Sheffield grime artist speaks to The Star's Chris Hallam on day two of Tramlines Festival 2025

The Star, Sheffield

Sheffield grime artist speaks to The Star's Chris Hallam on day two of Tramlines Festival 2025. Hailing from the city of Sheffield, KDOT rose quickly in the Sheffield music scenes ranks with his huge stage presence, undeniable flow delivery and punchlines. Whether it’s bassline, grime, or Hip Hop, KDOT is always ready to prove he is the best MC in the room.

Transcript

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.

Category

Transcript

Recommended