K Keed. Picture: Supplied
Two of Cape Town’s hottest rising artists dropped a banger and are ready to share their story with you.
K Keed grew up in Gugulethu, Cape Town and this is where the dream began.
“This is where my confidence was built, since I started writing, to where I am now,“ says the artist whose real name is Mihlali Koyana. Music played a major role in K Keed’s life, growing up.
“I could not go a day without listening to music. There was a point when I realised that this could potentially be something that I could pursue,” says K Keed, a hip hop/rap artist who also does a little bit of everything. “Music is music, if it’s good I cannot deny it.“
As a young up and coming artist, it can be difficult to explain to the people around you, what you actually want to do with your life. Stating that you’re a musician or that you want to pursue music or any form of art, has a certain stigma attached to it. How often have we heard: “There’s no money in that.” or “It will take you forever to become well-known.“? Sometimes all you need is for someone to believe in you and your dream; support is key.
“There were people who genuinely believed in me, before I even believed in myself,” says K Keed, who embraced the support and love which “helped boost my confidence, and I found myself believing in me more”.
“My name, K Keed, needs to be an experience that is so undeniable, that hearing my name on any song just puts a smile on everyone’s face or just genuinely excites everyone who listens to my music.
“Choosing to be great is one of the biggest flexes you could ever have, and no one can really take that from you because you are driven by that greatness inside you that just wants to be shown out to the world.”
K Keed’s dream collaborations include Don Toliver, Baby Keem, or Smino.
“This year I’m coming for everything, I’m elevating the music and sound, elevating the music videos, elevating the K Keed experience as a whole, and the people who know what I’m capable of know that I’m going to be a huge problem this year,“ K Keed concluded.
Aphelele Kimbashe, also known as Lookatups, is originally from Khayelitsha where he spent the majority of his life. At the age of 13, he moved around Cape Town.
His love for doing music began around the age of 11 or 12. “I knew this is something I’m going to do forever,” he says. When he completed high school, he started treating music like a career.
“I’m known as ’Lookatups’ and my name is the identity or persona I chose to expose to the world. Even when I came up with it I knew it wasn’t really much about the name but more so about the person behind it,” he said.
“So you can say it means a lot to me. It’s my brand and it’s like a way I get to control my narrative in life.”
Lookatups also dips his toes into different genres of music. “I make everything under the sun but I’m more known for hip hop and RnB because that’s the music I put out. And every song is in my native tongue, isiXhosa,” he said.
Lookatups’ goal list is never ending but he hopes to get booked in three countries, reach 10 million streams and headline a big show, just to mention a few.
Asked what his advice is for young upcoming artists like him, he shared: “The secret to achieving anything, is hard work, dedication and long hours. Don’t expect anything from anyone and luck is just preparation and good timing.”
Both @whodat_keed and @lookatups shared on Instagram their new song that they dropped at midnight called ’Ndim’.
According to Hype magazine the song is a banger: “The combination of Lookatups’ isiXhosa raps and K Keed’s scorching bars result in one head-banging experience presented on top of an easy going but hard beat.”
The magazine says K Keed and Lookatups wasted no time “claiming their piece of the pie within hip hop culture and we honestly can’t hate because the music is hitting”.