Kozyeli on Scottish hip hop culture getting down with queer / femme identities & attitudes, + getting support from Fred Again

Coming up through Scotland’s music scene, Kozyeli is building a name for herself through honesty, creativity, and a strong sense of community. Blending different hip hop influences, still exploring her sound and enjoying the process, with possibly new music to come sooner than you think.

From early performances in queer spaces to bigger opportunities that have helped grow her confidence, her journey has been shaped by the people around her. At the heart of it all is a commitment to being real – making music that connects, with involvement with movements like GLASTAR reflecting where she’s come from and where she is going.

How has being part of GLASTAR, which spotlights femme and queer voices, shaped your perspective on representation and support within hip hop culture and the Scottish music scene?

GLASTAR was so good! My personal perspective on representation & support in the Scottish scene was kind of shaped by femmes and queer people to begin with, one of my earliest performances and collaborations was with Scandal GLA, which is a queer club night. 

Since then, I continued to work with & be uplifted by artists and audiences in the LGBTQ+ community, I’m honestly where I’m at now because of queer spaces & supporters. For me, it’s like there’s an unspoken rule to be authentic, free and comfortable. That’s like my whole thing! I feel the most heard and understood in spaces like this! 

On a wider scale though I’m aware hip hop never really got down with queer and femme identities and attitudes, especially if it didn’t fall under a certain look & sound. A lot of the culture is misogynistic & homophobic. I don’t feel this energy in the Scottish hip hop community though, even in ‘straight’ spaces, although I naturally get a little more self-aware and a bit nervous, I still feel the love & the curiosity to be more open minded & accepting.

Nights like GLASTAR and Scandal are so important for this reason.  Dismantling the negative parts of the culture and to progress it.

Since your conversation with Fred again in December about experiencing anxiety around social media, how has your relationship with putting yourself out there online evolved, if at all?

My relationship with putting myself out there has completely changed. That conversation with Fred fully switched something on in my mind. He made me realise my feelings around posting myself and my work online was entirely from the fear of being judged & he reminded me that most great artists (including himself) felt that exact same away. All the other artists in the room agreed and related to me too. 

It made me feel less alone and isolated, and I began posting mostly for myself to look back on. I try to remember all my other artist friends either still feel the same as me or they used to feel the same & they got over it, it’s very soothing for me to not feel alone & judged.

Since that conversation I could care less about being judged. Genuinely changed the trajectory of my career. Even just the fact that I was in the room with all these other artists with the same dreams as me, all so unique & talented. It gave me so much confidence. I’ll always refer to that video when I feel afraid or stuck. Even when I feel amazing to be honest.

Speaking of Fred again, getting recognition from him is a significant moment for any artist. What was that like for you, and how did the opportunity to meet him come about?

It was a very affirming moment as an artist; Fred Again is truly so inspiring and refreshing. He has no idea what it meant to me in the moment, and it means even more now that I’m deeper in this whole thing.

The ’how’ is actually crazy, a friend text me about a casting director looking for upcoming artists – I basically had about three hours to record and edit a video chatting about who I am, why I do what I do and what I want from making music. 

I was actually not going to do it because I didn’t think I had the time, I didn’t feel very confident, I was babysitting loud kids…  I just felt like the odds were against me but alas, I made it work. I whipped up a video and sent it.

Mac Miller’s voice kept playing on my mind ‘you missing every single shot that you ain’t taking’, so I didn’t really care for the outcome, just wanted to take the shot. But it was a clean swish! The casting director emailed me back & told me all the logistics and it happened within the next 3 weeks.

Shifting to your releases, I saw you posting a story wondering about if people actually listen to music on SoundCloud. What draws you to SoundCloud over platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music, and how does that choice influence the way you share and approach your music? 

SoundCloud appeals to me because it’s where I listened to music in my more formative years. I feel like everybody used SoundCloud back in 2014-2019, that era just calls to me. So many ‘SoundCloud rappers’ brought forth some of the most influential sounds in new age hip hop, a sound that deeply resonates with me. When I began releasing music, I had it in my head I wanted to be a ‘SoundCloud rapper’ it felt like less pressure somehow.

Less serious, the app itself holds no pressure you know? You can release whenever you want for free as well – as an upcoming artist with not a lot of bread, that calls to me.

I posted a poll enquiring about my following’s SoundCloud usage because I just wanted to see what it was saying, people ask me about my music on other platforms all the time, and I’m working on it, there’s a lot of logistics and money that goes into it and overall I’m thinking about it too much.

Through all of that, I realised that I lowkey like the fact you must go out of your way to listen to my music, like CDs or vintage vinyl. Especially for someone like me who is still finding their sound, SoundCloud seems perfect.

I love how you blend different sounds in your songs with the likes of old school hip hop and more trap leaning as well, it feels fresh. How do you approach that when you’re producing, and do you make most of your own beats or work more with other producers?

I don’t make any of my own beats. They are all from Scotland based producers – I owe it all to them. I am really big on good beats even when listening to music. I’m just good at the whole writing, flowing, rhyming and storytelling. 

Everything else is the work of some amazing producers I know. The more I work with them, the more they know the types of sounds I tend to lean towards and so the beats become more and more tailored to me and my personality and what I like without taking away any of their personal essence in their beats as well, it feels so intimate and artistic.

Finally, with your set just gone opening for Jords at SWG3, how do you typically approach putting together a live performance, and what do you hope the audience takes away from your set?

I tend to not think too deeply about it and remember that I’m doing this for fun. I try to make my set list nice and climactic & also try to showcase my versatility.

Other than that, what you see on stage is how I vibe out at home. I just hope the audience catches onto my energy & freedom, I hope they feel inspired to be themselves just from seeing me be myself – I hope to bring up feelings of hope and connection, I hope to be relatable and be heard!

And I hope that me being heard means they’re being heard too.

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