Words: Dylan Murphy
Town’s Dead lands in the midst of a golden era for Ireland’s music community, but with Kojaque and other creative trailblazers leaving for greener pastures it’s become a timestamp of the turning point for a generation whose hometown has little to offer them.
“‘Town’s Dead‘ comes from the potential that I see in Dublin and in the people, I’m surrounded by day in and day out. There’s nothing but talent and ambition among young people, I’m constantly reminded of that through the art and music that I see being made but I think so often the city grinds you down, it takes your hope and your ambition”.
That’s Dublin rapper Kojaque summing up both the core message of his debut album, Town’s Dead and the feeling of hopelessness in the capital’s creative community.
Landing like a bittersweet punch to the gut, Kojaque’s parting gift to Ireland comes at a time where Ireland’s DIY community’s creative powers are becoming fully realised.
Acts across the country innovated with live streams and adapted to a world without mosh pits with listeners showing support through Bandcamp Fridays. On one end of the scale, Dublin’s Gemma Dunleavy turned tragedy into triumph on Up De Flats and shelled a remote Boiler Room set. While Limerick’s Denise Chaila established herself as a globally recognised one to watch with her performance in the National Gallery of Ireland and subsequent Choice Prize-winning mixtape.
Elsewhere, acts like Cork native Gaptoof created their own online communities. With the Soft Boy Records producer hosting beat battles online from his bedroom, binding together a community of artists that were left behind and at once rewriting the rules on how acts can sustain themselves and grow their audience from home.
And in those victories, it’s easy to understand the glimmer of hope the Dublin rapper has for his own city. The considered rollout for the album started in the heat of last summer’s bubbling political activism whilst technological innovations ensured we could shrink the world to the size of our living room. For a brief moment, it did feel like there was an opportunity to rewrite the wrongs of capitalism’s crippling grip on Dublin.
Instead, we find ourselves in the position of having a city full of young creatives that would rather risk drowning alone in an unfamiliar place than make the choice between