In a bustling East London coffee shop 25 year old Adian Coker sits perched on a coffee brown leather cushion; after spending the last half hour probing several café’s in the cold of Shoreditch he gratefully swarms both hands around a steaming cup of tea. To his left sits his manager Michael, a French national who has found home ten minutes away in Bethnal Green. One month has passed since he aided Adian in the release of second mixtape Young World; a stirring voyage through the galleria of South London. Originally intended as an expansive chronicling of his thoughts, Young World was without warning morphed into a contemporary social depiction of the life and times on Greenwich’s Barnfield Estate.
He takes a sip before saying, “In the end this CD being like a social commentary but I didn’t even realise it. Really and truly it’s an exploration but it’s not glorifying anything, it’s not justifying. I’m just telling you this is what happens.”
The gallery illuminated throughout Young World is South East London; Woolwich to be specific; an area that has had its name smeared in recent months due to the public murder of soldier Lee Rigby. With the case currently in the midst of a trial Woolwich has been unable to escape alignment with unfolding events. Adian delicately places his tea down on the wooden table ahead of him, gathering his thoughts on the damaging headlines surrounding South London’s Royal Borough. He shrugs, “I mean nobody went to Woolwich anyway. The worse thing is that they just built these really expensive flats starting at £300,000, who the fuck is going to buy them now?… Let me just add to that though.” But before he can elaborate, the owner of the shop looms over in his stained white apron to usher everyone out. Adian guzzles down the remainder of his tea hoping it will act as a protective blanket against the elements and the three of us depart.
Back in the cold we recommence our search and having trialled several locations we unanimously elect to settle for the stillness of Adian’s car; a metallic silver Mercedes parked under a street lamp in an uninhabited side road. The rapper is at ease in his car; sinking deep into the grey leather chair. With his foot casually resting on the door he flicks through his IPhone before recapturing his initial train of thought.
“In Woolwich you’ve got this area called Royal Arsenal then you’ve got Woolwich. Royal Arsenal is supposed to be in Woolwich but the people that live in Royal Arsenal don’t live in Woolwich, they travel through Woolwich but they never go in.
“There is segregation and it’s not enforced but it just happens. You’ve got an area in Woolwich where the Somalians live, you’ve got where the rich people live and you’ve got the general population and that’s just how it is.”
Painted on a blank canvas throughout out Young World is the Woolwich opportunely evaded by those who reside in Royal Arsenal. On Vitriol, the mixtape’s masterpiece Adian echoes over an enchanting piano led ensemble; it is the climax of the inadvertent social commentary that Adian speaks of. “That’s another Nigga slain living by the gun. Next day we’ve forgotten his name but there’s another one;” he raps; a poignant statement highlighting the at times numbed perspective that is prevalent in those quarters.
“Somebody could tell me to tomorrow that someone I grew up with got shot and I would be like ‘Swear?’ ‘Okay.’” He shrugs his shoulders again. “We’re so desensitised to that shit, we grow in that environment. That shit happens, we mourn, the next day we’ve forgotten his name and there’s another one; it’s a cycle.”
More than twenty minutes have passed and inside the Mercedes Vitriol remains on the agenda; Adian; lounged in the same position, conferences on what he perceives as disillusion with higher education. Outside, groups push past at sporadic intervals; briefly illuminated by the yellow glow of the streetlight before waning silently into the shadow of nightfall. Adian labels himself as lucky; his mother had always been stringent when education was on the memo and had him scratching through GCSE textbooks at just eleven years old; we chuckle about the consequences had he dared to leave any incomplete. There is a stereotype surrounding young African and Caribbean males; underachievement in education leaves no other alternative but the entertainment industry or worse, crime; yet it is an argument Adian cannot get on board with. The reality he sees is rather different and as with anything in this life; it revolves around money.
He sighs promptly raising a hand to the window, “Listen. Go out there now,” he starts. “I know seventeen year olds making a grand a week. I know people that have made six thousand pounds per day. Driving around in a brand new Benz 63 plate, why am I going to go and get a degree? Why when my young offenders officer comes to see me and I’ve got boxes of shoes and I’m driving a better car than me he is, why am I going to listen? The other day a boy rolled up to the youth club with twenty five K on him and he’s 16. Twenty five K. People don’t see that in a year. This is the kind of money that some are making in months, how the fuck are you going to tell me to go and get a job.”
The South Londoner managed to avoid the honey trap and in fact actually enjoyed school; the social aspect anyway and although the work was not always gratifying, a mixture of his disdain to “fuck up at things,” and the industrious ethic instilled by his mother were enough to see him through. GCSE textbooks eventually gave way for College; College for University and after three years of undergraduate study Adian was rewarded with a degree in English. Whilst some jettisoned off to far corners of the country and even the globe in order to obtain their degrees; Adian stayed local, straying no further than Goldsmith’s located in neighbouring New Cross. Perseverance in the education system ultimately led to a role as an English teacher; a position he now juggles with his burgeoning rap career.
