Killa Kela

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Killa Kela (born Lee Potter, 1983) is a British beatboxer and rapper from West Sussex.

Career[]

Killa Kela performing at the Camden Crawl in 2007

Kela received the Stuff Magazine Award for "renegade of Style" 2006 in Los Angeles, he toured alongside Testicicles, Dev, Lightspeed Champion, and GLC (Goldie Lookin Chain) while performing on festival dates with Pharrel Williams and N*E*R*D.^[1] He also did a string of US spot dates with DJ Z-Trip in 2007. From 2003 to 2008, Kela was a special guest at various N*E*R*D shows and festivals across Europe, including Seattle for the Sprite Liquid Mix festival and Oxegen Festival, Dublin. In 2008, Kela performed with Prince and Nikka Costa at the O2 Arena.

His live shows incorporates drum & bass, electro and hip hop styles, singing, MCing, realistic vocal scratching, body movements, and imitations of popular songs such as "I'm a Slave 4 U" by Britney Spears and "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega. He calls his technique "multivocalism", a term coined by longtime artwork collaborator Mark Splinter in 2000. Kela's crew has performed hundreds of live shows all around the world; they are known as "Spit Kingdom."

Kela released The Permanent Marker in 2002, a beatbox-only album featuring Fallacy, Harry Love, and Normski. He then toured with Mobb Deep, Redman, Busta Rhymes, and others. He was second billed at the Earls Court Music festival with Jay-Z.

Some of his voices are featured on the Basement Jaxx single "Oh My Gosh" (2004)^[2]

Kela released an EP in Europe entitled "For Those Who've Joined Us", featuring Stereo MCs, Artful Dodger, and DJ Vadim.

The Elocution album ^[3] (Sony BMG) came in 2005 & included The Elysian Quartet on strings, backing vocalists Rookwood and Trip, DJ Skeletrik, and his producer Spider on keys and vocals. It also featured Sweetie Irie, James Rushent (Does It Offend You, Yeah?), Roots Manuva, and Neneh Cherry, with writing from Karen Poole. His song Jawbreaker was put on the FIFA Street 2 soundtrack and is to date one of the strongest releases off the Elocution album.

Kela appears in an advert for "Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles" and regular appearances on TV shows such as "Big Brother's Little Brother", the Royal Variety Performance, Blue Peter, 4Music, Britain's Got Talent, and four Absolut Vodka commercials in the US.

Kela parted ways with Sony BMG in 2007. During this period he also travelled to China, playing in Shanghai and Beijing with the Infadels on a tour organised by Split Works.^[4]

Between albums, Kela created the single "Nightwatcher" (formerly "Addictive") alongside Alan Braxe and Fallon.^[5][6]

He also created a mix album alongside his then crew Spitkingdom, entitled "Days That Shook The World" produced by James Rushent (Does It Offend You, Yeah?) and DJ Skelectrik, which received "Best Mix CD 2007 in DJ Magazine UK. He also released the album Ontourvandamage in 2008, produced by DJ Plus One (Scratch Perverts, Jack Beats)

In 2009, Kela created his debut album Amplified!. The album contained "Built Like An Amplifier" which included remixes from Dave Spoon, Sway, and Faith SFX. "Everyday" was produced by Alan Braxe with remixes from LifeLike, Jakwob, and Franz Ferdinand. It also included "Get A Rise," featuring Hadouken, which was heavily featured on the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit soundtrack.

Kela began touring the UK with Lethal Bizzle on the Go Hard tour, with Frankmusik on his 2009 winter tour and with Hadouken! in early 2010.

Other features include a Mentos candy commercial, Absolut Vodka Commercials for North America (2004), recent work alongside stylists Judy Blame, PinsLondon, Noki. studio work with Tinie Tempah, Wiley from his "See Clear Now" Album, The Kool Kids (US), visuals and beatbox for the new Gorillaz Soundsystem project, and recording with The Glitch Mob. On 28 September that year, Kela appeared at the London School of Economics.

In 2011, he featured in the Plan B movie Ill Manors.

Kela performed at the Glastonbury main stage to 83,000 people, as well as touring Australia and Asia.

In 2014, Kela begun work on a side project alongside then girlfriend, vocalist Ami Carmine (Todd Terry, Stanton Warriors and Basement Jaxx) to create a cinematic inspired duo called Them&Us (with Kela's long time producer/collaborator James Rushent. And within the period of 4 years released 5 EP's, along with various extensive Asian, and European tours.

In 2015, Kela performed alongside DJ Fresh and Fleur East at the Royal Albert Hall, and collaborated With UK Funky pioneer Roska on "Toll Booth" off the Asking 4 It EP. Them&Us also collaborated with The Stanton Warrior's with the track Cut Me Up on the Punks label.

In 2016 Them&Us won Best International Act at The Toronto Independent Music awards, as well as coming 3rd place at Indie Week Canada's annual international battle of the bands. Kela hit the road beatboxing as part of the half time show for Monster Energy's RX Rig Riot events, which took him on tour across Europe. He also performed at Hyde Parks Winter Wonderland over the Christmas season and performed his final show alongside all the original members of The Spitkingdom Soundsystem at the Jazz Cafe. The group disbanded after a year.

Kela was featured on the Conrank track "Set It Off" which was released on Circus Records , as well as TV commercials for Virgin Media (the sponsor for Britain's Got Talent ), Ford, and Campari in Germany.

In 2018, Kela started a self-titled weekly Podcast, with the focus being "Artist to Artist, all things music and street culture" and has featured guests on from music, Djing, fashion, art and sports.

Kela also appeared as a special guest for Rapper Samy Deluxe 's MTV Unplugged performance on MTV Germany.

In 2018, Kela released the first of its kind beatbox sample pack on Splice, entitled "Killa Kela Body Parts" He also released the track "Smoke The Hydro" alongside Yunis of Saturate Records

Personal life[]

In 2007, his year-long relationship with the UK actress Patsy Kensit came to an end.^[7]

Discography[]

• Antistatic Mouthwash mix tape (2000)
• Heavy Artillery – All Terrain Series (2001)
• Crop Circles – All Terrain Series (2001)
• Permanent Marker (2002)
• For Those Who've Joined Us (2003)
• Jawbreaker (2003)
• Elocution (2005)
• Secrets (2005)
• Days That Shook The World Mix CD (2006)
• Reveal Your Inner Self (2007)
• Ontourvandamage Mix CD (2008)
• NightWatcher (2008)
• Built Like An Amplifier (2009)
• Everyday single (2010)
• Amplified! released through 100% Records (2010)
• Killa Kela & Eklips "Crowd Control" EP (2013)
• Them&Us "All Dolled Up EP" through Rubbaduck records (2014)
• Them&Us and Stanton Warriors "Cut Me Up" through Punks Records (2015)
• Them&Us "Chapter One: And So It Begins" EP Through Mermaid Punk/Them&Us (2015)
• Them&Us "Chaper Two: The Great Escape" EP Through Mermaid Punk/Them&Us (2015)
• Them&Us "Chaper Two: The Great Escape" EP (The Beatbox Version) Through Mermaid Punk/Them&Us (2015)
• Them&Us "Chapter Three: Icarus" Through Mermaid Punk/Them&Us (2016)
• Killa Kela "Body Parts" Through Splice (2018)
• Killa Kela & Yunis "Smoke The Hydro" (2018)

References[]

External links[]

• Killa Kela's website
• Acthook Profile