Ahead of the release the Undeniable EP, the breakthrough rapper talks Yu An Su through the songs that defined him.
Chiedu Oraka has always been confident, but after the year he’s built for himself, he’s ready to prove to everyone else that it’s been no accident.
‘The Black Yorkshireman’ has put in the time and the effort, building a blistering reputation for his swagger and unflinching lyricism. This year alone, he’s won ‘Best Newcomer’ at the Northern Music Awards, as well as playing support slots for Skepta and CASISDEAD.
Oraka was also hand-selected by Coldplay’s Chris Martin to perform at their shows at Craven Park in his hometown of Hull, the accolades only prove something he already knew.
His upcoming EP Undeniable, is a statement of intent that he’s not going anywhere any time soon. “You could say it’s like a bit of a victory lap,” he tells me. “You can make up all these barriers; my accent, where I’m from, but you really can’t ignore me anymore.” His unshakable belief shines through his music with reckless abandon but never bleeds into undeserved cockiness.
Despite those that might try to knock his credibility, it’s getting harder and harder to do so, and he knows it. “I deserve to be on these bigger stages now. I’ve played with the biggest band in the world.” In his position, it would be seamless to be arrogant, but Oraka’s humble roots and infectious grin make that practically impossible.
In spite of his rising success, he remains solely focused on what’s to come, both for himself, but also importantly for him, the paths that others might be able to make because of his work. “For me, I have to pass down the ladder and give the next generation this confidence that I’m feeling,” he explains, “I’m not just trying to win.”
With sold out shows in Hull on his current tour, he’s grateful for how accepting his alma mater are of him now, but equally proud for paving the way for other rappers that share his background.
“I’m not an indie band or an acoustic songwriter, so these back-to-back shows for a rapper like me really hasn’t been done before, it’s a big deal in my city,” he explains, “so I just want to see that scene in Hull keep growing.”
When discuss Oraka’s Nine Songs selections, his trademark excitable energy continuously bleeds through the stories he tells about each of them. The selection is varied and eclectic and it becomes clearer and clearer why he raps with a chip on his shoulder, but also what really motivates him to make the music that he makes: proud, celebratory, and entirely himself.
“Nuthin' but a "G" Thang” by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg
CHIEDU ORAKA: I’m really bad at remembering the lyrics of other people’s songs, but this is the only song that I reckon I know 95% of the lyrics. This is probably my favourite rap song of all time, for so many different reasons. When those first bars come out from Snoop, the “1-2-3-and to the 4”, once you hear that it’s getting an instant reload.
You’re starting that track again, right off the bat too, no need to let the song settle. That’s the feeling that I’m chasing when I’m making music. I want people to be that gassed and excited off of my lyrics.
I’m a really big West Coast rap fan - Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tupac - and also of the whole culture around it, like cookouts and house parties. This was a massive song for me growing up because when we were all going to these under-18s raves in clubs like Pozition and LA’s, this is what we would stick on when we were getting ready. Even if it came on in the club, we’d all try to crip walk and get into our West Coast hip hop bag, so a lot of nostalgia.
BEST FIT: We have to talk about Dr. Dre as a producer. Where do you think he ranks in the pantheon of hip-hop producers?
Dre is easily a top 3 producer of all time for me, and 2001 is probably my favourite album of all time. I love his production and especially his drums, those drums always just snap. And in terms of that delivery, the verses are so smooth and work in the catchiest way. The chorus is obviously catchy, but even the verses are just as catchy, it’s a proper sing-along.
When it comes on in the club, I know I’m not the only one who knows it word for word and every single line. Both of the MCs too, Snoop and Dre, they’re just perfect.
“Hot Like Fire” by Aaliyah feat. Missy Elliott & Timbaland
With this song, we have to start by talking about Timbaland, and how far his influence reaches.
He’s got too many bangers. Even though he’s a bit of a left-field producer, the sounds and influences that he uses genuinely sounds like nobody else. One of my favourite beats from Timbaland - and I think a lot of people sleep on this song, because it got so commercial - but if you listen to the instrumental of ““Get Ur Freak On”, you have to think he’s a genius. I don’t know what he was smoking when he made that, but it’s the way it hits.
