Bird On The Wire

Louis Culture will be playing Village Underground on September 19th.

Louis Culture is the compelling, genre-bending artist whose music you didn’t know you needed. The 24-year-old rapper, producer and DJ explores the rich tapestry of black British music – house, UK garage, hip-hop and more – with effortless lyrical delivery for an altogether different experience, a soundtrack for the lives of listeners. Still early in his career, he has made his name known in London’s burgeoning underground scene through a number of releases. This includes 2016 debut single “Don’t F Up Louis”, 2017’s “Culture For 17,” 2018’s “Local” and 2020’s “Part 2,” garnering millions of plays across all streaming platforms and support from the likes of Complex, TRENCH, NTS, Boiler Room and i-D.

After releasing his debut project, Smile Soundsystem, in 2020, a opus in which his musical philosophy was laid bare via a kaleidoscope of sounds steeped in history – from breakbeat to UK garage – Louis’ worldly vantage point turned inward for his highly anticipated 2022 project When Life Presents Obstacle, a tape in which he seeked to uncover the layers beneath his cheerful exterior to expose a conflicted mind on young shoulders, chiselled by his life experiences. “I’d say I’m more refined now compared to a couple of years ago,” he explains. “Smile Soundsystem was very much of the time, when my life was about a curiosity for dance music. It was more about the sonics, and less about what I had to say. Now, I’m speaking for how I grew up and for the people who grew up with me, what we went through and realising that life isn’t the same for everyone.”

Growing up in South London, the sounds of a family friend’s music collection – most notably Destiny’s Child’s “Writing On The Wall” album – ringing through the hallway made up Louis’ first conscious musical experience, at the tender age of one. In the mid to late 2000s, his interests veered towards the alternative, as he explains: “I started rapping because of Lupe Fiasco. Even before I knew what it was, he represented another black identity – a black man from ends with an alternative outlook. He’s being taught karate by his dad, he’s the first rapper to really name check high fashion brands in his raps, anime references etc.” King Krule, Pharrell and Andre 3000 formed the rest of Culture’s Mount Rushmore from early.

Since dropping “Today”, his first song as Louis Culture in 2016, nothing has been the same for the youngster. London forms the colourful backdrop for his commentary as he traverses through topics such as identity, relationships, surviving the ends and having a good time. Music from voices located at the periphery of the UK capital, to soundtrack the summer nights, the winter mornings and everything in between. Louis’ efforts have earned him plaudits from critics and fellow artists alike, including opening up for slowthai for the release of his first EP slowitdownn in 2017 and headlining Boiler Room’s first ever Low Heat event in 2018. His upward mobility would surge when his 2020 anthem “Being Me” was selected by legendary fashion house Louis Vuitton to soundtrack its 2021 summer campaign and he has modelled for brands such as Nike, Bianca Saunders and A-COLD-WALL.