“Everybody loves a house party. You’re talking to the house party king here. These are all the shenanigans rolled into 3.5 minutes, or all the ones I can talk about anyway - DOOLALLY!!” - Hak Baker
East End misfit Hak Baker releases “DOOLALLY”, the third single lifted from his highly anticipated debut album “Worlds End FM”, set for release on Hak Attack Records on 9 June 2023. “DOOLALLY” is a half-rapped, funk-tinged plunge into the bleary haze of a triumphantly messy Friday night. Thrown into the narrative of Hak’s anarchic mind from pre-drinks to meeting the lads to the underbelly of London nightlife, “DOOLALLY” is an unfiltered scene from the East End. Capturing Hak’s raw lyrical style that blends cockney dialect picked up from growing up in the Isle of Dogs, to Jamaican Patois from his mother and grandmother, Hak’s flow developed from his younger years as a Grime MC in B.O.M.B. squad. “We thought we was big, big boys, going to MC at these little clubs in Romford. Don’t forget that Moet cost 30 quid back then so we were having it large”, says Hak, having fallen in love with the guitar when, during his time as an inmate at HMP Portland, he won his first one in a prison raffle. Telling real stories from the streets of London, Hak Baker’s mercurial folk-poetry has won him fans from Benjamin Zephaniah to The Streets. Having introduced us to Worlds End FM with 6 Music A-Listed and Steve Lamacq 10/10 record “Telephones 4 Eyes”, and children of the Windrush generation chant “Windrush Baby”, Hak continues to broadcast a message of unity, protest and collective power, showing he is a vital voice in Britain for those often denied one. Last week, Hak supported Pete Doherty at The Royal Albert Hall (the Libertines frontman fell in love with his lyrics after hearing Wobbles and Cobbles) to crowd mayhem and stormed the stage at Komedia at The Great Escape Festival with queues around the block, as he prepares for more raucous live show across the UK for his debut album in-store tour, starting at Rough Trade East on 9 June and culminating at Crash in Leeds on 14 June.
Worlds End FM is a debut album that introduces Hak Baker’s singular lyricism and sonic in the manner of a molotov cocktail being ‘introduced’ to a window. Building on the street-level stories and bruised geezer confessionals of his output since 2017’s career-launching Misfits EP, World’s End FM takes the form of a pirate radio broadcast from the edge of armageddon. Executive produced by Hak and Karma Kid and compiled from two years of prolific sessions with in-demand producers including Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey, Shrink and Misfits producer Ali Bla Bla, the record crackles as the genre dial is twiddled from rip-snorting post-punk to lilting roots reggae. “Windrush Baby”, released last month, is an opportunity for this fiercely proud son of the Docklands to fully mark out his lineage and proclaim his Jamaican heritage. Telling the story of his Jamaican mother moving to the UK at the young age of 17, and how the children of Windrush have carved out their identity in a country that didn’t feel like their parents’ own, Hak is able to communicate complex subject matter through an uplifting, hook after hook earworm, and reflected on his story in an Independent essay he penned recently. Featuring a voice note from his mother about the “loss of values” within British Black youth whilst addressing Hak, Windrush Baby is a powerful ode to lost souls and his real motherland; Jamaica.
“I don’t serve no tick box merchant – I serve myself first and working class people that struggle for a reason to smile and believe in themselves,” is why Hak pushes himself to create. With a story that begins on the Isle of Dogs where his working class community have become his muse and inspired an unconventional, rebellious career, Hak has become one of the most respected and reverent British artists of his generation. Hak’s tales of inner city London life climb a spectrum between youthful nihilism and male vulnerability, to understanding that within the personal lives the political, as Hak paints a picture of a country in turmoil through his poetic lyricism. With fans spanning culture and genre, from Celeste to Mike Skinner, Fontaines DC to Skepta, Slowthai to Pete Doherty to Joy Crookes and Reuben Dangoor, Hak’s fanbase identify as “MisFits”, like-minded individuals who question the status quo and celebrate Hak’s anti-genre, “G-Folk” sound. With Vice stating “Baker subverts what a British folk singer can be”, culturally he sits as comfortably beside the likes of Madness, The Specials and Benjamin Zephaniah, as he does The Streets, Kano, Akala and Greentea Peng.
