NAME:
SHAKES
ABOUT
At sixteen years of age, boasting a handful of ultra-confident freestyles - like his chest-thumping standout performance on December’s ‘Hardest U18s’ BL@CKBOX Cypher - and with a handful of sonically diverse singles to his name, rising rapper Shakes seems destined to blossom into the next generational talent from Croydon, in South London.
Last August, Shakes performed his own version of ‘Alphabet Slaughter’ as part of CORDS’s ‘Up Next’ YouTube series, judged by a panel that included grime royalty D Double E. For a young artist influenced by grime, it was a ‘pinch me’ moment. “I kid you not, I probably wrote that in about forty-five minutes, when I was on the train going to my grandparents” he remembers, smiling. “You get into that state of flow, that zone where everything you say and do is just right. You don’t have to question anything.” It’s undoubtedly a career highlight to date.
His focus is razorsharp, and his rise so far has been rapid; as a result he’s not really sat down and taken stock of what he’s achieved already. “I’m not one to say, ‘ah, I’m really proud of myself,’ because the way I look at these little goals is like they're stepping stones,” he explains. “It’s like celebrating an assist in football instead of the goal itself. But things like being the frontrunner of the BL@CKBOX Cypher and getting played on 1Xtra were definitely proud moments … I’ve done a lot of stuff actually, it’s just going way too fast,” he reflects. “I’m proud of all of it, man.”
ExpandLast August, Shakes performed his own version of ‘Alphabet Slaughter’ as part of CORDS’s ‘Up Next’ YouTube series, judged by a panel that included grime royalty D Double E. For a young artist influenced by grime, it was a ‘pinch me’ moment. “I kid you not, I probably wrote that in about forty-five minutes, when I was on the train going to my grandparents” he remembers, smiling. “You get into that state of flow, that zone where everything you say and do is just right. You don’t have to question anything.” It’s undoubtedly a career highlight to date.
His focus is razorsharp, and his rise so far has been rapid; as a result he’s not really sat down and taken stock of what he’s achieved already. “I’m not one to say, ‘ah, I’m really proud of myself,’ because the way I look at these little goals is like they're stepping stones,” he explains. “It’s like celebrating an assist in football instead of the goal itself. But things like being the frontrunner of the BL@CKBOX Cypher and getting played on 1Xtra were definitely proud moments … I’ve done a lot of stuff actually, it’s just going way too fast,” he reflects. “I’m proud of all of it, man.”