L.A Salami’s journey of self-discovery is one that extends far beyond music. Born Lookman Adekunle Salami in Peckham, to a Nigerian mother and absent father, various circumstances meant he spent the first few years of his childhood in a foster home and felt like an outsider for quite some time. “I sort of always felt locked off from my culture,” he says. “If I grew up with my mum, I’d probably know Yoruba now.” Creativity was an instinctive outlet for Lookman, but he was never confined to just one medium. Growing up, he’d wanted to combine them all: visual art, music, the written word—everything. “My first love was actually film,” he says. Spielberg became my hero and I wanted to become a film director.” Over time, he found himself gravitating towards poetry and music. “I started seriously playing music after I heard Bob Dylan because I wasn’t a good singer. I realised it’s not about how well you sing—it’s how honest you are and how much of your truth can you put into a melody.” Since expanding his palette and loosening the definitions he applies to his own music, Lookman has been looking to modern rap titans such as Kanye West, Drake and Kendrick Lamar—particularly the former’s hunger for experimentation. “That’s kind of why rock & roll died: because all the big rock & roll artists stopped being weird and stopped trying things. It’s given Lookman's music a new level of raw, instinctual beauty, often flitting between singing and a more spoken-word-meets-rap delivery.
