KIBO: WELCOME TO KWENGLETARIA

Known affectionately as “The Victory Lap Grim Reaper”, Kibo’s impact in recent years can’t be understated. Renowned for his quick wit, invented vernacular and ability to consistently shell it on the mic, the North West Londoner has built a dedicated following as a result of his undeniable talent and razor-sharp wordplay.

Building out a world that feels singularly his own, Kibo draws from a variety of personal influences to deliver his unique approach to UK rap. Blending a playful style that goes hand in hand with the cypher culture that he cut his teeth on as an adolescent with his unique phraseology, dubbed “Kwengletarian”, Kibo has created an almost mythical and otherworldly aura around his bars that has translated into fans flocking to catch his sets and experience the magic.

A virtuoso MC, Kibo’s lyrical skill has seen him rise from underground MVP to your favourite rapper’s favourite rapper. With co-signs from Dave and Skepta, Kibo’s ability on the mic knows no bounds and it’s clear that he has been putting the groundwork in for moving things forward in 2025.

Catching up at the shoot for the Air Jordan 4 Retro OG ‘White Cement’, END. and Kibo discussed his origin story, London rap culture and bringing the myth out of the mundane.  

You’ve become known in recent years as a musician with immense talent on the mic, but was music something that had always been a big part of your life?

As long as I can remember, music has been a core component to my life. My dad did music, he was in a punk band growing up and he was always playing music around the house. So, as far back as I can remember, music has been an integral part of my life. I think the real genesis moment for me would be when I started to discover, like, really discover, rap music. I was into rap when I was young, early primary school. I'd listen to Lil Wayne or Chamillionaire or whatever, but I used to play basketball when I was a kid and there was one time I was just playing in the park and these kids were playing Wu-Tang Clan. They were playing 36 Chambers, and I just remember being so into it. It just blew my fucking tiny little mind. I was just like, what is this!? It was like Ninja Turtles poetry. It sounded the way that reading Naruto or Bleach felt to me as a kid. Obviously, at the time, I've got no context for it. I mean, I’d heard nothing like this before. To me, I'm just like, ”oh, shit, this sounds like Power Rangers. This is wicked!” I went home that day and just instantly fucking Swanton-bombed into an internet rabbit hole of everything Wu-Tang. And then from there into Dipset and Biggie and everything. That was it. It was a wrap for me. This is the most important thing in my life. As far back as I can remember, man, it's been a key part of my life.

What led you to start rapping? Was it a passion that you had always wanted to pursue?

I more or less started giving it a go straight away. When I was a kid, my dream job was to make comic books or cartoons. That was always my dream job, but I was shit at drawing, so it was never going to happen. It just wasn't destined for me. But the first couple of times during that beginning period of me writing raps, I was basically just trying to copy the style of Ghostface and Raekwon. I was just trying to be Rae and Ghost. I felt like I was writing the comics that I wasn't able to draw. I felt like this is my way of making this thing. It was these wild images and ideas and colours that I have in my head. I've always had a way with words, that's just always been my thing. Before anyone else, my parents knew that, that whatever I was going to do, it was going to involve me running my mouth. One way or another. A big thing as well was discovering DOOM. With him, the whole comic book connection is a lot stronger.

As things progressed, it started to go from “I really like this” to “I'm really good at this” to actually “I think I'm doing something quite meaningful with this”. By the time I reached that point, it was the best thing I had going for me anyway. I just kind of fell into it since then.

 In terms of my influence, I've been doing this for so long that my shit is like a hadron collider of influences. My jumping off point very much was Rae and Ghost, but obviously, my shit doesn’t sound nothing like that now because over the years I discovered more modern stuff. I got super into Raider Klan, Yung Lean and Sad Boys and although they're not my first influence, that kind of era is probably my biggest influence, you know? And then I discovered the UK stuff, I discovered Grime, Garage and Jungle. Bearing in mind, I'm a kid when I'm listening to Wu-Tang and stuff. Now I'm older and I realise it's a reflection of their life, but when I was a kid, I was like, “oh, no, these guys are the Avengers!” They're just out here, fucking people up, being crazy samurai or something. I couldn't wrap my head around it. But when I started listening to UK rap, I thought, “hang on a minute, these lot come from where I come from and the things they're talking about are things I recognise”. That's when the reality started to set in. Now, I’m reflecting my reality a bit more with my rap. Then all these influences, from Mike Skinner to Novelist to Section Boys, were just coming at me so fast, and it's a product of the internet as well and a product of London - you're getting hit with so many different stimuli 24-7. It’s natural that you become this massive melting pot of things, and the bottom line is nothing starts from nowhere. But I think people who are truly unique are the people who have just absorbed so many different influences that it just becomes its own thing. It's like a sandwich, you know? You put ham and cheese in a sandwich, it's a ham and cheese sandwich or you put bacon, lettuce, tomato in a sandwich, it's a BLT. Or if you put 20 different things in a sandwich, you've got to give that shit a new name, because I'm not about to list it all. Now this is the Kwengletarian Deluxe!

