In an age of political unrest and cultural fragmentation, Liverpool’s KOJ steps forward as a rare working-class figure and voice who refuses to look away. Operating between the worlds of grime, rap and punk, he uses this fusion of genres — all rooted in revolutionary spirit and protest — to speak plainly about social division and austerity. KOJ’s work is built to activate people, not just to entertain, which makes him as much of an activist as an artist. KOJ’s forthcoming project ‘PUNK PANTHER’ is his clearest, sharpest expression of this ethos yet.

KOJ’s anti-norm attitude is grounded in a split education: one musical, one cultural. At home, his mum was a constant source of music, while his dad played in bands and schooled him on punks, mods, rockers and the grit and anti-establishment ferocity of the Sex Pistols and Johnny Rotten. That punk spirit, the instinct to question and disrupt, was planted in him young, and still informs the socio-political stance his music operates on today. Grime arrived later, on his own terms — London grime was, as he puts it, “the first sound that made me feel truly seen.” Artists like Skepta, JME, Kano and Novelist shaped his sense of what was possible, and became not only a soundtrack but a survival kit.

A proud Liverpudlian, KOJ is quick to point out that while his sound was forged by London grime, his character was shaped by Liverpool: its people, culture and ambition. “It was the scouse in me that made me not care,” he says, “the rebelliousness and the willingness to go against the grain.” That tension — London in the headphones, Liverpool in the blood — is the driving force behind his work.

If that explains the sound, the why behind it stems from a deeper place. KOJ has always been the person who says the thing they’re thinking out loud. As a kid he was outspoken, which often got him into trouble, but silencing himself never felt like an option. In his early twenties he moved through a period of doubt, feeling like other people’s “number two”. The turning point was realising he’s “number one” — and that there are millions of other “number ones” who’ve never been told they are. His mission now is to empower people who don’t yet know their own weight, and teach them to take up space. That doesn’t stop with his records: he also runs TRiBE, a collaborative Black British music showcase celebrating the depth of the scene and bringing together standout talent from Liverpool and beyond — sold-out events, and a nod from The Face.

At the centre of it all is power — knowing your own, refusing to let anyone strip it away, and exposing those in charge when they weaponise ignorance, racism and propaganda. KOJ sits in a clear lineage of radical thought and music, drawing from Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey, and from Public Enemy, NWA and The Who, who treated hip-hop as both weapon and warning. His music lives in that protest continuum, updated for the modern day.

He’s already proven his music can move and invigorate crowds while still attracting tastemakers, without ever softening the message. His debut EP Villain With A Conscience earned strong support from Clash, Wonderland, The Face, Apple Music and Amazon Music. Onstage, his sets at Boomtown, Latitude, Radio 1 Big Weekend, Reeperbahn and SXSW Austin land as collective experiences — moments of shared release and unity that drive deep fan loyalty.

‘PUNK PANTHER’ is the next step — sharper, bolder and more focused than anything he’s done before. A dual-EP split into two halves, it draws a line between the external and the internal: what’s happening in society, and what that does to you inside. Part one reads the streets — disparity, racism, immigration policy, government overreach and systemic neglect, a call for justice not just commentary. The second half turns inward, confronting doubt, anger, identity and responsibility. Both are wars; only the scale shifts.

Driving it all is the persona of the ‘Punk Panther’ itself. KOJ’s thought experiment was simple: “What if the British punks of the ’80s teamed up with the Black Panthers of the ’60s and walked into the 2020s?” The result is a world where grime’s urgency, punk’s rawness and flashes of funk and hip-hop collide — grainy, gritty, but still melodic and accessible. Visually it stretches into a blacked-out, military-leaning look: berets, leather, boots, black panther jackets and stark, grainy imagery.

Music has always been a way to sneak the truth into the room. ‘PUNK PANTHER’ kicks the door in instead. KOJ turns the frustration of the news and propaganda into music built to wake people up — bold, unapologetic messaging with undeniable musicality, proving protest music can still hit hard, travel far and work on a big stage. This era positions KOJ as a Northern cultural leader in UK music: a voice you can’t ignore.