Ahead of his London show, we took the genre-hopping Dublin rapper on a chaotic tour of east London and chatted ferrets, pissing yourself on live TV, and Bono
Modafinil would be a good name for a girl. That’s according to KhakiKid, anyway. The study drug comes up when conversation turns to the Dublin rapper’s ADHD. Abdu Huss has been open about it in the press for a while now, but it also only takes about 20 minutes with the guy to realise that my long list of questions might have to fall to the wayside.
Spending half a day with Huss is chaotic, and as we take him on a grand tour of East London, we manage to cover a lot of subjects. There’s the poor quality towels in his London accommodation (“it’s like they’re made out of dust”), the Disney film Starstruck, and animals of the rodent-adjacent variety, to name just a few. At one point, Huss even does a quick Google search for “otter versus ferret” – to his surprise, they’re quite different.
Huss is in London for the first instalment of his “two wee shows” tour, which comes hot on the heels of Moanbag, his third EP. Lyrically, “it’s more introspective,” he tells me. “A little more about myself and not just rapping for the sake of rapping.” The production, though? Huss agrees that it’s “definitely lighter. ” When I ask whether that mirrors where he’s at personally, Huss laughs. “I think it’s reading too much into it,” he says.
KhakiKid’s discography is a collaborative one, jam-packed with features from other burgeoning rappers and producers of the Dublin scene. This restless energy can be found in his bars, too, which jump between lyrics in line with rap’s boastful traditions to classic Irish self-deprecation. “Your ‘to be’ ex-boyfriend is scared of any kid over six in a tracksuit / That’s a little more than slightly embarrassing,” are the ones that caught everyone’s attention in “Date Nite”, though it’s only moments later that Huss is calling himself “the prettiest bad news”. “Baby, I’m ashamed to say I fall asleep / In my jeans about six days out the week,” he raps on “Shlumped Up”.
Though Huss is quick to assert that he’s not actively trying to be funny, he admits that being hyper-online plays a role. “ All my ideas for videos just come from memes,” he says. “And when I’m working, I put on any show that’s, like, visually aesthetic. Look, I watched all of Euphoria with the sound off.”
Huss’ unorthodox working style feels akin to the role of Tumblr back in the day. He’s not too familiar with the blogging platform other than that it “fucked the internet”, but I think he’d agree with how I’d now describe KhakiKid’s whole ethos: it’s like new-gen Tumblr filtered through Irish irreverence. It’s filled with references new and old, all pulled together with emotional authenticity, whether that comes from musings on fatality or getting on it too much.
You also get the sense that Huss is just one of the lads – he’ll call you up on stage, rep your brand when he performs on The Late Late Show, and invite you along to pop a goat in a Nissan Micra. There’s a genuineness both despite and because of the chaos. Below, he tells us more.
How’s London treating you this time round?
KhakiKid: I’m running everywhere all the time. I’ve scheduled my week to be far too busy. Even on my calendar, when I’m not doing anything, I’m just going to my mate’s house and making music. In Dublin, all my work is just me in my bedroom, but there are so many good producers here. I’ve cycled everywhere. I did two hours of cycling yesterday.
What are your guilty pleasures when it comes to music?
KhakiKid: I’m a little white girl at heart, I swear to God. At the moment, I’m listening to hella Disney music. Do you know the movie Starstruck? It had your man Sterling Knight in it. It’s just another Disney girl movie, but all of them have the best soundtracks because the songs are written by actual big songwriters. Growing up, I would only listen to rap music bar “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield and “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne. I wouldn’t even listen to the rest of their music. It was just those songs that stuck out to me.
We’re sitting here in a greasy spoon, but you’ve opted for a slice of cake. What are you like to eat with?
KhakiKid: I have the appetite of a five-year-old. I don’t like eggs. I don’t like vegetables. I actually do like vegetables – the ones that taste like water. You know, fucking cucumber. Tomatoes are cool. Don’t like cheese.
What do you like then?
KhakiKid: Chicken. Lamb’s pretty good. Granola – that goes off. Porridge. Watermelon.
Tell me about the inspiration for the Moanbag artwork.
KhakiKid: I was just desperate to do something cool again. I did The Late Late Show performance the other week and you know when people like Tyler, the Creator release an album, they’ll do the live performances in the same aesthetics? Like, for Igor, he wore the wig and the suit? I wanted to do that. For The Late Late Show, I wanted to wear the pissy pants, but they wouldn’t allow it. We fucked up because I shouldn’t have asked for permission. Then I was thinking about making a little contraption so that when I go on stage, there’s a little button that just does the thing. My manager was like, but do you think the audience will get it? I’m like, it’s not for them to get. Fuck that shit.
How was it doing your first live TV performance?
KhakiKid: I was super chill about it, because it was, like, two hundred people sitting in the audience and I‘m grand around cameras. But one of the guests on the show that day was Simon Pegg and I fucking love Simon Pegg. He was being interviewed before me and I assumed he would walk off, but he stayed there the whole time while we were performing. I immediately shat myself for the first minute. I was envisioning my performance from his perspective. I was like, ‘No, do this, move this way.’ Then he clapped at the end of it. I think it was probably polite and he would have clapped anyway, but, regardless, I was like, ‘That’s my boy right there!’
And what about the inspiration for the “Date Nite” music video?
KhakiKid: All my ideas for videos just come from memes. The one for “Date Nite” was just roadmen at the beach.
You said you’re getting a little more introspective with Moanbag. Do you think having to go into the studio with, at times, a complete stranger impedes you from being vulnerable?
KhakiKid: I think I’m at the point now where it doesn’t matter who I’m with. If I feel like being introspective, that’s that. But a studio session is like a first date, you know? There’s sessions that are me and the guys playing YouTube videos for half an hour – then you become friends and then you make music. The one today, he’s a bit of an older lad, so we wouldn’t be homies, but he’s good at his job and I can get by with him. There’s an accepted level of like, ‘OK, we’re not gonna be best friends, but you are really fucking good at your job and I’m good at my job, so let’s just do it.’
How do you actually find all of this? The press side of being in music?
KhakiKid: I’ll tell you one thing. My very first radio interview was during COVID. It was with some lad from Belfast over Zoom. I remember checking out his other interviews he had done and the way he would do his interviews, he would basically ask every guest the exact same questions. It was almost as if he was just asking the question for the sake of asking – he wouldn't respond to what they said or take any interest in it. I was like, ‘Sweet, whatever I say doesn’t matter.’
So, when it came to the Zoom thing, it was me and my four friends and we were like, KhakiKid’s actually a band. We were wearing suits, but we were shirtless. Then as the backdrop we had hentai. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m kind of just the face of the thing. I don’t even write any of my music. Greg here – he’s one of my really good mates, and the squarest looking guy ever – writes my music.’ The interviewer asked about our favourite gigs and I would basically just describe going to a gay night club and busking in the bathroom, but not being aware that it’s a gay nightclub. The interviewer was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s great.’ And he’d just move on to the next.
What’s coming up next for you?
KhakiKid: Me and my boys are making a boy band at the moment. It’s gonna be quite fun. I want to make fake backstories for all of us – just tell people like, I’m related to Bono and this person is related to that. I want people to think that we’re industry plants ‘cause I think it’d be super funny. Just lie in every interview about being related to someone else, you know what I mean? Like, ‘Bono was my step-cousin, blah blah blah.’ Lay it on even thicker every time.
Check out more pics from our day out with KhakiKid in the gallery above.