(Overview) Krept & Konan's transition in music

I think that Krept and Konan have come really far as artists,

 If you look at Krept and Konan's remix video for Jay-Z and Kanye West Otis and their remix to Drake's Motto, you can see in just a year, they progressed a lot as artists. In Motto, the two are seen wearing expensive outfits such as fur jackets, and Konan is on a sofa counting stacks of £50 notes. Even in the beginning however, we can see that Krept and Konan were never really Grime artists. They started their careers doing hip-hop remixes and R&B rap not Grime. They just happened to come from the UK.

They have not truly stuck to their claimed roots to the Grime genre with their latest music video for Freak Of The Week, which is a mainstream American styled hip-hop music video:



In my personal opinion, they don't even look like British citizens let alone British performers. Their outfits (ridiculously oversized fur coats, gold plated trousers, 4 gold chains, leather on fur...) look glamorized and pimped-up like any American rapper. It creates this idea that they are living the life of artists such as Chris Brown, 2 Chainz or Tyga when truthfully is their first hit song, therefore they are not actually as secure financially as they could be, so to me, the video seems like a lie. They are romanticizing themselves and their lives when this is not grime's function. Also, the fact that Jerimih is singing the chorus - the most important part of the song - seems like he steals the artists spotlight and this is what makes the music video look like an American hip-hop video.

Grime vs Hip-Hop fashion 

Overall, it would have made more sense if Krept and Konan were featuring artists in the song, so that they would still get praise for the song, however wouldn't have to face particular criticisms about where their loyalties lie in Grime music, because they haven't committed to the song wholly. I think after this, Krept and Konan might convert genres, similar to the way Taylor Swift went from country to pop-country to mainstream pop after her song We Are Never Getting Back Together got so much popularity after she released its music video on Youtube, which I personally think she just did for the sales that would be driven as a result of reaching our to the mainstream world of music.

SBTV's interview

Krept & Konan talk signing to Virgin EMI, Jhené Aiko naming the album, promotional beef & more: SBTV:

In the interview, it seems that Krept (left) seems slightly big headed, whilst Konan stays humble and truly blessed about the duo's signing to EMI records and their success. This could be because they are both reacting in different ways to their hard climb to this position in their career, and maybe Konan has a different mentality due to his brother's loss and his attitude to life whilst Krept is impatient and is waiting for something more/real success and feels like being here is restricting them or is old news.

I have realised that Krept and Konan are not grime artists, they are just artists who happen to be brought up in the UK Grime scene and made a few grime songs. Their true passion is American hip-hop culture, and we saw that from their Freak Of The Week music video