Keith Hopewell has written and produced music since the late 1980’s, exploring many influential genres. These include rare-groove, boogie, street-soul, jazz funk, Latin, hip hop electro and roots reggae sound clashes. His musical career emerged following a handful of independent releases in 1995 and 1996 with the group that he founded – New Flesh For Old. Following an EP on DJ Vadim’s Jazz Fudge Recordings in 1997, Keith released the first New Flesh single for Big Dada Recordings entitled ‘Electronic Bombardment’.
The label ‘Big Dada Recordings’ was founded by music journalist, and now author, Will Ashon. Formed as a subsidiary of Ninja Tune, the label specialised in experimental and avant garde Hip Hop music. On the sleeve of the label’s first compilation ‘Black Whole Styles’ in 1998, the sound was described as ‘rocket fuel for the inner-city space program’. In 1998, Keith and New Flesh (now featuring Toastie Tailor and Juice Aleem) signed a 3-album contract with the label. The albums received international notoriety and media coverage, leading to world-wide tours and critical acclaim.
While working with the Big Dada label, Keith established a strong network of collaborators including: Gift Of Gab from Blackalicious, NYC’s Anti-Pop Consortium, Roots Manuva, the late TY, Blackitude and most importantly the late Ramm:Ell:Zee. On other projects, under the production name ‘Part 2’, Keith has worked with Fallacy, LSK, Lotek HiFi, Mike Ladd, Mercury prize winner Speech Debelle and Sandra Melody of Diplo fame. Keith has also produced remixes for Roots Manuva (Witness One Hope), DJ Spooky and Killah Priest, Serge Gainsbourg, and also the debut release ‘Elohim 1972’ for NYC poet/ actor Saul Williams.
As a visual artist, Keith has incorporated sound into his art practice. Working with synaesthesia concepts, Keith’s visual work utilises frequencies and colour as notation to create an autonomous ‘language of the senses’. In 2015, he released the album ‘Chaoid Systems’ with VaVa Records culminating in a sound installation at Hoxton Gallery.
In 2022, with his partner Nikki Goldup, the ‘Open Src Music‘ label was launched to release grass roots music projects. The first release was a collaboration album – ‘Divine Alchemy’ working with Nomadic Poet from West London, released under the under the name ‘HAQK’. Following this, a limited edition cassette was released featuring exclusive passages from Ramm:Ell:Zee’s Alpha’s Bet mythology entitled ’40 Ounces Of Palimpestial Equations’.
Forthcoming releases include collaborations with NRST GRN (formally known as Scientists of Sound), MYKA 9 from Freestyle Fellowship, X Works from Houston Texas and original sound system legend Gappy Ranks.
Keith Hopewell 