Lukey Storey turned heads towards the end of 2021 with the release of his visceral and kooky debut album ‘Weirdo’, which showed the West London rapper spewing his heart over eccentric and intriguing beats, waxing lyrical about his life woes regarding topics such as drug abuse, mental health issues and love troubles. Wearing his heart on his sleeve, Lukey’s unique style lends itself perfectly to the instrumentation, and ties the album perfectly together. We caught up with Lukey for the latest feature in the ‘Introducing’ series, to talk further about the process of the album’s creation, and what he has coming for 2022.
Asking Lukey how he’s been, he responds “It’s actually been kinda nuts. Musically I worked harder than I even knew I could. What the album started asking of me in the process of making it grew and grew and I just owed it to follow through the best I could. In my personal life this year, I got engaged, got a dog, moved twice. Mental.” Clearly it’s been a long and eventful year for Lukey, with a lot of life changing moments, and it’s interesting to think about how the music changed in the process. Not only does Lukey have impressive sonics, but his visuals also lend to his unique style just as well. His recent video ‘Bad Choice’ is a perfect example of this. “The songs is about judgement, and the story behind this one is somebody said to my face that I was wrong for who I chose to be in a relationship with ”Why’d you get with that girl you can do better” It was so offensive to me and my partner. My response in the song was to point out the absurdity of that remark and so Bad Choice got made. It’s funny to me that we took it as far as we did when making the video in a church where I would be repenting my sins.” The creative process of ‘Weirdo’ is as interesting as the music itself, being created primarily through lockdown, it clearly has attributed to the end product in an intriguing way. “Weirdo was basically made in a blind spot. The maddest writing spurt I’ve ever had. The writing and recording happened during the first lockdown. I was making like three songs a day and at the end finished off the best ones. Themes wise, I get it a lot that my music talks about mental health and drug abuse…and it does because that’s very much a part of my story but I like see the funny side of life too. A lot of this record is very tounge and cheek. I don’t want to be thought of as an artist who is all doom and gloom you know…”.
He may not seem it, but Lukey is a veteran in the music game, starting his career as the DJ for Professor Green, playing venues like the O2 and Jazz Café, and being credited as the youngest DJ to ever play onBBC Radio 1xtra, then moving into modelling where he worked with the likes of Alexander Wang, Burberry and Adidas, his colourful few years in the creative industry that has earned him a cult following. Speaking on what’s next, he states “It might be too late in the day for me, i’m older than I look! But i’m just doing this because I feel like I have to see these ideas through. If I can make it my job that would be great don’t get me wrong. I love how Virgil put it… “Everything I do is for the seventeen year old version of myself”. When I heard that I thought that is exactly it. I’m creating an audible and visual world that my seventeen year old me would’ve been excited by. In a years time I might be doing something completely different.” Speaking further to Lukey about his influencers, which I referred to as weird and wonderful, he continues “Weird and Wonderful, I like that. Honestly I don’t think about it at all. I write and hear melodies and what comes out comes out. I was a DJ for most of my life and taught myself with old school hip hop records I collected so naturally there’s an element of that in everything I make.”
Finally, Lukey leaves us with a some final thoughts, “I would just say go and listen to my album Weirdo and if you like it enough, purchase it. It might be my first and last album. I still fucking love it, it’s hip hop mixed like a pop record. What’s not to love?”
For anyone who’s interested in finding a few more artists who are up Lukey’s alley, he gives a few suggestions:
“I’d be in trouble if i didn’t mention my Fiancé, Tiarlie (@thisistiarlie) who doesn’t make hip-hop but is a seriously powerful artist I think anyone could enjoy. I would check out Sindysman (@sindysman) … really talented and definitely going places. A rapper / singer, Cosmo (@cosmotivation), has got some fire in his back pocket. And finally Cactus Corino (@cactuscorino) is definitely worth listening to also.”
