Music
Laicositna: “Come over to the Laico world”
The Ticketmaster New Music artist on the challenges of shaping his own sound and bringing a new exclusivity to London’s rap-R&B scene
It’s easy to see from the first few minutes of our video chat that Laicositna exudes confidence. The London artist has been busy building a growing fan base around his eclectic, emotionally charged rap-R&B sound, a gentle flow of confessional lyrics laced with samples of indie guitars, a fluttering violin or a jazzy sax.
When I ask where his unusual name comes from, Laico reminisces on a day his outdoorsy friends made the inescapable observation that he’s antisocial. “I was the one person that was in my own bubble.” But it now seems that the rapper’s tendency for introversion has paid off. A series of online searches led to him spelling “antisocial” backwards, replying to his friends’ scepticism about his new moniker with characteristic nonchalance. “I’ve always said to them, ‘They’re gonna figure it out’. You’re not meant to know, but when you end up figuring it out you’re gonna be like, ‘What?’”
Τhe element of surprise is the cherry on a brooding late-night cocktail that draws you in with warmly soulful storytelling, but keeps you hooked with unexpected sonic twists throughout. This homespun rap-sing chemistry was central to his 2024 EP Deal With It, gathering tracks that have garnered a few hundred thousand views on YouTube, including his 2023 breakthrough, “Respectfully” and the willowy “Take Me Serious”. The passionate response to his music fills Laicositna with a sense of gratification – and Adele-level of ambition, which he tackles with equal parts self-assurance and humour.
You’re self-taught, you got into engineering and beatmaking in your bedroom. Would you like to share some key moments of how you got here?
I left school and I didn’t really wanna proceed. I remember my mum got me a computer, so I started learning how to use a programme called Logic. I’ve always liked to make music, so even if I didn’t have a career I was planning to just keep on making music.
My whole thing from when I was 16 years old was just trying to be famous. And when I got to the age of 20, I was kind of following a crowd, in the sense that I was trying to copy people. And then I went through some situations in life.. There was a song that I dropped called “Getaway”, I bought a camera and told my friend, “Look, just record it. I’m just gonna do the music that I like to do”. And then we dropped that song and then the next song, which was called “Respectfully”. Initially, he wasn’t gonna drop it. My friend was the one that recorded the video and he didn’t’ even like the video. And I told him, “Look, at this point it doesn’t even matter.” It was more like, “Let me just find my own sound”.
Your stories are quite emotional. Do they come from personal experience?
The songs come from literally just myself. I always say, “I don’t make music for people, I just make it for myself”. But I like to think that what I go through, a lot of people go through. If they enjoy it, they enjoy it and if they don’t, I guess they don’t.
For ‘Respectfully’, there was a point where I was gambling and then I lost a lot. If you actually listen to the song, every single word is based on real life. That week, I had already lost a certain amount and then I decided to make that song. And that was a career booster, it’s the reason why I’m even here right now.
You actually named your debut EP Deal With It. Does the title refer to such challenges you’ve gone through?
Yeah, it’s like when I made ‘Respectfully’. I like to talk about female stuff as well, so I’ll combine them both and kind of relate it in the same situation. I say in the lyric, “I remember that day when I lost rack, for real”. Taking a loss, it was within my current relationship and I also took a loss with the gambling. But every song is related to the situation. And the whole project, the reason why I came up with the title was because, at the end of the day, in life, you just have to deal with it.
On ‘Take Me Serious’ you say, “Bein’ at my lowest always had me feelin’ high. ‘Cause I knew I was made to go ahead and be successful. If I put time and effort”. So you find an outlet in creativity when things turn bad?
Yeah, that’s a real-life lyric. I like to think when anybody’s at their lowest is a point where people can achieve their highest.It gets you more creative. When you’re at your lowest, you’re gonna think to yourself, “what am I gonna do to get things going on?”, you know?
‘A Gamble’ is pretty jazzy, and you’ve also included acoustic sounds in the record. Would you like to talk a bit about the different directions you’ve taken music-wise?
The funny thing is, all those beats are from YouTube. I like to think I have a good ear in music. As cocky as it sounds, sometimes I just think I’m the best artist in the world. When I’m using the beat, it’s because I enjoy it. I know what sounds nice. So whether I’m using a jazzy beat or a rap-type beat, I’m able to adapt to anything. A lot of people hearing the violin in the beginning of ‘Take Me Serious’, they’re probably thinking, “This guy might have been there within the session”. But the reality is, I went on YouTube and I got the beat, but I was able to adapt to that. And I like to think a lot of people can’t do that. Whatever sort of beat you give me, whether it’s got a violin, a saxophone, a piano, I’m just gonna be able to adapt to it anyway.
But I love what you did with the acoustic session of ‘Thank You 2023’, where you used live musicians, for example.