With so many Aaliyah songs to choose from, why did this one stick out to you, and why does it mean so much?
I could have picked a lot of Aaliyah songs to be honest, and the reason I picked this one is not only because it’s a classic and a banger, but it was on heavy rotation with my sister, my cousin, and my mum. In this single-parent household, they’re both 6 or so years older than me so I was just the annoying little brother, but Aaliyah was constantly getting blasted through the shared wall between my bedroom and theirs.
You know how I said we’d play “Nuthin' but a "G" Thang” when me and my friends used to go out? My sister and my cousin would be playing “Hot Like Fire” before they went out and were getting ready. Sometimes they’d be going out with my mum, she was a proper good-time woman. She wasn’t really like normal African-Nigerian mums, and she’s probably the biggest influence in my life.
Me and my sister both think that Aaliyah could’ve been bigger than Beyoncé. Even just the way she dressed, and how it’s getting emulated now. She was such a trendsetter and way ahead of her time. The way she was making these beautiful love songs like “Rock the Boat” or “More Than A Woman”, she could’ve gone into the stratosphere. And you have to pay homage to artists like that.
“Sweet Mother” by Prince Nico Mbarga
If we’re talking about great mothers, we should move on to “Sweet Mother.” With this song, is it mainly the lyrics that pull you towards it?
Of course, the lyrics on this are so reflective of our relationship. My mum’s the most important person in my life. It’s like God and my mum, if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here.
Even if we have our differences now and again, we’re also very similar, and I love her to bits. She gave me the confidence to be the man that you’re seeing right now, gave me a household, and also taught me that life wasn’t just about grades and education. As long as I was happy, my mum was happy. She let me be free.
So with this song, I think you could speak to 50, 60, maybe even 70 Nigerian kids, and they would all pick this song for their Nine Songs. At any Nigerian party it’ll come on, I’ve been listening and dancing to this song longer than I can remember. It’s an absolute Nigerian classic. The lyrics are beautiful, and going back to “Murder She Wrote”, it just makes me think of community.
I smile when I think of this song, thinking the amount of parties I’ve been to, where Aunties and Uncles are dancing, smiling, enjoying themselves, eating good food. I remember on my 30th birthday, this song came on, and while everyone was stood watching, it was just me and my mum dancing to it together. That was a really special moment and it’s a really special song.
It also reminds me of the culture around it, these parties, village halls, and not even with extravagant venues, we just made it look lavish with our energy.
“Murder She Wrote” by Chaka Demus and Pliers
This might be one of the biggest dancehall tracks ever, how do you think it’s influenced not only your music but the massive influence it has on the broader UK rap scene?
I tried to pick a massive range of songs for this, and here we’re going from a UK house classic to the most influential dancehall track ever maybe. In the whole Caribbean community, this song would have been massive in them households. Obviously, I’m African, so I can only speak from my perspective, but when this song comes on at dancehall parties, it bangs and the whole place goes off.
There’s a reason this song means so much in the African community, especially the Nigerian community, and my mum used to be quite notorious in my area of Hull for throwing these massive parties. Hull’s quite small, but back in the ‘90s a large chunk of the African community in Hull would congregate inside my mum’s house, and there’d be house parties that ran until the early hours, for literally any occasion - Easter, a christening, a confirmation, it didn’t matter, my mum would throw a party. This song, in my opinion anyway, was the soundtrack to those parties.
Whenever this song would come on, you could be in the kitchen getting a plate of jollof rice, or in the back garden having a smoke, but as soon as you heard this song, you were rushing into the living room, to dance. That’s the memory I’ve got to it, and really, those parties my mum threw are a big part of why I’m a musician.
I got to see people’s different reactions to different types of songs and sounds, and that’s definitely why I fell in love with music, and when I think about it, I probably thought, ‘I want to make tunes like this to get these sorts of reactions from people.’
Thinking about “Murder She Wrote” brings a smile to my face, because it reminds me of being so young, and seeing my mum happy, and also probably quite drunk. People throwing it down on the dance floor, no matter how you were feeling or if you were having a bad day, when this song came on, everyone was just harmonious.
You’ve painted such a colourful picture of these parties, what power do you think music can have politically?
