Kings of UK rap scene who had no beef with the Queen

South Londoners Krept and Konan tell Annabel Nugent about recording their new album in Jamaica, opening their own supermarket and not turning down praise from anyone

- Annabel Nugent

In a lot of ways, Krept and Konan would have had an easier go of it had they hit it big a decade later than they did. As it happened, the duo, whose real names are Casyo Johnson and Karl Wilson, emerged from south London’s road rap scene in the early 2010s – a time when British rap was not in nearly as healthy a place as it is these days. “The world wasn’t embracing UK rap like right now,” says Konan.

The duo’s biography, then, is full of firsts and broken records: their first major mixtape, Young Kingz, became the highest charting UK release by an unsigned act when it dropped in 2013; their first album, 2015’s hard-edged The Long Way Home, was the highest charting British rap album ever; two years later, the dual release of 7 Days and 7 Nights, an authoritative, thrilling push into the mainstream, saw Krept and Konan become the first act to have two mixtapes simultaneously enter the Top 10. Their last record, 2020’s acclaimed Revenge is Sweet, had them headlining London’s O2 – the first British rap act to do so.

Every step of the way, they’ve fought for recognition and respect from an industry playing catch-up. So yes, Krept concedes, it would have been easier were they coming up as young rappers now. “But then if we didn’t do it, who would have made it easier for us?” he shrugs. “That’s the question. We’re proud of the role we played in getting everything to where it is now – and the role we still play.”