Killa Kela


Killa Kela is an English beatboxer and vocalist & rapper from West Sussex.

Career

Kela received the Stuff Magazine Award for "renegade of Style" 2006 in Los Angeles, he toured alongside Testicicles while performing on festival dates with Pharrel Williams and N*E*R*D. He also did a string of US spot dates with DJ Z-Trip in 2007. From 2003 to 2008, Kela was a special guest at various N*E*R*D shows and festivals across Europe, including Seattle for the Sprite Liquid Mix festival and Oxegen Festival, Dublin. In 2008 Kela performed with Prince and Nikka Costa at the O2 Arena.
His live shows incorporates drum & bass, electro and hip hop styles, singing, MCing, realistic vocal scratching, body movements, and imitations of popular songs such as "I'm a Slave 4 U" by Britney Spears and "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega. He calls his technique "multivocalism", a term coined by longtime artwork collaborator Mark Splinter in 2000. Kela's crew has performed hundreds of live shows all around the world; they are known as "Spit Kingdom."
Kela released The Permanent Marker in 2002, a beatbox-only album featuring Fallacy, Harry Love, and Normski. He then toured with Mobb Deep, Redman, Busta Rhymes, and others. He was second billed at the Earls Court Music festival with Jay-Z.
Some of his voices are featured on the Basement Jaxx single "Oh My Gosh"
Kela released an EP in Europe entitled "For Those Who've Joined Us", featuring Stereo MCs, Artful Dodger, and DJ Vadim.
The Elocution album came in 2005 & included The Elysian Quartet on strings, backing vocalists Rookwood and Trip, DJ Skeletrik, and his producer Spider on keys and vocals. It also featured Sweetie Irie, James Rushent, Roots Manuva, and Neneh Cherry, with writing from Karen Poole. His song Jawbreaker was put on the FIFA Street 2 soundtrack and is to date one of the strongest releases off the Elocution album.
KK appears in an advert for "Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles" and regular appearances on TV shows such as "Big Brother's Little Brother", the Royal Variety Performance, Blue Peter, 4Music, Britain's Got Talent, and four Absolut Vodka commercials in the US.
Kela parted ways with SonyBMG in 2007. During this period he also travelled to China, playing in Shanghai and Beijing with the Infadels on a tour organised by Split Works.
Between albums, Kela created the single "Nightwatcher" alongside Alan Braxe and Fallon.
He also created a mix album alongside his then crew Spitkingdom, entitled "Days That Shook The World" produced by James Rushent and DJ Skelectrik, which received "Best Mix CD 2007 in DJ Magazine UK. He also released the cd Ontourvandamage in 2008, produced by DJ Plus One
In 2009 Kela created his debut album Amplified!.
The album contained "Built Like An Amplifier" which included remixes from Dave Spoon, Sway, and Faith SFX. "Everyday" was produced by Alan Braxe with remixes from LifeLike, Jakwob, and Franz Ferdinand.
It also included "Get A Rise," featuring Hadouken, which was heavily featured on the soundtrack.
Killa Kela began touring the UK with Lethal Bizzle on the Go Hard tour, with Frankmusik on his 2009 winter tour and with Hadouken! in early 2010.
Other features include a Mentos candy commercial, Absolut Vodka Commercials for North America, recent work alongside stylists Judy Blame, PinsLondon, Noki. studio work with Tinie Tempah, Wiley from his "See Clear Now" Album, The Kool Kids, visuals and beatbox for the new Gorillaz Soundsystem project, and recording with The Glitch Mob.
On 28 September that year, Killa Kela appeared at the London School of Economics.
In 2011, he featured in the Plan B movie Ill Manors.
KK performed at the Glastonbury main stage to 83,000 people, as well as touring Australia and Asia.
In 2014 KK begun work on a side project alongside then girlfriend, vocalist Ami Carmine to create a cinematic inspired duo called Them&Us, Ford, and Campari in Germany.
In 2018 Killa Kela started a self-titled weekly Podcast, with the focus being "Artist to Artist, all things Music and street culture" and has featured guests on from music, Djing, fashion, art and sports.
Kela also appeared as a special guest for Rapper Samy Deluxe 's MTV Unplugged performance on MTV Germany.
2018 Kela released the first of its kind beatbox sample pack on Splice, entitled "Killa Kela Body Parts"
He also released the track "Smoke The Hydro" alongside Yunis of Saturate Records

Personal life

In 2007, his year-long relationship with the UK actress Patsy Kensit came to an end.

Discography