{"id":1529,"date":"2021-10-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sofarsoundsblo.wpengine.com\/blog\/articles\/5-black-artists-in-the-uk-to-listen-to-asap\/"},"modified":"2024-06-05T20:19:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T20:19:07","slug":"5-black-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/5-black-artists","title":{"rendered":"5 Black Artists in the UK to Listen to ASAP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/black-history-month-2021\">Black History Month<\/a>, we\u2019re celebrating with a few of the many, many outrageously talented Black artists who share their gift at Sofars throughout the UK. Here are five artists whose performances elevate us with their creativity, delivery, and of course, raw talent.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Dee Ajayi<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Hailing from the West Midlands, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/3z439n9dHntLFRcmIT4IxL?si=gEcyfCTzTVKLA__L-6_IKw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dee Ajayi<\/a> first floored us back in 2017 with her delicate, vulnerable Sofar performance of \u201cFinishing Touches,\u201d a tribute to her late father. Her sound radiates truth, optimism, and solid melodies.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=p4yeUiSSP8E&amp;list=PL4_SsHNp9R6ekxTGWG3jwbLT2FMnHdmbb&amp;index=3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=p4yeUiSSP8E&amp;list=PL4_SsHNp9R6ekxTGWG3jwbLT2FMnHdmbb&amp;index=3<\/a><\/p>\n<h1><strong>Kevin Davy White<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>A Londoner-by-way-of-France former electrician, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/artists\/kevin-davy-white\">Kevin Davy White<\/a> found his way to making bluesy rock, and we\u2019re all thankful for it. You think you\u2019re dazzled by his powerful voice alone, but just wait til he gets going on those hyper-speed guitar moves.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kevin Davy White - When My Train Pulls In | Sofar London\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_aYtrEi3QzM?list=PL4_SsHNp9R6ekxTGWG3jwbLT2FMnHdmbb\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1><strong>DeeRiginal<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>An amalgamation of creativity\u2013\u00a0coming from Pimlico, Victoria, and Westminster in Central London, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/artists\/deeriginal\">DeeRiginal<\/a> makes hip-hop that\u2019s poetry delivered in rap form, in a sound the artist simply calls, \u201cFresh Air.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DeeRiginal - Reasons 2\/F.T.W | Sofar London\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yTCvHh_Fj3c?list=PL4_SsHNp9R6ekxTGWG3jwbLT2FMnHdmbb\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ganda Boys<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s no other way to say it\u2013\u00a0we love <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/artists\/ganda-boys-e8566c10-e915-45d4-a183-52c87b2aa20d\">the Ganda Boys<\/a>. Ugandan born and London-based lead singers Denis Mugagga and Daniel Sewagudde serenade with the stripped-down sounds of African Fusion, with some lyrical bits from producer Craig Pruess. They got us through a tough stretch of the pandemic last fall with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jJeKsT6enqo&amp;pp=ygUfZ2FuZGEgYm95cyBzb2ZhciBsaXN0ZW5pbmcgcm9vbQ%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">their Listening Room performance<\/a>\u2013 in fact they\u2019ve played more than 90 Sofars, and we\u2019re always eager for their next one. (And in case you missed\u2013\u00a0check out their incredible work with their organization, The Ganda Foundation.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ganda Boys - Take a Bus | Sofar Southampton\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/segB7dzqO_0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Mr. Gee<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Some know him as the \u201cPoet Laureate\u201d from <em>The Russell Brand Show<\/em>, or from his TedX talks or work with BBC Radio 4. Here at Sofar, we know <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/artists\/mr-gee\">the Shoreditch local<\/a> for his spoken-word deliveries that are part tongue-twister, part rich, observational poetry. Start with \u201cSea Shells\u201d below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mr. Gee - Sea Shells | Sofar London\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wHAEHILOCL8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/\">Check out these artists and many more at a Sofar show near you!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>photo image: Kevin Davy White, Photo by Michal Augustini<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of Black History Month, we\u2019re celebrating with a few of the many, many outrageously talented Black artists who share their gift at Sofars throughout the UK. Here are five artists whose performances elevate us with their creativity, delivery, and of course, raw talent. Dee Ajayi Hailing from the West Midlands, Dee Ajayi first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[650,648,647,649,646],"class_list":["post-1529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","category-community","category-videos","tag-dee-ajayi","tag-deeriginal","tag-ganda-boys","tag-kevin-davy-white","tag-mr-gee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}