Moving from Grime, to UK Garage to UK Rap, you’re able to deftly jump from genre to genre. Do you find that you have to change up your approach when you’re switching up the genre?

I've always said that my style is not necessarily a flow or a rhyming technique or a pattern. My style is just me being me. It's the person that I am, and that's the through-line for everything I do. Because for a long time in my career, I struggled because I was thinking, “yo, I want to make rap, but I also want to make weird cloud rap/trap, but I also want to make grime, but I also want to get in my Teddy Pendergrass bag.” I wanted to do a bit of everything, and I felt like I wasn't able to because you feel pressure to stick to one thing and people want to box you into something, then you start fighting against the box and now you're just in a new box. The thing I realised is that actually I've been doing this for so long and I understand now why I make music and the point I'm trying to get across and what I think it can do for people. In doing that now and knowing that within myself, anytime I approach a track, my style is just going to come naturally through that. I know there's always going to be a through line. I feel like I approach every track the same way and I don't know what's going to come out, but I know it's going to be very fire material and I'm going to have something to say and it's going to spin wigs, basically.

Well versed in the cypher-rap sphere, you’re renowned for your quick wit and distinctive flow. What was your first introduction to that world?

I think there's an important distinction that needs to be made of this kind of conjunction in the UK underground because there's a lot of people calling things cyphers and a lot of people calling things sets and sometimes, they're somewhere in between or they're somewhere in the middle. To me, a cypher is when everyone comes together and raps. It's about your lyrics and you're going back-to-back. So, for me, a cypher would be when I was in the park with my mates and someone throws a beat on and I would just go bar for bar, whereas a set is more like the radio stuff that I think people are familiar with me doing. To me, that's more of a dance between a DJ and an MC. You've got to ride it out, whereas a cypher is about the attitude of “yo, whack the beat on, I'm about to say something”.

It would have started with just me barring in the park but when it came to it with a DJ, I really started to fall into that when I met my mate Panergy. We went to the same school, he was a few years older than me and so I never really knew him until I was in a crew with one of my best mates, Chuk, and we brought him on board in our crew as a DJ and he's an absolutely batshit, mental DJ, he would be mixing, some trap shit into some disco, into some swisha house beat, all kinds of crazy, ridiculous blends, and we would all just freestyle over it. We would go to his yard or Chuk's yard, and we would just freestyle for days and record the shit and if there was a fire lyric, we'd write it down and if there was a blend that might inspire a beat that we would then go and make. That was when I really fell into the cypher thing of emceeing with a DJ long form, just going in. I think that's why my approach to stuff is quite different, you know? I'm glad I had those years of just doing it in my boys' yard and doing some crazy left field stuff because then when it did come to me doing rap cyphers or grime sets, I feel like I approached it super differently and just kind of came with a new swag.

I look back now and it becomes more apparent how important that was to me the more things go on. When I very first started doing my first sets, you’d fall into that thing of thinking, “OK, I've got to swing it out now, I've got to make sure that I'm murking” and I always did, but as things went on, I started to get comfortable on those sets in the same way that I was comfortable just doing it with my mates. The sets just got better because we were having fun, it was more creative, it was freer, and that good craic and that freedom is just... it's infectious, you know? I feel like that's a big part of what people gravitate to. Because obviously I'm murking, like, I'm the GOAT, do you know what I mean? But I'm having fun as well. To me, that's where the magic is, when there's so much joy in that room. There's something undeniable about that... I don't think I would have clocked that as soon as I did, or I don't think I would be able to have that much fun while also murking if it wasn't for those early days, with the man there. Just sessioning it out.

It feels like it’s a really important element of the culture, for building the community, having these spaces where people can showcase their talents in the same room as artists who are already well known or regarded. It’s something that wouldn’t really happen in other music cultures.

Exactly. It's very different to actually have that ingrained in the culture. That's the beautiful thing about MC-based music, isn't it? You can rock up and just make it happen, you know? That's the beautiful thing about cyphers as well, all the other shit doesn't matter. Doesn't matter how many followers you've got, doesn't matter what car you've got. Are you murking right now? That's it, that's all that matters. Two decks, a mixer and a mic: go. That's all you need. And in that environment, all that fluff just doesn't sit, it sheds a bright light on everything. I think that's why people are so interested, especially right now. Sets are coming back in such a big way. People are so sick of this watered-down approach. Artists being shoved to them through social media as products, so when there's this long-form content where we're going to get all of these people in a room and you're going to see that they're actually human beings, you know? This is a craft that they're all doing, that they're all engaged with, and now we get to see who's actually doing it and who actually who cares about this shit. Who lives this in a way where I feel comfortable, and I feel inspired as a fan to actually engage with them and tap in with them? Because I know that they've got that dog in them, you know what I mean? And don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on no-one's hustle, it's the way of the world now, right? Anyone doing anything they can to make shit pop for them, that's wicked and big up everyone doing that. I'm definitely not trying to piss on anyone's chips, but I'm just saying, from a music fan's perspective, there's a reason why those set moments, or those long-form cyphers, where you really actually get to see the natural state of play, there's a reason why people are responding to that more than someone doing CBeebies rap hands on TikTok, with the same song 50 times in a row.

