INTERVIEW: We caught up with UK rapper Cayden about his latest track “Stand With Ukraine”
Q. Tell us a bit about yourself and this project
Thank you again for asking me to be involved in this interview. I am a 17 year old artist and I am the songwriter and performer of the song I have recently recorded “Stand with Ukraine” a song which concentrates on a message about the current situation in Ukraine. The genre of music I usually write and record is Hip/hop rap.
Q. Could you tell us some of your biggest influences?
My biggest influencers are D-block Europe, Dave, Lil uzi vert, young thug, Ed sheeran, Migos, Nafe smallz and many more because I grew up listetning to these people. was structured perfectly and sounds great. The studio is a very professional environment with a great team with great equipment.
The recording studio was the first proper studio I have ever used! The studio offers everything to support an artist with the help of great engineers/producers like Sophie. Myself and Sophie managed to rearrange and record a 6 minute song in around 2 hours. It was structured perfectly and sounds great. The studio is a very professional environment with a great team with great equipment.
Q. How was your experience working with Sophie in the Studio?
Working with Sophie was a great experience because she has a very easy going, down to earth character. Sophie understood the important elements required and helped structure the song to a great standard. It’s clear to see she has a real talent in music as a whole.
Q. It is an important subject that you’re dealing with, how do you deal with blurring the lines between hard news and integrating that into making music?
Yes this is a very emotive subject for the world especially those directly affected. I chose to merge together a piece of music that had some form of reality of the situation instead of just singing and rapping about it. For example the news broadcasting and the Ukrainian lady singing the national anthem as the chorus really generates an impact form of “Omg this is actually happening”. Emphasised by the lyrics I wrote adding a deeper understanding tof what’s happening, I believe the Ukrainian chorus and the real BBC broadcasting develops a further engagement with the listener through the journey of the song.
Q. Do you think that creatives have a responsibility to take up an active role in driving social change?
Social change is something I believe creatives should have an active role when situations like this occur. For example, my song helps the younger generation fully understand the situation and why it’s happening or to show the older generation through the words I wrote to describe what we understand. I also believe artists like myself could use their creativity and music towards funding for charity to help the people directly affected. So this is what I planned to do by setting up a just-giving page initially to raise £500. The charity Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) specifically the British Red Cross. In under 4 days we have surpassed that initial goal. Music brings emotion and emotions are high during certain social changes, so I believe creating music about a negative situation but using the music to help in a positive way is a great interconnection.
Q. What are you thinking of working on in the future?
I plan to create a part 2 of my song to illustrate the story as it unfolds, I hope this will also continue to raise hope within those who listen to it. It will be told as a story and will continue on from the first song. However for now, I will also continue to create melodic hip hop music with up-beat summer type beats and also create some music close to the rap genre as well. Social changes can occur at any given time so the next creative song about something going on around the world or close to home may be sooner than expected to help raise some awareness and money for whoever may be suffering.
