Northern Lights: Tackling a subject head on with rap by sending a direct message to listeners

Escae’s verse approached the issue of knife crime and making positive choices, tackling the subject head on by sending a direct message to listeners that may be at risk of making poor life choices. “Put the stick down and get your life figured out, before you end up with insides sticking out”. Another of Escae’s lyrics prompted the question as to why someone would pick up a knife and achieve nothing when they could pick up a book and educate themselves “get your hand up off the juck, get your hands around a book”. This verse was executed with excellent precision; when talking to Escae he explained how he has been around people carrying knives, making poor life choices and he always tries to make a conscious decision to stay away, but offer positive advice to those friends.

Kid Blu3’s verse comes from a totally different angle but uses lived experience as the focal part; she uses her lyrical skills to paint a picture of the reality of knife crime through a friend. The verse gets deeper as she depicts the knife as his female partner. “Yeah I know a brother that would never leave without her”. Capturing the dark reality of the mind set of those that feel they have to carry a weapon. Kid Bl3s lyrics says “He’s, got fear in his eyes, because this Cold dark world has a hold on his life”.

Both artists used great word play, with hard hitting lyrics throughout. Their tones and flow matched perfectly with the catchy, uplifting beat created by Palizé. It was plain to see that both artists took a lot of time to write their lyrics and both deserve a spot. However, the competition was for one artist only.

On 14.11.23 Escae and Kid blue were invited to perform their verses to a live crowd at SLAMBARZ Winter Warmer. As soon as the base of the drum beat dropped the crowd fell silent and were focused on the stage. Both artists owned the stage and were confident not only delivering their verses, but backing one another up with additional vocals. The crowd stayed highly engaged through the performance, once the song finished the crowd erupted into applause.

Their slot was just after some of Sheffield best talents, and they held their own. You would not have known that they recorded their verse the night before and had not even heard the full version of the song, never mind having the time to practice it beforehand.

The verse’ were put on to Always an Alternatives Instagram account for people to vote which verse they liked the most. Both verses went absolutely crazy getting over 700 likes, 880 comments, 18,500 plays and a playtime of over 44 hours. Comments such as “Kid Blu3 for the win”, “Get Kid Blu3 on it! She’s so good, you’ll miss out” and “Kid Blu3 killing it every time. I can’t stop singing ur stuff whenever I hear u” were left to support Kid Blue. Escae’s supports said “Come see talent”, “Proper lyrics” and “Gwarn Escae, keep it moving”.

Despite K Dot making major moves in the industry as of late, with his latest song with Burgaboy, sing for me, making it to itunes top 10 singles. He found the time to invite the artists down to the studio to himself and the producer of Boundaries, Palizé. The artists recorded their verses and talked about the project, why they started rapping and how they found the competition. Palizé gave them a producer’s insight on the process of producing and recording Boundaries and giving them advice on which software to use.

It was obvious with the energy in the room that Escae and Kid Blu3 were extremely grateful for the experience. The next day Escae put a post on social media that two years prior to this experience he had stopped K Dot in the street to take a picture with him as a fan and now he was working with him.

After speaking with K Dot, we agreed that based on lyrics, flows and delivery it was an extremely close competition. Both artists smashed the objective but in very different ways.

We have worked with Big Take Media to document the whole process and have created a short documentary about the competition. Do you want to know who the winner is? Visit www.youtube.com/@antzjourney

We would like to thank K Dot for giving us the chance to create this project, all of the artists that entered, but especially the finalists; Escae and Kid Blu3. SLAMBARZ and the team for giving the artists the opportunity to perform their verse. Astraea Media for donating 1 hour photoshoot as a prize. The VRU for funding this project.

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