Despite his degree and subsequent profession, a life in the booth had always been in the blueprint and he started on the path to Hip Hop stardom the day after completing his undergraduate degree. Debut mixtape Lights Fantastic was an admirable start yet it was Young World; a project that he produced, rapped on and then mixed all by himself, that has Adian’s name ringing bells across the country.
“I’m very very fortunate to be able to produce and to have the vision from the start to finish. I choose my own, I make my own and if it doesn’t work I make another one as soon as I’ve finished the last one.”
Production arrived before the rapping; instruments have never been more than a short reach away. He began playing the classical guitar in primary school and progression to secondary school brought more of the same; there he was able to monopolise the facilities in the technology department. Then came the decision to rap; a trademark grin spreads over his face as he jokes about the scarcity of adequate rappers for his beats. Producers turned rappers are intermittent; talented ones anyway; for most Kanye West or Pharrell Williams spring to mind and the legacy left by the former isn’t far from Adian’s thoughts.
“I was thinking the other day, fuck Kanye man,” he says as that grin returns. “This guy I rate him very very highly. So many ideas that he had and things that he has done and you think how do you do something on that level without it seeming like you copied this motherfucker!? It’s so difficult because that’s what I want to do, I want to stretch everything, I want to push the boundaries. “
Exchanges about career progression naturally follow onto plans for life after Young World. A new project; as of yet untitled is currently in assembly and Adian blends animation with excitement as he digresses on its already unique sound. “I can honestly say nothing like this has been done in the UK; not a CD of this nature.” Twisting his neck back he searches for confirmation from perhaps the only other set of ears in a position to comment. Michael arches forward from the back seat to confirm the declaration; “The sound is different. The way you put things together makes it unique.” With that Adian nods approvingly and sets off again.
“I think I want to push the boundaries like Kanye has done and I use him because he is the person more so than anybody that has done it. I want to push these boundaries over here and I want to try and make Hip Hop music popular and have it chart as a Hip Hop song. A Hip Hop song with good melodies, strong hooks, good beats, good raps and have it in the charts without it being pop or urban music.”
It is a task made problematic by what Adian perceives as a lack of Hip Hop culture in the United Kingdom. Hip Hop culture extends far beyond the art of MCing and in comparison with counterparts across the pond; the UK are understandably eons behind.
Mainstream outlets for Hip Hop are rare and for those musicians born in Britannia; even rarer. The situation is odd; artists emerging from the United States often encounter less resistance than their UK equivalents in having their records span on the radio or their music videos distributed on the most popular channels. The absence of a presence akin to New York’s Hot 97 or LA’s Power 106 is a gaping issue; yet a distinct lack of demand sees the prospect of a similar authority arising in the UK only move further and further away into the horizon. Adian fingers the rebranding of Choice FM as an extension of this; describing the demand for UK based Hip Hop as ‘still underground.’ This perception hits a nerve with Michael; still in the back seat he immediately leers forward.
“I know so many people in the UK that love Hip Hop but these people aren’t listening to or taking in British acts. They just follow the US Hip Hop based news. That’s what they follow because they have nothing here.”
Coker believes the thin movement self-perpetuating a damaging mentality. With very little up for grabs; focus is directed towards the individual and away from the prospect of constructing something everlasting; an outlook that Adain feels is not necessarily a conscious decision made by his fellow artists. “People are really trying to maintain their own shit because it’s so easy to lose it. It’s hard for them to reach back and pull.”
At this point the conversation tails into a rigorous philosophical discussion; stretching as far as the philosophies of cult film The Truman Show and its representations in 21st century society. Not everything about Adian is this intense. Full of smiles truthfully he is rather light hearted and proceeds to give a run-down of his fondness for jogging and a current fixation with US drama Mad Men. This is before Michael provides the catalyst by mentioning football.
“How could I forget!? Because I’m fricking passionate about Arsenal man. Wake up in the morning my phone is on the side of the bed, look up Arsenal blogs, that’s the first thing I go to. Then I check BBC Sport for the gossip and then I go on the blog websites. That’s my morning routine. Arsenal is first right there! Apart from that I don’t have any other interests, that’s it music and football. Honestly.”
Arsenal are renowned for their decorated legacy and the momentous imprint left on modern football; it was ten years ago Adian’s beloved club marked their most grand achievement and progressed through an entire campaign undefeated. In a decade from now Adian may stand at the forefront of a thriving Hip Hop movement in the UK; but how will he personally reflect on Young World?
“I think being frustrated, being hungry. I put myself in a space where I set out to make something that was undeniable. It was hunger driven from trying to create the best piece of art, the best CD, the best eleven tracks possible. I will think back and remember being in a place where I found my sound. I think I definitely found where I sit in terms of the way I create music; the textures. This is my College Dropout moment. Where you find that level you’re comfortable with and from there you can elevate it.”
Young World is out now for free download: http://adiancoker.bandcamp.com/album/young-world-mixtape
Or listen here: https://soundcloud.com/adiancoker/sets/young-world
Words By Aniefiok Ekpoudom (@_Aniefiok_)
