Ones To Watch: Wireless Festival 2017

After last year’s pop-dominated bill, Wireless has returned to its roots with a hip-hop heavy line-up for the twelfth edition. The annual festival will return to London’s Finsbury Park from the 7th to the 9th of July. With a star-studded bill including Chance The Rapper, Skepta and The Weekend, it’s no surprise that the festival is almost sold out. So if you’re still biting your fingernails about whether to swipe yourself a ticket, here’s five more reasons to do so…

Noname

Chicago-hailing poet and rapper, Fatimah Warner aka Noname, has been quietly paving her way to mainstream consciousness for a while now. After her 2013 collaboration on hometown friend Chance The Rapper‘s Acid Rap mixtape gained her wider recognition, the artist dropped her long-awaited EP Telephone to critical adoration in 2016. Her conversational tone and relaxed flow coupled with candid poetry has earned her guest spots across the rap genre, but with her headline tours selling fast, it’s clear she’s built a name all for herself.

Yuna

Rolling Stone hailed her album, Chapters, as one of the Best R&B albums of 2016. Pharrell Williams has produced her and she was awarded National Youth Icon Award by the Prime Minister of her home country, Malaysia. Yuna has impressive credentials coming out of her ears… and it’s not surprising. Thanks to Pharrell-produced hit, ‘Live Your Life‘, Yuna’s confessional songwriting and beautifully delicate soprano saw her cross into the mainstream market and she’s never looked back.

Lil Yachty

At just 19-years-old, Miles Parks McCollum aka Lil Yachty has been spreading like wildfire across the world of rap. If you don’t know him from his top 10 collaboration with D.R.A.M on ‘Broccoli‘, you may have heard about his modelling debut in Kanye West‘s Yeezy Season 3 fashion line at Madison Square Garden. With his self-described ‘Bubblegum trap’ featuring sample sounds from Mario Bros and Rugrats, the Atlanta-born rapper has never taken himself too seriously and it’s an approach that’s clearly working.

Stefflon Don

Stephanie Allen, aka Stefflon Don, first set the underground alight in 2015 with her hot take on the Section Boyz street smash ‘Lock Arf’. Since then she’s been impressing grime and rap fans alike with her tongue-twisting, witty raps. Armed with her latest mixtape, ‘Real Ting’,  the rapper-slash-singer is sure to put on an explosive performance in Finsbury Park this summer.

Kojo Funds

Genre Chameleon, Kojo Funds, has been described as everything from Afroswing to Grime and R&B, while his collaborations range from Rap to Pop. No matter the genre, his distinctive style is always a massive presence on tracks. ‘Dun Talkin‘, a collaboration with Abra Cadabra, scooped a Mobo for Best Song Winner in 2016, while Funds recently led pop singer Mabel into new territories with his afro-bashment flavoured verses on collaboration ‘Finders Keepers‘.