ADIDAS ORIGINALS: IT’S NIKO B’S DOG EAT DOG FOOD WORLD

Avoiding the trappings of one-hit wonder stardom is the name of the game for overnight viral success stories, but it is by no means a dead cert. Battling being pigeonholed and over-exposed, it’s a treacherous path to navigate after achieving such acclaim and fervour with one song, but to continue your musical career after reaching the dizzying heights of viral success can be a truly difficult task. Successfully navigating this often unpredictable and uncompromising terrain, London by way of Milton Keynes rapper Niko B is in the run up to his debut full length album, “Dog Eat Dog Food World”.

Breaking out in 2020 with tracks “Mary Berry” and “Who’s That What’s That”, the 23-year-old musician – whose real name is Tom Austin – has taken things at his own pace, dropping a series of stand-alone singles throughout the past few years, capitalising on his tongue-in-cheek delivery, self-deprecating tone and laidback sensibilities. “I think it’s always been natural to me to try and make people laugh,” Tom ruminated when reflecting on the humorous approach in his songwriting, “so even when I’m doing something serious, like making an album, one of the first things I think about is how can this make someone laugh?” Key to his initial success, Tom’s sense of humour offered a tonic for the boredom, fear and uncertainty that was all around us throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is this lighthearted sensibility that has seen his fan base continue to grow beyond the original seedlings of virality. Carrying this attitude into his work throughout the past four years, Tom has been carefully building out his stylistic approach, with a few false starts along the way before landing on the finished collection of tracks; “I scrapped two projects worth of songs before I made this album,” Tom commented, “it was years of making songs and collecting beats on YouTube, then about a year of writing, then the whole album was just recorded in my room. It’s been different to making singles because I had to take into account how every song would sound as a collective, not just as a single song.” This attention to detail and underlying cohesion is what has continued to propel Tom forward with his musical endeavors, tapping into what has worked and what hasn’t, offering him the opportunity to create a considered body of work that stands as a statement of his own originality, rather than rushing the process in a bid to propel hype.

But it’s not as if Tom hasn’t been able to build hype for himself, either. Close friends with Victory Lap Radio’s founder, Joe McDermott, Tom has featured on the Balamii Radio show several times, most notably in the now infamous live cypher with Dave and Central Cee, with his rendition of the then unreleased “Love Island Freestyle”. Enabling him to further his distinctive brand of low-key bars, with tongue firmly in cheek, his playful freestyle saw him gain unprecedented exposure with the video being shared by industry giant, Drake. Capitalising on these moments as a springboard to generate interest and hype around his own project, Tom’s patience has proven that his creative ability will shine at the right time. “Learning patience was one of the hardest but most rewarding things,” Tom reflects, “it’s really taught me to just trust the timing and process of everything. I never look at a situation as “bad”, it’s just always meant to be. I’m a victim of optimism.”

Furthering this sense of optimism Tom speaks of, his album’s title offers an optimistic and typically humorous comment on the mores of contemporary society. On the inspiration behind the name, he said “I feel like a lot of people live by the quote ‘dog eat dog world’, where it’s about getting above other people and being in this big competition, but I feel like I’m in a “dog eat dog food world”, so while everyone’s focused on getting one up on each other, I’m just enjoying everything, and eating some lovely dog food.” Avoiding the trappings of fame and modern culture, Tom’s approach places his own laidback ideology to the forefront, rejecting the rat race and hustle culture of modern times in favour of taking things at your own pace, to protect your own originality and ensure that at the end of the day, you’re still having fun making your art. “Just seeing people love things makes me want to make more stuff that I love,” reflects Tom. It’s this overarching attitude that has seen his Niko B project propelled into the Gen Z stratosphere, garnering success as a direct result of his positive attitude and reluctance to pursue the goals others have set for him. With his debut album releasing on May 24th, it’s Niko B’s “Dog Eat Dog Food World”, and we’re just living in it.