First Listen: Kel-P - Bully Season Vol.1

Grammy award-winning producer, songwriter, and musician Kel-P has kicked off the year with his debut EP ‘Bully Season Vol.1’, most commonly recognised by his producer tag ‘It’s Kel-P vibes’, the multidisciplinary artist has assisted his distinctive production skills on a impressive plethora of Afrobeats records, including ‘African Giant’, ‘Made In Lagos’ and Rema’s ‘Rave & Roses’. Kel-P can additionally be seen on tracks like SPINALL & Fireboy DML - Sere, Burna Boy - On The Low, and most recently the musician was featured on the soundtrack of Creed III, alongside Black Sherif and Bas for ‘Blood, Sweat & Tears’.

Stepping away from his role as one of Afrobeats' most influential producers ‘Bully Season Vol.1’ unveils a brand new chapter for Kel-P, the lead single ‘One More Night’ is an addictive single that interpolates Nelly & Kelly Rowland’s timeless hit “Dilemma”, which is instantly recognised after the first listen. However it wasn’t just the magic of Kel-P that made ‘One More Night’ possible, he also worked very closely with notable producer KDAGREAT (Kranium, Rema, Wizkid) to create this infectious track that has the potential to soundtrack summer 2023.

Taking some time away from being an award-winning producer and musician, here’s what Kel-P had to say about his debut EP ‘’Bully Season Vol.1’: Combining all of the elements of another timeless Afro-beat infused project, Kel-P once again sets himself aside from his peers with his distinctive production, songwriting, and delivery, the next few months reflect a brand new chapter in Kel-P’s musical journey.

Initial reaction:

"Everything about this first EP was intentional, from not working with any other artists and producers, I wanted to showcase the face behind the name and begin to establish myself as Kel-P the artist, having too many features on the project would only take away that part. I don't want the world to say, because I had a specific artist on a track, that’s the only reason it blew up. I'm open to collaborations and features, which is what will happen on my future projects, but for the first one I just wanted to go through that lane of doing it alone and seeing how the world is gonna perceive me, how the world is gonna accept me as an artist, honestly, it’s been great results since the project dropped."

Artist perception:

Sundress -“Sundress was produced by Iotosh, after I hit him up in the DM’s he sent me a couple of beats and things started moving from there. I did my thing on the vocals, we went back and forth on the post-production and we came up with that song. The creative process of Sundress was simple, we were super happy with the end result.”

One More Night - "As soon as I heard the original sample, I started recording on the beat I was so inspired. I played it for a couple of girls, and they said it was fire, so I finished it. To me, it felt fresh, everyone can dance to it because it’s dope, beautiful, and unique.

I've always wanted to sample a classic R’n’b track, Dilemma is one of those tracks that I’ve been listening to since my childhood, so I thought to myself ‘OK you know what? Let me sample one of my favourite records into this track and that’s what I did with One More Night. We made it work, it sounded right, and it sounded dope. Clearing the sample was the hardest part but we did it!”

True Love - “True Love was actually a freestyle, a producer called London made the beat and came through to my house where he played me a couple of beats. After listening to the True Love instrumental, I instantly fell in love with it and that’s when I started freestyling on the beat. True Love was very easy to record, that’s what made the freestyle so natural.”

Feel Lucky - “I'm not feeling lucky this year. I feel blessed, yeah like I'm blessed. That’s how I feel all the time like I'm blessed like God has given me all it takes to do this. So, I’m just taking my time with it, getting things right, putting things together, and working with my team. Yeah, I'm blessed”

Visuals

Alongside this vibrant EP are energetic visuals for the lead single ‘One More Night’, flipping from day to night Kel-P is seemingly having the time of life, as he emulates the components of a lively summer's night, painting the perfect picture of a party, as it goes from day to night.