IYKZ

Having begun his journey of music at the tender age of 14 as a garage MC, IYKZ hailing from the north side of Hackney, honed his musical skills by studying the crafts of some of the greats such as Tupac, Biggie, Michael Jackson and more.

IYKZ was committed to finishing his education. Whilst studying for a degree at University, he found a small following on Myspace after being pushed to make a profile by a friend. This lead to his first mixtape ‘P2P’ with his music videos featured by platforms such as GRM Daily & All HipHop. Rave reviews on IYKZ’ ‘Warm Up Session’ for SB.TV lead to the creator Jamal Edwards MBE later featuring it in the company’s advert for Google Chrome, broadcasted in 2012.

That same year saw IYKZ work closely with old friend and now Afropop artist Maleek Berry on his next 3 projects with collaborations from artists such as Scorcher, Jermaine Riley and Afrobeats superstar Davido.

After 6 years under alias Ikes, the rebranded IYKZ was to revisit his Hackney routes on 2017 mixtape “Kings Crescent on Queens Drive” containing singles such as ‘KILO’ and ‘They Know (Wan Mo)’ ft Maleek Berry.

Feb 2018 saw IYKZ release project ‘Closure’ which proved to be his most focused and honest material to date. Based around the break-up with ex-girlfriend, IYKZ used 7 songs as therapy to deal with the trauma and healing process.

Synergy with old friend Maleek Berry came about once more in their 2019 Summer anthem ‘Show Me Mercy’ produced by Legendary Beatz (Wizkid, NSG, Skepta, Drake). This year would also see IYKZ collaborate with ‘underrated legend’ Cadet before his untimely demise. The song has yet to be released, although IYKZ sees it as just another chapter to his intricate story.

A series of online freestyles, content pieces and singles such “Sick & Tied” & “Roots” kept IYKZ busy as he adapted to the lockdown, now recording himself in his simple yet efficient home studio setup.

“It’s a volume game now; in the past I’ve been way too precious with my material. This climate gives me a chance to stay consistent, hungry and create forward…” – IYKZ