the country by collaborating with musical icons such as Spice and Beenie Man. “It’s more [about] heritage. It’s more [about] roots, and we always got to keep the link,” Konan – real name Karl Dominic Wilson – said, explaining why they continue to celebrate their cultural influences in their music.
He also noted that it was a given that they would continue to “explore and go back to the culture where they’re from,” especially since his father was Delroy George Wilson – the reggae, ska and rocksteady musician regarded as Jamaica’s first child star.
Jamaica became a significant place for Krept & Konan while making ‘Young Kingz II’. In the 2020 COVID lockdown, they did most of the album there before finishing it in the UK. Throughout the “very long process”, “life was happening” for the duo and changed their outlook on the world – resulting in them altering the record three times.
“Krept had a child, we launched businesses and [in the end] we just thought some of the songs didn’t work,” Konan admitted. “So we swapped some songs around and we ended up with a project that we’re happy with. It’s the right time [to drop it]. I feel like everything fell in place.”
During the five years between releasing ‘Revenge Is Sweet’ and finishing ‘Young Kings II’, Krept & Konan suffered issues with their label, Virgin EMI. They told NME that they wanted to get out of their deal before creating the record. Everything “changed” and “everyone got fired” – with the label eventually allowing them to be let go.
Konan explained how the duo’s newly found independence inspired the title for ‘Young Kingz II’: “A lot was happening and we finally got out of the deal. It was God’s timing. It was supposed to be called ‘Last Card’ because it was meant to be the last album of our deal. When you play a card game like Black Jack and you play your last card, you’re the winner.
“So, although it was our last album, we were still winning,” he continued. “With the discrepancies between the labels and the whole format changing and stuff like that, we ended up being independent ten years after we dropped ‘Young Kings’. It just all fell in place.”
Krept added that the album feels like “a full circle moment” for the group. “When we were independent and released the project that changed our life. Now we’re back to being independent 10 years after the original one came out,” he told NME. Due to the themes and topics across ‘Young Kings II’, he also revealed it was a no-brainer that their fourth album “needed to be the sequel of ‘Young Kings’”.
The pair are excited to have “free reign to explore the new way” the music industry operates now that they’re independent. Konan expressed their excitement of “getting our hands dirty and being on the ground and learning it for ourselves” and, musically, they’re “more confident” than ever.
“There are so many things that we’ve done in the space of our first ‘Young Kingz’ now and how much we’ve grown as people and individuals,” he said.
“It’s easier to be creative,” Krept chimed in. “We can say we want to go shoot video in Jamaica, and get up and do it in the same week. When you’re with a label, it’s a long process that goes through a lot of people, so you can’t be as creatively free.” He also suggested that being flexible allows them to be “proactive” and manoeuvre throughout the current “agile” rap scene.
On the album, the MOBO and BET award-winning duo have each dedicated a solo song to a loved one: Krept to his daughter, Nala, and Konan to his late father.
Krept explained that he “wanted to leave something that she can always refer back to if, God forbid, something happened and I wasn’t here” for his child and was “a really important song” for him to make.
Meanwhile, Konan’s solo track directed at his late father acts as a sequel to ‘My Letter’ from the duo’s 2010 mixtape ‘Tsunami’. Back then, he found it “therapeutic” to speak to his dad about “the early beginnings of trying to become a rapper,” and – while making ‘Young Kingz II’ – he felt like “it was the right time to revisit” the idea of talking to his father through music.
They also dropped solo singles ahead of the album. Back in September, Krept teamed up with fellow UK rapper Chip to do a ‘Daily Duppy’ freestyle and, two weeks ago, Konan dropped his own song called ‘Last Night in Kingston’. While it may have looked like the duo were gearing up for their own solo musical careers, Konan swiftly shut down that idea.
“We’ve never really had that conversation,” he said. “We’re a duo, but we’re individual artists as well. If Krept’s got a feeling and wants to make a song about something personal to him, he’s just gonna do that. And the same with me – but it doesn’t mean that we’re trying to go off and do separate albums.”
He went on to say that they’ve “never let ego take over or control the way” they work and “what better way to be successful than to be successful with your friend”.
Two weeks ago, Skepta tweeted that UK rap is currently “sad” and questioned if its underground scene was “organic,” causing many to wonder whether the sub-genre has hit a plateau. When asked what they think of the scene, Krept & Konan both believed “everyone’s panicking because the numbers are dropping again,” and it’s actually “the biggest it’s ever been”.
Krept cited the success of established global stars like Central Cee, Stormzy and Dave as well as newer acts such as Russ Millions and Kairo Keyz – who have all garnered huge success online and on the charts – as perfect examples of why the scene is still flourishing.
“How can you compare [their success] to the bad place where we started out?” he asked, reminiscing on how – at the start of their deal – labels thought a rapping duo wouldn’t work and “wanted to push guitar stuff and other commercial sounds at the time”. That push led them to drop ‘Young Kingz’ – which they now have a Guinness Record for becoming the first unsigned artists ever to have a Top 20-charting album on the UK charts.
Looking back upon their decade-long career together, Krept & Konan hope to be remembered as “pioneers”. Considering they made UK chart history and became the first British rap acts to sell out London’s The O2 Arena back in 2019, the UK rap trailblazers have done “a lot of the stuff first” and opened “a lot of the doors” for the current scene.
“We were not scared to take the bullets so everyone else can run through,” Krept reflected. “I call this scene a giant house: we’ve helped lay the bricks and foundations for a lot of people to have their ensuites.”
In the end, Konan expressed his hope that people will remember them as “some of the greatest to ever do it in this country,” and that, as long as they are mentioned “alongside the legends,” he will feel satisfied.
In other news, the duo will return as the hosts of the popular BBC competition show The Rap Game UK this year. The sixth season will air on BBC Three this Tuesday (November 5), tying the record for being the longest-running Black-fronted British series with the legendary 1989 Channel 4 sitcom Desmond’s.
‘Young Kingz II’ is set to be released next year on February 7, 2025, and will perform an intimate gig after its release at London’s OUTERNET on March 6. You can pre-order the album here and click here to buy any available tickets.
