The Multitudes in Us: Kae Tempest’s Favourite Records

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

6. GravediggazThe Pick, The Sickle And The Shovel

This is something that will surprise people: Gravediggaz was my way into Wu-Tang. I fell in love with Too Poetic, and the RZArector’s verse on ‘Twelve Jewelz’ on this album. I used to write that verse out when I was in school – rather than doing my work, I’d write it out and just look at it and study it. I just love the production, the presentation, the storytelling and the mythology behind the whole project. It felt like they had come to tell the truth – everything they were saying was resonating me at the time. It’s so strange because I lived a way different life to what they were talking about – I was just a 14-year-old in Lewisham – but it felt like a deep and resonant truth.

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