Kidwild is UK rap’s comeback kid who never quit | The Cover | NME.com
Kidwild (2026), photo by Ramsey Ramone
Kidwild is UK rap’s comeback kid who never quit
Fresh from his spot on the NME 100 of 2026, this east London hustler tells us how sheer self-belief powered him out of record deal doldrums and into a resurgent new chapter
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hen was just 17, it seemed like he’d already hit the jackpot. A six-figure deal from Atlantic Records promised to take him to fame and fortune. “We’re rich!” he recalls telling his mum after signing the contract – but then a nightmare plot twist ensued. The A&R who’d believed in Kidwild enough to sign him left the label in the middle of the deal. His releases stalled and, for more than a year, he couldn’t put music out.
“When you’re outside the music industry, that’s everything you hear about: someone signs a deal and their life changes,” the east London rapper – real name Keaton Edmund – tells NME now, sitting on a plush tan couch in a swanky Shoreditch hotel lobby. “So I thought my music career was gonna fly off the roof as soon as I signed the paper.” He describes the fallout as “degrading”, choosing his words carefully, appearing wiser than you’d expect a 21-year-old to be. “You’re meant to be the next star, and then you just exist. You’ve got fans messaging you. You’ve got songs. And you can’t do nothing.”
Kidwild on The Cover of NME. He wears a denim set by BRYDER. Credit: Ramsey Ramone for NME
Rather than stay at a standstill, Kidwild went all in on himself. “When I got dropped [in 2024], I was calm. I was like, ‘It’s time,’” he says. “I just believed wholeheartedly that I can do it by myself.” He’d already proven that he could – he earned his first viral moment with the buoyant ‘Popular Loner’, which would eventually become his debut single, in 2020. The vibrant pop-coded track slips introspective admissions (“I don’t even like people, I’ve clocked it”) between light flexes and tongue-in-cheek bravado.
His subsequent releases, like ‘Overthinking Freestyle’ and ‘Feeling A Way’, carved out a niche: a contemplative take on drill that married sliding, skittish 808s and chest-rattling bass with dissections of his own doubts, ambitions and contradictions. Letting such thoughts live on record felt significant: modelling a version of masculinity that doesn’t require suppression to feel strong. As we said when Kidwild made the NME 100 of 2026, our list of essential emerging artists to watch: “In a world where rappers often lock away their emotions behind money spreads and Spielbergian music videos, Kidwild’s biggest strength is how he wears his heart on his sleeve.”
That openness is the backbone of Kidwild’s biggest songs. Four years after that initial viral buzz, he deepened his self-awareness on ‘Indecisive (Is It A Crime)’, which samples Sade’s 1985 hit ‘Is It A Crime?’. Floating over gliding, minimal production, he leans fully into the tension between heart and mind, ambition pulling one way, emotion tugging another: “My heart been telling me yes, mind been telling me no / Lockdown, I been inside, long time I ain’t been out my home”.
Credit: Ramsey Ramone for NME
When ‘Indecisive’ began bubbling online, Edmund was busy visiting family in St Lucia. He found himself unable to relax and “check out”. “Man’s not in a position where I should be going on holiday,” he explains. “We should be working.” He’d booked his getaway for 10 days. He lasted three.
“I was calling my manager like, ‘Bro, I need to come back,’” he recalls. “He was like, ‘I can’t tell you to leave your family. That’s your decision.’ And I knew. I had to go.”
When he landed back in London, he went straight from the airport to the studio and got in the booth. Shortly after, he had ‘Redemption’ – the song that would serve as his real breakthrough. The next day, he uploaded a clip of the new track and, within 24 hours, it had already hit 1million views. Suddenly, former NME Cover star Nemzzz was in his DMs asking to jump on the song. It was a blur, which was fitting for the song – the hook of ‘Redemption’ had come to Kidwild quickly, almost instinctively. It felt like a release of everything that had built up over the past year. “That whole year was redemption,” he says. “I was literally on a redemption arc. It wasn’t a choice of ‘I will.’ Man has to.”
“When I got dropped, I was calm. I just believed wholeheartedly that I can do it by myself”
Before rap ever entered the picture, though, Edmund was already in front of audiences. As a child actor, he performed in London’s West End and in touring productions like The Bodyguard, made a cameo in Stormzy’s ‘Vossi Bop’ video and held a main role in CBBC football drama Jamie Johnson. It sounded glamorous, but on the inside, it felt like a sacrifice.
“When all of that [acting] stuff was going on, I never wanted to go,” he admits. “It was always in the summer holidays. Everyone would be outside, and I’d just be somewhere off-grid. None of my bredrins [were] there.” Kidwild’s mum pushed him to act – he says he was “forced, but a good force” – and in the end, he learnt how to be the showman that a rapper needs to be.
