URBAN VAULT UK
West London phenomenon Shakka has released his highly anticipated sophomore EP, ‘The Island‘, after selling out KOKO, winning Best R&B/Soul Act at the MOBO’s for a second year in a row and with the success of his debut Pitched Up/Sony Music UK release ‘The Lost Boys‘ EP.
Continuing his theme of concept projects, Shakka explores his London upbringing and the melting pot of genre’s and sounds, conceptually offering the second part of the story of ‘The Lost Boys’ (2015) having them now made it to ‘The Island’.
Speaking on the sonics of the project and himself as an artists Shakka muses…”With black British music, we have a massive melting pot of influences, from Massive Attack, Soul II Soul to Shola Ama to UK garage and grime”. Confronting himself as an artist “People always ask what genre I am and what platform I represent, I always tell them I stem from Hip Hop and R&B but I stand for everything. That’s what we do as black British artists, and I love waving that flag”.
On The Island, Shakka teams up with dancehall legend Mr Vegas for the island flavour of ‘I Love The Way’ and explores his falsetto range over a sparse house beat on ‘Don’t Call Me’, which has become one of his most significant international successes to date, with Young Thug hopping on DJ Carnage’s version of it.