Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
With four Grammy nominations and two diamond singles already under his belt, the pressure’s on for Alex Da Kid’s debut single. The producer, best known for Love The Way You Lie by Eminem and Rihanna and Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, and creator of the KIDinaKORNER label imprint, has finally decided to release music under his own name. Alex Grant was born in Bristol and got his start in the music industry in London, before landing his first big hit with Airplanes by B.o.B. and Hayley Williams. Now living in LA, he has been one of the most sought-after producers in the world ever since, known for his anthemic tracks which blur the lines between indie-rock, hip-hop and pop. His debut single Not Easy is a mid-tempo tune featuring the KIDinaKORNER-signed band X Ambassadors, along with Elle King and Wiz Khalifa. It’s featured on an IBM Watson TV ad and was created using IBM’s artificial intelligence technology. Following all his past success, the song is a bit of an anticlimax for a debut single, lacking the energy of Alex’s biggest hits, but nonetheless the response has been positive so far – the YouTube comments are filled with people predicting it will be a future hit.