Hak Baker’s story begins on the Isle of Dogs where his working class community became his muse and inspired an unconventional, rebellious career that has seen the East End troubadour become one of the most respected and reverent British artists of his generation.
Hak’s tales of inner city London life climb a spectrum between youthful nihilism and male vulnerability, to understanding that within the personal lives the political, as Hak paints a picture of a country in turmoil through his poetic lyricism. With fans spanning culture and genre, from Celeste to Mike Skinner, Fontaines DC to Skepta, Slowthai to Pete Doherty, to Joy Crookes and Reuben Dangoor, Hak’s fanbase identify as “MisFits”, like-minded individuals who question the status quo and celebrate Hak’s anti-genre, “G-Folk” sound.
Over the past few years Hak has become one of the most prominent black artists in the alternative music scene, with Vice stating “Baker subverts what a British folk singer can be”. Culturally sitting as comfortably beside the likes of Madness, The Specials and Benjamin Zephaniah, as he does The Streets, Kano, Akala and Greentea Peng, Hak’s repertoire truly transcends genre, with his raw, unfiltered and authentic voice at the core of everything he does. And now, Hak Baker’s forthcoming progression as an artist, an extraordinary creative leap tailor-made for an era of social inequity, internet addiction and post-pandemic disillusionment, arrives shaped by his belief that (figuratively, at least) only societal collapse can pave the way for a better, brighter tomorrow.