Earlier this year, Hak released his first single of 2023, the blistering “Telephones 4 Eyes”, an Orwellian anti-technology protest, with pace and anger that pleads for human connection and condemns the surveillance state. Produced by Dan Carey (Fontaines DC, Foals, Wet Leg, Bat For Lashes, Bloc Party) with a stirring and disturbing video directed by Hugh Mulhern using AI technology, “Telephones 4 Eyes” caught the attention of Steve Lamacq at BBC 6 Music, who rated the song 10/10 on his roundtable, with Jon McClure of Reverend And The Makers describing Hak as “Baxter Dury really pissed off”. With audiences pleading to see Hak live, Hak will also play his biggest UK and Europe tour, with a headline show at KOKO on 29 September and a run of dates in Germany, but not before supporting friend Jamie T at Finsbury Park on 29 June alongside IDLES and Biig Piig.
Calling himself the “three island man”, from an early age Hak wanted to express his angst at the inequality he witnessed through poetry. Remembering intimate moments singing Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” to his mother and excelling in the only thing he knew how to at school - English Language and Literature - Hak started out MC-ing Grime at his local community centre, but felt incredibly moved by alternative music, citing artists such as Terry Callier as profound influences. Hak debuted “Conundrum” in 2017 on Later…With Jools Holland as an “unsigned” new artist, going against the grain and proof that Hak is a storyteller as much as he is a poet and singer. With his love of language stemming from a childhood of asking his mother what certain words meant, and being told to “go and look up in the dictionary”, Hak’s style and execution blends a combination of cockney dialect picked up from growing up in the Isle of Dogs, Jamaican Patois from his mother and grandmother and a flow developed from his younger years as a Grime MC. These elements have given Hak the ability to articulate a stream of consciousness with visceral energy, grief, humour and rebellion, with remarkable tracks including “7AM”, “Thirsty Thursdays” and the 5 Million streaming “Venezuelan Riddim”, which have all become live favourites.
Opening The Other Stage at Glastonbury last year, and performing at Boomtown, 6 Music Festival, Field Day, Live at Leeds and previously supporting the likes of Celeste, Slowthai, Chronixx, Pete Doherty, Wolf Alice and Plan B, Hak Baker also became the face of the Dr Martens mural in East London, playing a raucous show for the punk shoe brand, as well as being chosen as the face of Fender’s American II Collection, collaborating with British Jamaican designer Nicholas Daley. With cult British brands drawn to Hak’s warm character and also his grit and political stance, Hak has also collaborated with legendary photographer Rankin on his first HUNGER cover, Fred Perry and Levis. Hak has also filmed sessions by Fender, COLORs, Soccer AM, IDLES (TCTV) and the British Arts Council, and last year brought his live show back to his community, on his sell-out Bricks & Mor-Tor, playing at pubs across the UK to fans who have supported his vision from day one.
Stating “I’m black and I play Guitar, so what? What’s new? I’m an MC and poet all the same,” it is Hak’s rebel music and artistic integrity that sets him apart and puts him at the vanguard of British culture in 2023.
Tour Dates
June 9 Trevor Nelson Windrush 75 concert
June 9 Rough Trade East, London
June 11 Pie & Vinyl, Portsmouth
June 12 Rough Trade, Nottingham
June 13 Jacaranda, Liverpool
June 14 Crash, Leeds
June 30 Finsbury Park *Supporting Jamie T
UK
Sept 22 St. Lukes, Glasgow
Sept 24 O2 Ritz, Manchester
Sept 26 Whelan’s, Dublin
Sept 28 SWX, Bristol
Sept 29 KOKO, London
Europe
Sept 5 Yuca, Cologne, Germany
Sept 6 Schön, Mainz, Germany
Sept 7 Berghain/Kantine, Berlin, Germany
Sept 8 Molotow, Hamburg, Germany
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