In the beginning, I remember I was a bit stubborn and I thought, “I don’t wanna do that”. Only because, the first time I even went to a show was this year. I’ve never ever gone to a show in my life. But after that, I thought to myself, “I do wanna do that”. But I’d like to build up the fan base a bit stronger. Sometimes I’m even thinking, “how am I even doing a show?” Cause I’m so small. I’d rather become a little bigger and then do the live band. I want people to appreciate it, you know what I’m saying?
Your videos are very atmospheric. Do you feel that the visuals complement the music experience? A few collaborations are with Theo Edwards, is he your go-to guy?
Yeah he’s the go-to guy. There’s a song called ‘Feel The Same’. That was the first time he ever created that aesthetic. From then, ‘Take Me Serious’ and all the other videos, he calls it my aesthetic. Every time he does somebody else’s video, he might put my sort of effect on it. He’s the guy that I use for every video —for everything, to be honest.
If you look at our song ‘Respectfully’, it’s one of the worst videos ever! Sometimes I think it does help with the aesthetic, but sometimes I think maybe it’s just the music. I like to think that the songs have more strength. If you look at that video, you’ll understand why it doesn’t even matter. I can have a video of me just sitting down. But the videos do 100% percent complement the song.
Your recent collab with French rapper Louzio, ‘Drama’, was bilingual. You also collaborated with London rapper Arz on ‘Lickback’. Are you thinking of opening up to more collaborations and exploring new directions?
I always say, if the song makes sense, why not? I don’t like to just make songs with anybody. Because at the end of the day, I’m only gonna be ruining myself. I’m ruining the image that I’m building. But within collabs, I don’t even go for, like, the biggest. If the song sounds good and it makes sense, I will drop the song. I think I was in Paris and we had the connection with Louzio, at the time. He speaks no English as well. Like, zero English. You know, we didn’t even have to communicate, we were able to communicate through the music.
Arz was really one of the first people that supported me. He was one of the first people that showed love within the rappers in London. So, from that, we’ve always been locked up, just connected. He’s more like a friend, he doesn’t even feel like an artist.
You like to mix a lot of genres but is there a wider London scene you feel inspired by, where you see things happening at the moment?
Nah! You know, what I’ve realised is, what I do, I’d like to think nobody does. On top of that, I feel like I’m in my own world. I wouldn’t do those type of link-ups. Again, it just all has to make sense. It all depends on who I’m making the song with and what the link-up is. But within myself, I just feel like the music that I do is different —it’s definitely adaptable. I’m able to go on a song with a bunch of people and we can make it into a great song. But sometimes I like to think I wanna be as exclusive as Adele. If you see Adele, I think she has no features, that’s for starters. But then again, I’m not really like that cause there are people who I wanna make songs with.
Who are the people you’d most like to collaborate with?
I would like to make a song with The Weeknd. It’s gonna be a hard one, but we’re gonna try to get there! Adele, probably Drake. I’m naming all the big ones just because these people I feel like I can make good songs with. There’s so many artists, you probably wouldn’t even know them. Probably NAV from The Weeknd’s team. To be fair, now thinking about it, I could probably name you about 20 artists, but I still wanna be within that exclusiveness, within myself.
You’re a bedroom artist, maybe you just get inspired by your own space, that’s just what gets you going. So where do you see your music going next? Are there more releases on the way?
The way I’m looking at it right now, we’re dropping a song every month and then we’re gonna drop a project. We’re gonna go to Vegas in February and then we’re gonna record our last video —the song that I got is called “Vegas”, that’s why we’re going. This project’s probably gonna come out around March, we’ve got about four singles that are dropping before that.
I’m hoping the project just goes off. I like to believe, within the foundation I’ve already built now, the next project is gonna build a good amount, like more people. Within that, I wanna do shows but with exclusivity, if that makes sense.
You mentioned being exclusive in your collaborations. How do you interpret that concept in terms of projects?
I’d like to bring in a live band. There are certain songs that are definitely live-band worthy. I feel like I still have to keep on promoting the first project. Nobody’s heard it, only the 60,000 monthly listeners within Spotify have heard it. So I’ve got to do a live band show, it’s only gonna bring out more people. That’s the only way I can really think of promoting it.
Again, within what I do, I sometimes think to myself how I’m even doing it. Within the industry, I’m like a full stop. I’m not within the big names but somehow I’m able to do certain things that other artists can’t do. Even that I’m still trying to figure out.
So, you’re basically saying that you’d like to craft a very specific sound, that you have your own way of going about things?
Yes, it’s more within my sound. Like The Weeknd. When I started listening to The Weeknd, probably 10-12 years ago, I remember I just thought to myself, “Who’s this guy?” Cause at the time he wasn’t really showing his face as well. The way he’d done it, he dropped the projects and built that sound where, obviously, now the guy’s getting billions of streams, The Weeknd’s No. 1 on Spotify. He’s basically convinced the world to listen to his sound. This is the exact same thing that I’m trying to do. I’m trying to convince the world. I’m saying “Come over to the Laico world!”, haha.