Your appearance on Victory Lap’s collab set with Corteiz saw you enter the stratosphere, with shout outs from some of Grime and UK Rap’s biggest names, including a demand for a rewind from Skepta himself. How did you first end up linking up with Victory Lap? How does it feel to so regularly be crowned the VLAP MVP?

I didn't even clock it happened at the time until I watched it back. In fact, after the set, Brian Nasty had actually filmed the moment, and he was like, “oh, that was crazy, when Skepta was asking for a reload”. I said, “what!?” He showed me the video. It was crazy. I was so ill that day that I was out of it, man. Had a fucking couple paracetamol and some Hennessy, you know, a bit of choccy milk, just head down and do your thing, innit? So I was kind of spaced out at that time. But I looked back at it, and I was like, yeah, that's crazy. I mean, obviously Skepta is top ten all the time for us in the UK, so it was a mad moment.

Shout-out to Victory Lap. It's always great craic doing Victory Lap. My first one was when LAUZZA had a Victory Lap, and we were just about to drop the MR. LAMBORGHINI DEATHSLIDE video, I believe, so he called me up for it. I'd been going to Balamii for a couple of years at this point. That was always one of the hubs for just swinging it out on the radio. My best mate, Chuk, who I was talking about before, we had found out that he'd got his dream job that morning, so I knew I was on my way to the shubs after. It was kind of like a pre-motive, really. I thought I'll come down, I'll see some of the lads, you know, all the homies are there, shout-out for LAUZZA's ting, and spray some bars. Because this is the thing, bro, I love doing this shit. This shit is fun for me, that's what I like. I like to do this. It’s crazy, because some of the people that were on that first set, if I'm not mistaken, there would have been people there who I would have been doing sets with Panergy back in the day with, so, like, Ayrtn and YT. You know what I mean? They used to come around and we would get busy, like, back in those days. I remember coming away from that first week to be on set and it really reminded me of something beautiful from back in the day and we'd have fun. I thought I was having fun. Anyway, next thing you know, I've done one or two more and all of a sudden, I'm the Victory Lap Grim Reaper. But truthfully, man, I'm having a good-arse time. I'm going there, and I'm usually seeing a lot of friends and catching up and just having a crack, man, and that's what I think is beautiful about Victory Lap.

I think people like to romanticise this idea that a set is like this fucking gladiatorial combat stage where everyone's trying to swing each other's heads off, and I've been in sets like that. But generally, a rap cypher is not really that. At least not what people see as a rap cypher. It's not really that. I'm from a school of grime as well, so I've been to plenty of grime sets where guys are having it out. But I've always found that the best sets are actually when everyone in the room is just having a good-arse time and everyone's feeding off each other's energies. That’s really the beauty of a set for me. The competition is fun, but there’s not much competition at this point. So, I really just enjoy going there and having fun.

I've been doing this for so long that I feel like I've kind of proven myself in that regard and I'm less concerned with showing everyone I'm the best in the room. I am the best in the room. Everyone knows that. I'd actually much rather do something interesting on this set. Let me do something entertaining on this set or even let me try and create an environment or give someone a through ball so that they can have a wicked moment on set.

With a long-standing legacy and culture of MCs, London has long been the epicentre of UK rap. How has the city’s musical history and landscape impacted your own approach? Are there any North West artists that have particularly inspired your own journey?

OK, that's a two-parter, cos when I start talking about North West, I start getting very enthusiastic. London is just this cauldron of cultures, perspectives and walks of life. Naturally, I've lived in London my whole life, so I feel like the way I am, and my style reflects that in the same way, you know? I'm just a hodgepodge of all the styles and swags and chat that I've picked up over the years from so many different things. Especially where I'm from, the North West, it's so diverse, there's so many people just from so many different walks of life, and naturally my style reflects that. I'm a bit of a broth myself of different influences, not just sonically or musically, but just generally in the way I am.

I mean, London is also a shithole - it's the greatest city in the world, but it's a bit of a grey shithole as well, and I think that the bad side of it has inspired me as well to seek meaning in that. I spoke earlier about starting from this crazy fantasy perspective and then grounding it through reality - essentially that is the core value of Kwengletarianism or one of the core values of Kwengletarianism is bringing the myth out of the mundane. Living in a place like London and learning the value of finding your own mythology and high fantasy in this environment, that's really what's rooted me in a cause, like a mantra of what I do this music for. I'm not just here to pop my shit and let my nuts hang, I've got something now that is valuable to the next generation that might be listening, and I only got that by living in London.