It’s also one of my first memories of how a song can create such a community. Hull isn’t the most diverse place in the world, but these parties used to have so many different types of people. Obviously, it was predominantly African, but you also got a lot of South Asian, East Asian, even Eastern Europeans, all coming to my mum’s parties.
Even now, though the country can be divided, there’s always going to be one song or a movement that can bring people together. I think back to the ‘90s, like acid house or jungle or garage, and how it brought white, black, brown, everyone together, just to have a good time.
Sometimes I think about what this era’s song is going to be, or whether it could be mine.
“Better Off Alone” by Alice Deejay
I always smile when I think about this song. I bought it as a Valentine’s gift for a girl when I was like year 7 or 8, a girl called Jodie. She was my first sort of proper girlfriend in secondary school. Now obviously I’m back single now, but it puts me in the mindset of wondering if I am better off alone, literally.
It’s also a banger, but in a very different way to “Nuthin' but a "G" Thang”. I was a bit of a chav when I was younger, but this song is what we’d put on in the park, having a few drinks underage.
This song really takes me back to that era and weirdly, it reminds me of love. Jodie and I never worked out, but I never look back at it in a bitter way, but with a lot of fondness, especially with how young and naïve I was about love at the time. Why did I think buying a 99p single from HMV was suitable for a Valentine’s Day gift anyway!
Do you remember where you first heard it? It seems like a bit of a left-field choice for a Valentine’s gift!
I probably heard it on the radio, back then you didn’t have as much choice as you do now, so it was just whatever was running in the car, or whatever was running in the kitchen. I must have walked in HMV, knew that it was a popular song and that she liked it, and thought, ‘Let me buy that single, she’ll love that.’ It’s funny thinking about how what you think of love changes as you get older.
“Two Times” by Ann Lee
A fellow Yorkshire local here with Ann Lee. Is that one of the reasons why you chose it?
Yes, big up the Yorkshire. It comes on a similar vein to ‘Better Off Alone’, but it reminds me of a couple things. The first is that we had this diner at my school St Mary’s in Hull, which was where you’d get the chicken burgers, hot dogs, pizzas, it was different from the cafeteria which had slightly healthier hot food options. And at this diner, this song was always getting played, I don’t know why, but it became a soundtrack to that time in my life.
You’d be sat down with the boys, and this would be playing, and I remember thinking that it was an absolute banger. I’m so glad Jamie Oliver didn’t get his hands on my school dinners and turned them all healthy or whatever.
But then when I went to uni, you’d start sharing these old stories of school from back home with my new uni mates and we used to play games before we went out, especially Ring of Fire. For whatever reason, me and my little batch of uni mates all loved this song, and it became our unofficial soundtrack.
I have so many videos filmed on really horrible phones of someone drinking the dirty pint, and this song is playing in the background. I still have PTSD from playing those games too many times, but it’s also got a special place in my heart, because whenever we meet up now, maybe once or twice a year, that song gets put on.
This track and ‘Better Off Alone’ don’t have a clear influence in your own music, both being more dance tracks. Is there any musical influence you pull from it or is it more as you say about the nostalgia and the influence that music can have?
It’s funny, because like you say, this kind of music isn’t really an influence on the actual music I make, but it has that same sort of influence, where I want people to listen to my music and be transported to a specific time or moment, just like these songs all do to me.
“Oi!” by More Fire Crew
These next two songs are real hallmarks of their genre, I’m curious how these two London tracks bled into your own influences up North.
This song was really prominent to me because I used to go to London quite a lot when I was a young kid. My mum’s best friend, Auntie Edith, lived in Stoke Newington, so we used to go there at least once a year.
We’d go to Notting Hill Carnival, and I remember that being a big thing to circle in the calendar. But anyway, it must have been one time I was there, and my Auntie had cable, and I remember the music video of ‘Oi’ coming on and seeing loads of black boys rapping in an English accent.
That sound, I’d never heard anything like it before. Back then I didn’t know what it was, but now I know it’s a mix between grime and UK garage. But even back then, when I was young, maybe 10 or 11, I’m thinking ‘Who are these guys?’, and that they looked cool with their motorbike jackets on, doing wheelies and everything, rapping in UK slang and everything. I was hooked from then on.
