Krept & Konan

Karl ‘Konan’ Wilson & Casyo ‘Krept’ Johnson are often referred to as Play Dirty and better known as Krept & Konan, the English Rap duo from South London.

The pair, from neighbouring London boroughs, attended different secondary schools however through mutual friends they became acquainted and as their friendship grew, so did their interest and talent in music which resulted in the release of their first mixtape “Red Rum” under their artist names “Krept & Konan” in 2009. Filmed freestyles were uploaded to new urban website, “SBTV” by Jamal Edwards and over the following two years, Krept, Konan and Jamal continued to release footage via the music site, resulting in an ever-growing fan base.

Their notorious freestyle cover of Jay-Z & Kanye West’s “Otis” gained 3 million views within one day resulting in Skepta asking Krept & Konan to join him on his sell out UK tour and coverage across news sites and music blogs throughout the world. 

In early 2013 Krept & Konan released a string of mainstream club hits including “Boy Better Play Dirty”, alongside Grime heavyweight JME from Boy Better Know, and club track “Numb”, both of which saw the duo achieve playlist success from MTV, BBC Radio 1Xtra, Choice FM and Kiss TV. In September 2013 the ‘Young Kingz’ mixtape was released featuring Tinie Tempah, Chip, Giggs, Fekky and G FrSH and with no national radio or TV playlisting, no label backing and promotion care of their social networks, Krept & Konan independently charted the mixtape in the top 20 Official Album Chart.