''Reason to Smile'' is the debut studio album by British rapper

Kojey Radical Kwadwo Adu Genfi Amponsah (born 4 January 1993), known professionally as Kojey Radical, is a British musician, creative director and mixed media visual artist. His style has been described as a mix of grime hip hop, alternative rap, and spoken ...

, released 4 March 2022 by

Asylum Records Asylum Records is an American record label, founded in 1971 by David Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. It was taken over by Warner Communications (now the Warner Music Group) in 1972, and later merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/As ...

and

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

. It was shortlisted for the 2022

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

and nominated for Album of the Year at the 2022

MOBO Awards The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and Ba ...

Background

The album was preceded by four singles: "War Outside" released 23 September 2021; "Gangsta" released 15 November; "Payback" released 15 January 2022; and "Silk" released 18 February. The first three came along with music videos while "Silk" received an official visualiser. Another video for "Talkin" released 9 March, featuring animated versions of Radical and the song's guests Tiana Major9 and

Kelis Kelis Rogers (; born August 21, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and chef. She attended Manhattan, New York's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she played saxophone and was selected for the Girls Ch ...

Reception

"Payback" was included at number 9 on ''

BBC Music BBC Music is the arm of the BBC responsible for the music played across its services. The current director of music is Lorna Clarke. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio operational division; however, its remit also includes music used i ...

''s list of the best songs of the year.

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

– vocals * Cameron Palmer – synth bass (2, 5, 10), piano (5, 8), keyboards (10, 13), organ (8), synthesizer (8),

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

solo (8), guitar (10),

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

(11) * Kwame "KZ" Kwei-Armah Jr. – additional vocals (1, 3, 6, 10), synthesizer (2, 13), piano (1), Rhodes solo (2), piano (7), bass (8), guitar (8), synth bass (9), whistling (9) * Tiana Major9 – vocals (1, 8) * Masego – vocals (4) * Shaé Universe – vocals (5) * Cashh – vocals (6) *

– vocals (8) * Lex Amor – vocals (9) * Knucks – vocals (10) * Shakka – vocals (12) *

Wretch 32 Jermaine Sinclaire Scott (born 9 March 1985), better known by his stage name Wretch 32, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter from Tottenham, North London. He was a member of the grime collective Combination Chain Gang, before forming The ...

– vocals (12), additional vocals (8) * Ego Ella May – vocals (13), additional vocals (9) * Rexx Life Raj – vocals (14) * Ayanna Christie Brown – additional vocals (2, 10) * Emmavie – additional vocals (2, 10) * Michael Stafford – additional vocals (2, 10) * Christina Matovu – additional vocals (4, 7, 12, 15) * Mundu – additional vocals (4, 14) * Bobii Lewis – additional vocals (6) * Benjamin Totten – guitar (1, 11) * David Mrakpor – guitar, keyboards, synth bass (4) * Rashaan Brown – guitar (6) * Greg Mathews – guitar (8) * Femi Koleoso – drums (1, 5) * Namali Kwaten – drums, percussion (4) * Dayna Fisher – bass guitar (6, 7, 11, 15), trombone (1) * Neil Waters – trumpet (1–4, 10, 15),

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

(4, 5, 11) * Trevor Mires – trombone (2–4, 6–8, 10, 13, 15),

sousaphone The sousaphone ( ) is a brass musical instrument in the tuba family. Created around 1893 by J.W. Pepper & Son, J. W. Pepper at the direction of American bandleader John Philip Sousa (after whom the instrument was then named), it was design ...

(7, 10), bass trombone (13) * Charlie Stock and Stella Page – viola (1, 2, 4, 6–8, 12, 13, 15) * Ezme Gaze and Wayne Urquhart – cello (1, 2, 4, 6–8, 12, 13, 15) * Antonia Pagulatos, Emma Blanco, Marsha Skins, and Sam Kennedy – violin (1, 2, 4, 6–8, 12, 13, 15) * Nathan "Flutebox" Lee – flute (2) * Mike Keys – keyboards (9), piano, synth bass (13) *

Ed Thomas Ed Thomas (born 1961, Abercraf, Powys, Wales) is a Welsh playwright, director, and producer. Biography He studied English at Cardiff University, before venturing into London's theatre scene. Thomas later returned to Wales and became a founding me ...

– piano (15)

Technical

* Cameron Palmer – engineering (1, 2, 5, 7–10, 13, 15), drum programming (2, 5, 9, 10, 13) * Kwame "KZ" Kwei-Armah Jr. – executive producer, engineering (1, 2, 6–9, 11–15), drum programming (6, 8, 9), vocal

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

s (13) * Swindle – executive producer * Stuart Hawkes – mastering engineer (1–9, 11–14) * Joker – mixing engineer (1–8, 10–14) * Neil Waters – string arrangements (1, 2, 4, 6–8, 12, 13, 15) * Namali Kwaten – drum programming (4), sound design (4) * Blue Lab Beats – engineering (4) * Jay Weathers – drum programming (15)

Charts

References

{{Reflist 2022 debut albums Kojey Radical albums Asylum Records albums Atlantic Records albums