Kola Aina

Kola grew up in Kaduna State, a small Town in the North-Central region of Nigeria. He wrote poetry in primary school, a passion that graduated into a passion for rap and hip hop music in Junior Secondary school. His first exposure to rap music was Eminem’s rap god on Sound city, an encounter that led him to start rapping and writing songs as a hobby. His dad didn’t like most secular music so he listened to artists like Drake, Big Sean and any other mainstream rapper in hiding. In his final year in junior secondary school, his mom got him his first microphone and he started recording demos that he then posted on soundcloud. In his first year in high school, after listening to J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive he decided to take a music career serious and pursue his dream of becoming a professional rap artist, with a mission to inspire people to follow their dream the same way J. Cole inspired him. After discovering that you had to pay for beats online he started to produce his own music (after consuming hours of youtube tutorials), fusing alternative and contemporary afrobeat sounds with elements from modern hip hop/rap music, frequently taking inspiration from British-Ghanaian afroswing producer, JAE5. His favorite rapper is Kendrick Lamar but his sound is influenced by a wide range of dynamic rap styles including Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Travis Scott, Dave, Skepta, Burna Boy, Show Dem Camp, Central Cee and Cruel Santino phasing between conscious and vivid storytelling to energetic, motivating and raunchy braggadocio. He has been described as Show Dem Camp meets Central Cee with a large spoon of gen Z flavoring. His latest track is Messi, an ode to the greatest footballer of all time.