Level Up: Dualeh Oke's Music Odyssey
Breathe, It’s Oke.
Dutch-born Somali rapper Dualeh Oke is a breath of fresh air in the UK music scene, with singles such as Oke’s Theme and Mood – which he collaborates with childhood friend Jay Prince on – resonating with good vibes, which is needed during these quarantine times. Since launching his music career in 2017 with the release of his first single Famous, Dualeh has gone on to release his first project Oke’s Odyssey two years after the single. However, music wasn’t his first passion growing up.
Moving from the Netherlands to the UK at seven, the Newham based rapper opens up about his dream as a kid of becoming an author and how he would use his school exercise books to rewrite his favourite shows, but with his own twist to it. His dream of becoming a writer and spoken word artist motivated him to study English and Creative Writing at Uni before indulging in music.
“I’ve always been creative in terms of writing and that’s what I stress in terms of what I feel like I am, of course I make music, of course I’m a rapper and all this but I feel like I pride myself in being a writer more than anything”.
With how highly he speaks about his passion for writing, I start to wonder, at what moment did he find his love for music? He tells me his lecturer’s reaction to a creative writing project of his “kickstarted everything”.
“I’ve never had anybody speak to me [in that way]. It opened my eyes especially even in school I didn’t have any English teacher come up to me and say that. So, after that I uploaded it on SoundCloud and people were just showing mad love. I’ve always loved music, I’ve always been a music geek but this is my first time creating something and putting it out to the world and the way people responded positively, it just made me want to do it and take it a lot more seriously”.
As for his passion for writing, he reveals that he has already started works on a novel with the goal of becoming “a prominent writer in all regards”.
Despite being surrounded by the UK music scene growing up, especially at a time where grime was at its peak, ‘internet kid’ Dualeh found himself immersed in the world of alternative hip-hop instead. He became inspired by the likes of Kanye West, Odd Future and Pharrell to name a few.
“In school when people were talking about Giggs I was that guy that people would come to and I’d be like ‘have you heard Frank Ocean’s mixtape?…’ I just went down the rabbit hole of that American music”.
What was it about those artists that inspired you?
“I’d say more so just an alternative black figure if that makes sense. With grime you think everything is just tracksuits; you’re in your little bubble and that’s what you think the whole world is. But thanks to the internet you kind of go down a rabbit hole. [You realise] there’s other people with [different] clothes, music, lifestyle and then you start to expand your horizon a little bit, especially growing up in my area. You would think that everybody thinks the same but then I feel like the internet helped me kind of expand on that”.
Who would you see yourself collaborating with?
Frank Ocean. I need to be in that studio, same with Kendrick Lamar. In the UK I would really like to work with Sam Wise, just from how his whole demeanour is and I also would love to do something with NAO. I feel like in terms of UK R&B and rap that’s what I gravitate towards, that’s what I see myself in. And in terms of complimenting each other stylistically, I think that would work.
Dualeh speaks on having two sides to his sound and style of music: the introspective side, and another that’s “more carefree, soulful and musically inclined”. However, he states how open he is to experimenting with different sounds and the importance of doing so as an artist.
“I’d want to be that kind of artist that every project is not the same but there’s still some cohesion, some similarities and some connection between them…you’ve got to evolve, adapt and grow. You don’t feel the same every day when you wake up, so it would be weird for me. If I’m not feeling like that then I can’t make that kind of music.”
As passionate as he is about music, Dualeh expresses how he surprisingly wasn’t surrounded by it in his household growing up.
“I didn’t really come from a music upbringing or have that kind of environment. If we were playing something it was [with] your headphones in your room, so it wasn’t like music getting blasted from my house. It was very strict and religious in that sense.”
Hearing this, I was intrigued to know how his family took the news when they found out he wanted to pursue music.
So, how did your parents react to you taking music seriously?
“My mum, she’s cool! She talks about it - if anything we banter about it a lot. If something goes well, she gets super gassed. My relationship with her and music is more a thing but with my dad he’s not really acknowledging it.”
Coming from a strict African background myself, I couldn’t help but relate. The differences in perspective between parent and child which Dualeh highlights in his song Baba, I’m Sad – a song ‘about the dynamics between a first-generation parent and a second-generation kid’ which he describes as stories he’s interested in as an artist – ‘not specific to Somali culture’ but ‘specific to immigrant families’.
Do you try to incorporate parts of your culture in your music?
Yes and no. Yes, in terms of I feel like especially being an east African musician in the UK we haven’t really had our narratives told. But no as in I don’t want to have to be a poster boy for anything. I just want to do me and carry on making music that feels good to me personally.
What are three things you wish to achieve in the future?
Definitely to have my book out, my career up and running in terms of music and 100% to be able to give back in some sort of way. I’d like to incorporate my music and creative side into building something that’s tangible, something real that I can see.
So, what’s next for Dualeh? Well, the East London rapper has just released his first 2020 single Level Up from his forthcoming EP Breathe, It’s Oke. An empowerment anthem which speaks to his younger self and others that ‘still need to heal that inner child’. Despite the current situation, he’s still optimistic with plans to put out more videos this summer.
“Obviously, we’re in lockdown, plans have gone out the window. But if we do have a summer…the next thing that I put [out] will probably be a video for a song that I’m excited about called Keith Sweat... I feel like visually it helps when I put stuff out because it makes more sense and it helps people connect with it more, so I’ll do more visuals.”