Words by Christopher Kevin Au

When we attended ASAP Ferg’s headline show at The Metro Theatre last week in Sydney, we were expecting a colossal turn-up, and that’s exactly what we got. However, it turns out that the flamboyant Harlem rapper wasn’t the only one to impress on the mic, and we were introduced to local boy Kwame in blazing fashion.

It’s a stunt often pulled by rappers at live gigs: Point at some punters in the crowd, get them onstage and see if they can rap in front of a ravenous and often unforgiving audience. More often than not, it results in the random getting booed offstage relentlessly, but that was a very different story for Kwame at ASAP Ferg. When he jumped onstage in some funky patterned boardshorts, he had the crowd cheering and heaving with his energetic raps, also earning some serious props and a cool handshake from Ferg himself.

Luckily, Kwame’s mate filmed the whole thing, and it wasn’t long before the footage began spreading online. We happened to see it on our Facebook feeds and reached out to Kwame, who is another emerging emcee from Sydney’s bubbling Western suburbs. He’s also just released a single on the freshly-founded Mozaick Records – home to our talented pals Phil FRESH and Pökari. We had a chat to Kwame about his rapping history, those boardshorts and his monumental moment at ASAP Ferg:

First of all, introduce yourself. How long have you been rapping for and how would you describe your style?

Yo! So I’m Kwame (Rich Amevor) from Sydney’s west, I rap and produce. To be honest I wouldn’t really say I have a particular style, I know how to make a specific sound but I don’t want to limit myself to just one sound. I gain influence from many genres like jazz/soul/alternative/R&B – anything and everything really.

Let’s talk about your cameo at the ASAP show. It takes a lot of confidence to get up onstage, especially at someone else’s gig. What were your emotions as you spat your verse? Were you turnt at all?

Man, what even was that? Big ups to my brother Brandon Taylor. What had happened was Ferg had said to the crowd “Yo can anyone rap?” And I kid you not – I’ll explain it exactly how Brandon explained it – he “NBA 6 foot 4 LeBron James” jumped so high and screamed “Him!” Ferg pointed at me and was like “Oh, you?” I looked at him and actually got so scared that I almost said no.

I went onstage and both Ferg & Marty passed me a mic, but Ferg’s wasnt working so Iyj took Marty’s. Next thing you know I’m just saying “Yo” to the crowd for a bit, I was so scared at this point that I didn’t know what to do. Then I started off with “Started with a dream, turned that shit into reality” – the whole crowd vibed and I stopped and laughed, then Ferg said “Keep going motherfucker!” Then I guess you see what happens in the video.

The video has gained quite a bit of traction on the Internet, amassing over 1200 ‘likes’ on Facebook. Are you surprised by the online reaction, and have you bought a beer for your mate who filmed it for you?

Big ups to Brandon, he’s the future of fashion… dude’s mad big in The Basement, Underground Society and other online clothing groups. I was really surprised because it was like 1:00AM when he posted it in The Basement and then he posted it on his profile. Next thing you know he gets 1000 likes, which is like, damn. As for a beer, yeah I probably should aye.

Which is the better ASAP Ferg song: ‘Fuck Out My Face’ or ‘Dump Dump’?

Man, ‘Dump Dump’ for sure! I’m so happy he played that. It actually felt too good to be screaming that to a random.

Where did you get those fly boardshorts?

I’m wearing them now actually! I got them from work, I work at General Pants Rouse Hill so come through and say hey!

You just premiered a new single ‘I Get It’ this week. Tell us about that release and how you feel it reflects you as an artist?

That track come about so randomly. I Digress (Julian Taylor) made that beat two years ago, and we were talking bout putting out a beat tape together and he pulled it up, so I messed with the 808s, added the synth, dropped the tempo down. One day he pulled it up and was like, “What are we gonna do with this? I’m about to delete this” and I said “Nah let me write to it.”

We just finished that track in an hour… I feel it shows that I can achieve anything and nothing to me is impossible, I feel people shouldn’t feel that way and limit yourselves… Never limit yourself, do everything it is you can.

You’ve said that you’re expanding your sound to production more focused on house and future bass. What has prompted this move and how has the creative process of exploring new genres been?

I’m so excited for the next tracks that come out that I’ve produced, Julian and Dominic Singh (Domba) have taught me so much and its been a great learning process. I’m definitely still learning how to really tweak sounds and it’s been real fun. I’m so excited, I can’t wait!

Who are some of your favourite fellow emerging rappers and artists from Western Sydney?

Honestly the whole scene! Big Skeez, Domba, Zulo Bigs, I Digress, Jah Mase, Selassie Wussah, X & Hype, Cult $hotta, Lil Spacely, Midas.Gold, Main St, Gibrillah Shyne & Jay Jay Assassin.

What’s on the cards for Kwame for the rest of 2016?

I’ll quote a line from a track I wrote, “Imma bout to plan an attack, if you ain’t with it, get back.”

FOLLOW KWAME: FACEBOOK // SOUNDCLOUD // INSTAGRAM