Kamal. was first played on NTS on 20 May 2021. Songs played include Mercury.

Kamal is an 20 year old singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Harlesden. Born in London to Caribbean-British parents, he began playing piano at six and writing songs on Ukulele a few years later. Raised around the sounds of Sade, D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, alongside UK Rap from Harlesden’s Church Road and beyond, Kamal’s influences range from the likes of Robert Glasper to Radiohead.

In 2019, he uploaded his first recorded song ‘smilingdownthephone’, to Soundcloud. From there he begun collaborating with producer, J Moon and officially released the debut track as part of the double-A side ‘two missed calls’, alongside ‘decline.’

Balancing recording music, with schoolwork, Kamal wrote his follow-up single ‘homebody’ during the winter school break. Centered around the mental state of being a recluse, the release timing proved somewhat serendipitous, dropping one week before lockdown was enforced in the UK and becoming an bittersweet anthem to a collective experience of isolation. Launching alongside a video shot by The Rest (the duo behind slowthai’s visuals) the track was streamed over 1 million times in its first month entering the viral charts in the UK, Canada and Australia while selling out three drops of ‘homebody’ tees.