Kidwild wears an outfit by CHROMA.TONE. Credit: Ramsey Ramone for NME
Between acting jobs, he learnt quickly how to rely on himself. Growing up, his mum worked two jobs, his dad was incarcerated, and he mostly spent time on his own despite being one of 12 children. If he did hang out with others outside of school, it was often with his big sister and her friends, when he’d sit in the corner of their dance class on his iPad. One day, from that corner, he witnessed UK rap history in the making when J Hus visited the dance studio to record scenes for the video from his 2015 breakout track ‘Lean & Bop’. It opened Kidwild’s eyes: “When you see someone come from the same place as you and then just do what you want to do, it’s like you know it’s possible” – possible that something bigger could grow from the same corners of Stratford that he knew so well.
In 2020, during the quiet of the COVID-19 pandemic, he laid the foundations for his own big moves. Like many teenagers, Kidwild was stuck inside with too much time on his hands and nowhere to channel his energy. He ordered “the worst” microphone online and started recording in his bedroom, testing bars, learning how his voice sat over beats, and figuring out what he wanted to say. There was no pressure, just curiosity.
In the process, he made about 20 songs – most of them bad, but five he considered OK. He sent all of them to his best friend who had a “good ear” for music, and together, they decided that one stood out among the rest – ‘Popular Loner’. The track quietly snowballed online once he teased it on TikTok, soundtracking hundreds of thousands of videos on the app and building an audience who recognised themselves in its contradiction of being socially visible but privately detached.
Kidwild wears a jacket by A Day Without Angst, pants by Rick Owens and shoes by PDF. Credit: Ramsey Ramone for NME
Nowadays, you can find Kidwild rubbing shoulders with established names, having been co-signed by the likes of AJ Tracey, Tiffany Calver, Knucks and more. On his upcoming debut mixtape ‘Job’s Not Done’, he adds another name to the list, going toe-to-toe with UK rap pioneer Blanco on the steely single ‘Remontada’. He reunites with Nemzzz on ‘TNT’ – an explosive, back-and-forth masterclass on “how to spin each other” in the name of friendly fire.
Beyond the peacocking displays of competition and bravado on ‘Job’s Not Done’, there’s tenderness woven through the tape, too. ‘Forgive Me’ revisits his relationship with his dad with an unguarded candour, while ‘Back For You’ captures the moment love softens a hardened hustler. “You can have a strong mind, but you can’t control how the heart feels,” he says matter-of-factly about the latter.
It’s the title track, though, that really distils Kidwild’s psyche. Over explosive 808s and haunting vocal chops, he doesn’t celebrate his success, instead laying out his mantras for never slowing down. “It was one per cent chance, 99 per cent grind,” he declares. “The job’s not done, so what would I get complacent for?” Even after viral hits and co-signs, Kidwild is still someone with something to prove.
“The only person who can ever be there for you, every single day, is yourself”
Music has become Edmund’s vessel to make sense of the quieter parts of his mind, songwriting a way to help process his thoughts. By releasing the songs that stem from that, he hopes he can pass on a similar clarity to whoever’s listening. “I want you to listen to that tape, and after you listen, you feel like you can take on the world,” he enthuses. “It’s like a drug of motivation.”
After watching a six-figure deal collapse and rebuilding his career from his bedroom, motivation is not just a buzzword for Kidwild. “Everyone’s got dreams,” he says. “No matter how small or big they are, every dream is a big dream because it’s not happened yet.” That’s the core message of the tape: an insistence that your story isn’t over just because someone else closes a door. He sees how his music affects people as his legacy: “You’ll never forget the moment where you listened to something and it resonated with you. That’s impact. That’s how you’re not forgotten.”
After 10 years in entertainment – from West End productions to failed label deals – Kidwild has lived many lives before the age of 21. He knows how quickly momentum can stall, how easily people switch up, how fragile being “next up” can be. Through it all, he’s learned an important lesson. “The only person who can ever be there for you, every single day, is yourself,” he explains. “If you want to make something happen, you have to do it. No one else is gonna do it for you.” If the last few years have proved anything, it’s that he’s not waiting for someone else to green-light his future – Kidwild is taking it anyway.
Kidwild’s ‘Job’s Not Done’ is out February 27.
Listen to Kidwild’s exclusive playlist to accompany The Cover below on Spotify or on Apple Music here.
Words: Kyann-Sian Williams
Photography: Ramsey Ramone
Styling: Marcua Pancho aka Ash
Styling Assistance: Jason Okoh
Lighting: Francesca Albarosa
Second Lighting Assistance: George Cabré
Digi: Francesca Albarosa
Retouch: Lucy B
Location: GAS Studios
