PA Salieu
Après avoir secoué la planète UK et affolé ses charts début 2020 avec la grosse claque « Frontline » à la gloire des quartiers, Pa Salieu avait dévoilé sa première mixtape : Send Them To Coventry. Parue le 13 novembre 2020, cette mixtape a gagner le cœur de la critique, en témoigne la revue de Pitchfork : « This is an extraordinarily assured first offering from a young artist capable of surprising at every turn« .
L’Angleterre est habituée aux jeunes rois. Armé de ce premier projet, Pa « King » Salieu est en train de s’installer confortablement sur le trône du rap UK. Côté fait d’armes, le jeune driller a déjà croisé le fer en studio aux côtés de FKA Twigs, est en contact avec Jorja Smith et joue le mannequin pour la marque Burberry. En 2021, il nous a offert un feat avec les jumelles franco-carribéennes Ibeyi, « Made of Gold ».
English
With only a handful of releases to his name, Gambian-by-way-of-Coventry’s Pa Salieu has consistently released some of this year’s most exciting and talked about singles. His dynamic and genreless approach has led Pa to win widespread support from a diverse range of cultural tastemakers such as Dazed, i-D, GRM, Link Up, Mixtape Madness, The Fader, Complex, Clash, The Face as well as being playlisted across BBC Radio1, 1Xtra and 6Music (including receiving a whopping four TOTW’s at Radio 1, counting his third from Nick Grimshaw on My Family).
Hands down of the most exciting, dynamic and refreshing artists to come along in some time, few artists have been able to capture both the zeitgeist and exciement that Pa has this year. In January, Pa Salieu released the massive Frontline, which was not only the second song the gifted young artist ever recorded but also the most played UK track at BBC 1Xtra in 2020. Less then a year on, and Pa has graced the covers of ES Magazine and Wonderland, collaborated with a range of artists from SL to jazz virtuoso Yussef Dayes, not to mention his new Burberry x The Face project with black midi’s Morgan Simpson and won over a laundry list of champions that include Givenchy, Burberry’s Riccardo Tisci, OVO co-founder Oliver El-Khatib, Annie Mac, Tiffany Calver, Benji B, FKA Twigs and Virgil Abloh amongst others, cementing him as an artist whose complex and unique style both defies labels and connects with both audiences and critics alike.
At only 23-years-old, Coventry’s Pa Salieu is blending his West Midlands upbringing and Gambian heritage into a unique brand of rap that has seen him carve out space as an exciting new voice in British music. Breakout song ‘Frontline’ became an early anthem of 2020 and was heavily played on BBC 1Xtra, Reprezent Radio and Rinse FM. Brimming with a distinct, melodic cadence, ‘Frontline’ depicts the bleak realities in inner-city Coventry and has drawn plaudits from Virgil Abloh, Annie Mac and OVO co-founder Oliver El Khatib. It’s an exciting beginning for an artist who is quickly being recognised as a leading light within Britain’s flourishing rap landscape.