Newcomer Kai Kwasi has emerged fully formed in the groove of lifted, calm R&B tune ‘sms’. The product of a musical family, Kai distilled the influence of growing up “in the back of dance halls and recording stages” into a strong artistic command, despite the fact that ‘sms’ is his second ever single release. 

Kai translates “the sentiment of what will be will be” into the song’s production, washing the track in a blissful mood with rippling guitars and hazy reverb. Brilliant saxophones by Venna lead the flow, gliding in and out around the vocal melodies. After feature artist KarimThaPeasant surfaces with a simple but hooky melody, Kai’s vocals ease back in riding the waves, repeating “can’t get too much of it, it sticks to the tongue” like a riff before subsiding. 

Kai carries his aesthetic vision into a captivating music video, showcasing his talent in visual media built from his experience in film and photography. A collaboration between Kai and friends, co-directors and producers Matt Hawkins and Joe Tebbutt and animator Arthur, the gently surreal video follows Kai as he awakens from a dream inside a floating cardboard box. Wearing paint-stained coveralls – a narrative continuity from the video for ‘unt’– the artist emerges to wander back to his box-like home, passing quaint household objects placed along the riverside, nods to the song’s thesis: “the comfort tobe found in chaos when you relinquish the need for control."

Newly signed by Play It Again Sam, booked at Pitchfork Music Festival Paris, armed with an artistic legacy and backed by a creative community made up of his visual collaborators and musicians Joy Crookes, Jiovani Jemndi, VINO, Looms, and Don Feeble Jr., Kai Kwasi is bound for great things.