Rapper Krept from the iconic UK rap duo Krept & Konan showed face at The Powerlist 2025 awards and spoke on the importance of opening doors in the music scene and two upcoming artists to be on look out for.
Casyo “Krept” Johnson BEM, 34, who rose to fame by making rap music has opened new avenues in his career by founding a 17 million pound business 'Nala's Baby.' The company offers natural skin and hair care products for babies and families and was founded in 2020.
Despite Krept’s latest business adventures, he remains passionate about the music industry and making it more within reach for youngsters with lyrical talent.
He spoke about the need to make the music industry more open to artistic people:
Krept explained: "I just think it just needs to be more accessible.
"I feel like a lot of people that want to be creative and want to get into this industry but they might not know where to start or where to look, I just think that needs to be shown a little bit more and made a bit easier for people.
Krept also opened up about the lack of role models when he was growing up, which made his dream of becoming a star and a successful businessman feel more like a fantasy
"When I was younger, I don't think there was as much representation, so a lot of things didn’t seem as possible.
"I feel like as I've gotten older, I've seen so much more representation, so much more people in better positions, in the media down to the news that we’re seeing everyday.
Krept said it should not be so complicated to debut in the music industry and career-changing connections should be more available.
"Like if I’m an upcoming rapper I should know exactly where I need to go and who I need to speak to and these are the people that can help me and invest in my career.
"I just think the education isn't there.
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Getty Images)"But I do think there are definitely a lot more spaces owned by Black people now that are in these spaces to make a difference for upcoming artists. I feel like there just needs to be a bit more education on the route to that."
Krept name dropped two on-the-rise UK rappers that music lovers should keep an eye out for: 19-year-old north London female rapper Chy Cartier and 20-year-old Manchester-born rapper Nemzzz.
"There’s a few great people actually Chy Cartier, I think she’s dope, I really like her. Nemzzz he’s killing it at the minute."
Chy Cartier has been featured on big platforms including BBC 1 radio Xtra and KISS Fresh to showcase her talent. This month she released a feature with well-known UK rapper Headie One in a catchy track called 'Yo.' The song has raked up over a 100K views on Youtube in just a few days after its upload.
Nemzzz has one million followers on Tik Tok and his latest song-release 'Evicted' gained over one million views on Youtube in just eleven days, showing growing popularity with listeners. Krept said young talent like them keeps him "optimistic" about the future of the UK music industry.
Krept praised Powerlist 2025 for being an event that showcases groundbreaking African and Caribbean role models in industries from business to entertainment. The Powerlist was founded in 2005 as a solution to the lack of celebration of Black success in mainstream spaces.
"When I was growing up I didn’t really see that. Now there's a lot more representation and I feel like we just need more of us to keep breaking barriers down, getting into great positions and showing representation when it's needed."
Krept said he felt inspired at the Powerlist awards on Friday night: "It's amazing, it makes everything seem much more possible like when I'm sitting down speaking to people and finding out what they do and everyone doing these great amazing things, it makes me feel like ‘Yes!’ Like we all can do this- it gives me more inspiration and more hope to achieve great things.
"There's so many people in here to celebrate amazing, great achievements with and I just feel like it's so important for events like this where people can just come together and celebrate the success of everything that we’ve done given the circumstances."
Krept felt proud of the determination that many African and Caribbean folks have that has allowed them to achieve their dreams, despite facing discrimination.
“I feel like we do have a disadvantage and in this room but there are so many people that have overcome that and pushed past the barriers and the limitations that people probably thought they could put in front of us. We've broken those barriers down.
English (US) ·