00:00Hi it's Chris from the Sheffield Star and today I'll be speaking with the
00:03Sheffield grind, bassline, hip-hop artist, artist extraordinaire Kare Dot.
00:09Yeah. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having you.
00:13Thanks for having me mate. It's nice to come back to Sheffield. As a Sheffield lad,
00:18born and raised, leaving and then coming back home after so many years of living
00:23away, 16 years to be precise, it's just good to come back and see people from
00:28my hometown really doing their thing. So thank you. It's a pleasure to actually
00:34speak to you. We'll not talk about the time. What kind of time is this? I'm
00:41joking. No, it's fine. It's fine. Start getting out. I'll see you've got kids, man.
00:44Do you know what? It's fine. It's fine. Rockstar lifestyle, we'll call it that. But no,
00:50kids are cute. So for the uninitiated, can you tell Sheffield about the artist?
00:58Known as K-Dot. What it represents and the bit about you.
01:02Yeah. My name's K-Dot for those that don't know. I've been doing this thing for a long
01:07time. Coming up to like 17 years. We've had a good few years recently due to a bit of
01:13consistency. Yeah. I've represented Sheffield my whole career. It's a pleasure to be playing
01:20at Tramlines. Sheffield hometown crowd. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, that's about
01:26it really. So last year you did Tramlines. Yeah. Can you just give us an insight into
01:33what that was like and what the feeling was like? Because you kind of closed off. It's
01:38like 15 minutes early. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, no, I didn't. Did you close off bang on time?
01:43I closed off bang on time. I had an half an hour slot and that was it. I did half an hour.
01:46I think I did about 33 minutes. I was told that like basically if you'd carried on for
01:52another 15 minutes. I had another 15 minutes and my set generally runs 45 to 50 minutes.
01:57I think it would have gone wild. Yeah. It was going a bit wild. It was crazy. It was a
02:00brilliant feeling. For one, obviously I've wanted to play Tramlines ever since it started.
02:04Yeah. I've been to a couple events when it was like in town and it was more of an open
02:08free event. But since it moved to Hillsborough, I wanted to play. And then getting the call
02:12up for last year, even if it was a small stage, I was happy because I knew what I'd do. I
02:16knew, I kind of, I just knew that the impact would be great. And I knew that the show would
02:21be good. And I know that people would turn up and it worked. I came there, did the show,
02:26there was screaming and like before I even got on the stage, I seen people. In fact, as
02:30soon as I got on the stage, the best moment was when I got on the stage and I just said
02:33one word on the mic, seeing people coming flooding from other stages over the hills. That was
02:38a brilliant feeling from minute one till minute 30 odd, whenever we finished, they were just,
02:43the crowd was absolutely high energy. As you said, if we'd have carried on, I think it might
02:47have even kicked off. Obviously, God forbid it didn't, well not kicked off, but it was
02:51just a bit too wild for the stewards to handle. Yeah. And yeah, it was a great feeling. It
02:56was just amazing to see people from all different walks of life, different generations, people
03:00that I went to school with bringing their kids, a full family event going wild to my music.
03:04It's not something I'm used to. I'm used to, it's normally a certain demographic, certain
03:08age group, because I do clubs and festivals, you know what I mean? Yeah. Not really family
03:12festivals, so that was a great feeling. Yeah, because you're known to quite a lot of people
03:16for the bass line scene. Yeah, yeah. You've been performing with another Sheffield artist,
03:22TD. Yeah, TD, shout out, TD. Yeah, and you also appeared on the song, was it Sheffield All-Stars
03:28Rhythm? Yeah, the Sheffield All-Stars Rhythm we did last year. How did that come about?
03:32It was to promote the Mobo Awards, which was in Sheffield, if you remember, last year.
03:35Yeah. They came to Sheffield, I think it was Omar that shouted me. Omar wasn't managing
03:40me then, but he shouted me and said, obviously, we have to get a verse from you on it. Yeah.
03:45No, in fact, sorry, it was Toddler. Yeah. Obviously, Toddler produced it, but I just couldn't
03:49remember who formed it together, but it was Toddler. But yeah, got the call up for that.
03:54It was a good look, a good move. To be fair, it was the first time that I'd worked with
03:57some of them guys on that tune since we were kids, because a lot of us have known each
04:00other since we were kids, you know what I mean? Yeah. We don't get to work with each
04:03other enough, so I think that was a good movement. It was a good showing of solidarity in the
04:09city, you know what I mean? Togetherness, which we need to do more, in my opinion.
04:12Absolutely. I mean, I fully agree with you, because me growing up here, leaving, and then
04:19coming back and then seeing the same people that I remember from when they were younger.
04:23I remember seeing you when we were younger, when we rode out and about, and seeing you
04:27guys, but having a completely different kind of energy and artistic output, like, in spite
04:36of everything that's going on around you, and it's like kind of seeing people not being
04:39totally shaped by their environments. Absolutely.
04:42Or being defined by them, but using it to refine how they put their stories, their words,
04:47and stuff out there. Absolutely.
04:48So it's props to you. Keep on doing it. And like you said about the collaboration, I think
04:54that is hugely important, because we are such a big city, with such, at times it seems like
04:59a very, without being like disingenuous, a very village-like personality. We're very much
05:06in pockets. Yeah.
05:07And it would be absolutely fantastic to kind of see more things like Sheffield Little
05:12Stars Rhythm, and seeing people band together, and kind of just be more willing to shout
05:19about the things that we're good about. Because it doesn't matter what genre of music it is,
05:22Sheffield has contributed so much over the years.
05:26And like bass line, it's heart and soul here.
05:30Absolutely. It's the whole bass line.
05:32And it's like yourself and Coco, another Sheffield artist, it's just wonderful to see you guys
05:38doing bits, as I would say. So after you're performing later on today, what stage can
05:45we see you on?
05:46We're going to be at the tougher stage today.
05:48The tougher stage.
05:49Yeah, can't wait.
05:50Great, nice. And then after today, what's next on the horizon for KDOT?
05:57There's plenty more shows. We're closing out this summer. I'm at Tank tonight. I'm returning
06:01to Tank for the first time in eight years. Headlining, that's going to be a crazy show.
06:05And then I'm on to Wolverhampton. But we've just got plenty of shows booked. I'm going
06:08to get these shows out of the way. I've already got singles locked in, ready to go.
06:12But the next big thing that I'm working on is a KDOT-led project, which will be coming
06:15out in 2026. We're fully booked up for shows up until next year, but there probably will
06:20be a headline show as well. Sheffield's hometown show. But for now, the main focus is getting
06:26the project finished.
06:27Let's speak closer to the time. We'll have a chat about that more on another occasion.
06:33All right. But thank you very much.
06:34No problem. Thanks. Much love, much respect, and have a great day.
06:39Thank you to everybody at the start.
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