Cosmo Pyke is an 18-year old who inhabits the realm of those marked individuals that embody the concept of artistry. I am of the opinion that creativity is like energy, that in its purest form is almost completely malleable. True artists I believe; are usually expressive in more ways than the medium about which they are passionate, Leonardo used to dream up weapons that probably made Cesare hard in the nether regions, Kanye West is currently channelling all that ‘touch the sky’ magic into making runway art, and so on and so forth. Pyke is a skater, graffiti artist, musician and model, with music being the medium of which is most impassioned, so I’m fairly confident that you already know where I’m going with this.

I discovered Cosmo Pyke on one of my jolly jaunts through the magical world of youtube. It still leaves me in awe every time I find an artist that I consider amazing and I just think of all the time spent not knowing about their existence, but I digress. He just released his debut Ep titled 'Just Cosmo'  the title, an ode to Richmal Crompton's 'Just William' one of the many examples of his witty use of symbolism; an insight into the brilliant mind that lies beneath the quirkily clothed surface. A refreshingly unique blend of jazz and funk and all other things nice make Pyke's sound a perfect accompaniment to his charmingly eccentric personality. 

            The young man is your regular teen, still living with mummy and daddy in Peckham, and yet one has the sense that this is a soul that has lived many a life. He is pretty socially aware, voicing his strong opinions about issues like Brexit and the gentrification of his neighbourhood, I mean the nigga paid 50 quid to listen to Jeremy Corbyn speak. I spent a lot of time scouring through interviews that he’d given over the years and to hear him speak was to catch a glimpse into a mind that was in complete harmony with the soul it shared a body with. He comes across as self-assured, an intriguing trait in one who is at an age characterized by internal chaos. That is not to say that he is exempt from all the excess of the juvenile. In the song ‘Afterschool club’ he describes the rather colourful life of a graffiti artist, with police at the door and declarations of ‘ain’t no snitch’ but said much more poetically. 

             Discovering that his parents were artistic or at least had a healthy appreciation of it made his ‘quirkiness’ all the more logical. His mother has been described as a feminist violinist who taught him a guitar (see what I mean?) and her influence can easily be spotted in his sound which features quite a lot of guitar as you may have guessed. A product of a Jamaican father and a British mother, his sound straddles the influences of the diverse music he was exposed to as a result; quite beautifully for want of a more befitting term. He describes the song ‘social sites’ as “sort of Jazzy and slows that's how I think music should be, you know?”. It would turn out of course that I did in fact know. 

            It would be so easy to assume that Pyke is some sort of obscure Soundcloud with his dogged individuality; artist but he is making quite a splash in the music scene, selling out a headline tour and snatching himself a spot on the Dazed 100 list for 2017 which if you don't know is an annual chart by the publication that highlights exemplary young cultural figures and our young Cosmo is just that. He showed this with the visuals for ‘Great Dane’ that showed such attention to detail that would have left the rather very detailed devil in awe. If all of the aforementioned achievements do not impress you then perhaps spotting him in the video for Frank’s Nike would do it? Or mayhaps his Topshop campaigns? If no,t then you’ll just have to be content with basking in the gloriousness of his hazy, languid, jazzy, pseudo-rap musical creations.

 

Photos courtesy of Pinterest, Noctis Magazine and Henry Dean