But North West specifically, if we talk about North West music heritage, boy oh boy. Okay, as much as I'd like to just flex the most obscure North West artists, on an esoteric flex, if I'm being super real about like the North West London artists that inspired me personally, it'd be the two most obvious people. I think the first artist I ever really recognised as like being from the North-West would be Nines, and he's just amazing. He was super influential on me. I think his first four projects, so From Church Road to Hollywood, Gone to November, Loyal to the Soil and One Foot In, that's the greatest four project run of all time in history of music. Like Stevie Wonder who? Have you heard AJ’D Out? Like come on bro, Stevie Wonder could never do that shit. So yeah, he's just a GOAT and I remember it being cool discovering him. And then from an MC perspective, obviously Flirta D. Obviously the peak SLK years were before my time, but Flirta D was still murking when I first started getting into grime. He is just truly one of a kind, one of one. One of the greatest joys in life is introducing someone to Flirta D and watching them experience his music for the first time. It's like watching a kid open up an Xbox on Christmas. It's like the Ratatouille scene. They’re always just like, “he's the GOAT.” Outside of MCs, someone like Dark0 as a producer. Legendary producer, absolute GOAT and fucking top bloke as well. I remember when I found out he was from Northwest, I was like, that's crazy because I see his thing as quite Kwengletarian in nature in the sense of it is recognisable as it comes from grime. I don't know how he would describe it, but I would certainly recognise it as rooted in this kind of grimey London sound, but it's got this epic otherworldly element to it to where it sounds like Final Fantasy. Seeing someone make something that felt so otherworldly be from a couple of train stations away from you. It was like, oh shit!

I'll tell you what though. Obviously, I'm from HA3, which is the far North West. Some people would be like, that's not even North-West, that's not an NW Postcode. Those people are twats. Me and my mates always used to call it like the crusty elbow of London, because it's so out of the way and there was just never anything going on. There were never any MCs or rappers claiming they were from HA. There was a couple that were living there, but they weren't screaming it and now, for me to be the person that's doing that is sick. Sugababes were from HA actually and they were always big. Hold tight, Sugababes. But obviously they're not MCs. For me and my bredrins to be the guys that are putting on for HA, and for people come up to me and say “oh, I'm from HA”. No one has ever been excited to say they're from Wealdstone! Do you know what I mean? It's just never been a thing I've experienced growing up, but I'm experiencing that people come up to me and they're excited to say where they're from, because of what I'm doing, I guess. And that's pride. So, I would just say me and my mates, all my HA-liens, that are making music that reflects where we're from. That's probably the biggest inspiration.

Rap music and style go hand in hand, and you’ve got a characteristic sense of style that feels singularly your own. What guides how you approach your personal style?

A garment just has to really speak to me. It's got to power me up, you know. I get dressed like I'm on the character creation screen of some mad RPG. I want to get my stats right for the day. Whatever crep I select that morning is going to inform the way I step forward into the day. You know? Whatever you put on, that's like your mech suit for the day. I like rocking shit that I feel powers me up. I buy a lot of second-hand vintage shit, which I think maybe somewhere feels like whoever had it before me farmed a bunch of XP points into it and I don't know what kind of work they put in with it, but there's some kind of enchantment in it.

I remember when I got my first Avirex years and years ago, no one was doing the Avirex. I'm not a guy that says that shit, I don't care about this, fashion stuff. I just wear what I like to wear, but the one thing I would claim is that I had that Avirex on before anyone was doing it. Obviously, a lot of people do Avirex now, but they do it in this weird, like, Garage MC, Grime MC pastiche. It was Dipset that made me want to do Avirex, it wasn't no UK shit at all. I remember putting my first Avirex on for the first time, and I was like, “Yo, man, I could take a torpedo missile to the chest right now. I'm actually indestructible. I'm bulletproof.” I like shit that makes me feel like that, you know?

What’s on the horizon for Kibo?

Kwengletaria is on the horizon. Kwengletaria. I'm opening the gates this year. I've been making so much music over the last couple of years, I'm sitting on so much, and I want to put it all out, but this next body of work that I'm about to release, I knew I needed to do that one first. It's really the origin story, and the keys to Kwengletarianism exist in there, the gems are there to excavate for those who are interested in digging. And those that don't like to dig, it’s a bag of bangers, innit. There's a bit of something for everyone, but I'm really looking forward to people seeing what I've got for them this year, because this will be the rock upon which everything else is built on. It's going to be heavy. And then after that, there's a bag of murkerys. Kweff until death. It's going to be a good year. Kwengletarians are eating this year.