That was the first grime song I ever heard, because before I’d only really heard American rappers all over the TV, but then seeing these guys, or Lethal B, Ozzie B, really got me thinking that this was sick and I love this. It hooked my mind straight away, I was immediately intrigued in the music, the lyrics, and really, most importantly, the culture around it.
“Talking Da Hardest” by Giggs
If we’re talking about grime, “Talking Da Hardest” is one of the most foundational songs out there. It probably came into my life around 17 or 18, when me and my friends were getting into grime and proper UK road rap, not the commercial rap, but the real underground, like gangster rap.
Me and my friends were probably the only ones in Hull who were listening to that at the time. And Giggs, he had quite an unorthodox sort of flow, a little like Marmite, you either love him or you don’t, and we were infatuated with him. We had a friend who was from London and lived in Peckham, who knew him and a few other people, and he introduced us to them.
We were obsessed with that roadman, gangster culture. We’d watch these videos on some proper low-budget DVDs, where there’s just Giggs rapping in the park with a bunch of guys, and maybe someone lets off a gunshot in the background and he doesn’t even flinch, he just keeps rapping. Obviously, I’m not trying to glorify it or anything, but we thought that was the coolest thing ever.
“Talking Da Hardest” was our soundtrack for us when we first started driving. I’d jump in my mate’s car, and we’d go on long drives listening to loads of Giggs, and “Talking Da Hardest”was one of those anthems we used to play all the time. Again, it brings back good memories, even if we were ignorant and immature then.
We were trying to live out this culture even though we were just boys from the council estate in Hull. We didn’t have some of the issues that some of these London rappers have, but we really thought we could relate to it at the time.
Both of these tracks really broke UK rap into the mainstream. What do you think about the effect that’s had on that specific culture and genre, because it’s really opened up others to make that music, but also comes under fire because of its increased exposure.
I think when you ask about the influence of these two tracks, “Oi” and “Talking Da Hardest”, it’s really reflective of how grime and its image has changed in the UK, and it’s a bit of a blessing and a curse. These guys are millionaires now, and it’s opened up the mainstream for this type of music, but there’s also a lot of culture vultures now, that are able to earn a lot of money off the back of this culture.
A lot of people are selling this art, but they don’t really get the culture, they don’t realise that Giggs was a real roadman, and he really had to fight to get his music out there. A blessing and a curse, but it did create a market, and it created careers like mine, or booking agents, or videographers, now that they know it’s profitable.
Before we move on, talking full circle, Giggs is rapping over a Dre beat originally!
Exactly, just another reason why he’s one of the greatest! No disrespect to the original by Status Quo, but Giggs really made it his own, and it's stood the test of time.
“The Trials & Tribulations of C.E.O.” by Chiedu Oraka
You’ve got a track of your own on here, why this one in particular?
I thought when I put this one in that maybe I was being a bit vain, that maybe people will think I’m a bit of a weirdo for doing it, but whatever. The reason I’ve picked it is because if people want to know me, my come-up, my story and some of the most traumatic experiences I’ve been in, you have to listen to this song.
I talk about my friend getting stabbed and how we had to run so many red lights to get to the hospital in time. The doctor said that if we didn’t do that he would have died, and so all these stories that I have that really shape who I am, they’re bottled into this song. Even about when I was on the streets trying to push my mixtapes out of my backpack, and no one was taking me seriously, no one wanted to buy my CDs.
Going through these songs I’ve been trying to map out the strands of where they come together, and bring it back to ‘G Thang’, and how Snoop recorded that verse in prison originally, I wondered if you saw any strands of connection between your music and that.
I talk about jail when I went to prison in 2007. I never thought that could happen to me, but it did, it was a rude awakening, and it really shaped me. I think a lot of rap music comes from struggle, or it comes from a kind of social deprivation, and I feel like I come from a similar place to other rappers.
I might not have it as rough as where they came from, but I definitely draw inspiration from anyone who hasn’t had it easy. I was one of the only black kids in a heavily white council estate, and people there didn’t really take rap music super seriously then, so there were always barriers, and I’ve always been an underdog.
So really if you want the Chiedu Oraka story, you just have to listen to this song, and that’s why I picked it ultimately.
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