BLK SCL! Spotlight: Hull with Chiedu Oraka

“We need industry access and infrastructure — and watch us go to the top.”

Hull doesn’t always get named in conversations about Black music in the UK — but Chiedu Oraka makes it clear it should.

This week for BLK SCL!, we’re tapping in with Chiedu Oraka: North Hull Estate-raised, Best Newcomer at the 2025 Northern Music Awards, and one of the sharpest storytellers coming out of the North right now. His music sits at the intersection of stage energy and raw social poetry — capturing the Black, working-class experience in a predominantly white, economically deprived Northern region, and pushing unheard voices to the front.

The momentum is real. In summer 2025, Chiedu opened for Coldplay on their Hull dates and performed “We Pray” with the band on the Music of the Spheres tour — a career-defining moment that landed major national press, including an interview with The Guardian. Next up: in July 2026, he supports The Streets, opening their Leeds show at Kirkstall Abbey.

Off stage, the work is just as intentional. His mixtape Misfit (Launchpad+ / EMI North, April 2024) digs into Black identity, masculinity, mental health, and life on the margins — earning love from NME, Clash, Wonderland, DJ Mag and The Telegraph, alongside heavy support from BBC Radio 1, 6 Music and 1Xtra. Single “Helly Hansen 6” held a spot on BBC 6 Music’s C List for four consecutive weeks, and he became BBC Radio 1’s first-ever Future Flex freestyle performer.

How would you describe the Black music scene in your city to someone who’s never experienced it before?

I would say the Black music scene in Hull has the potential to be one of the best Black music scenes in the UK. Hull is a place that is defined by its honesty and hard work. We have always punched above our weight and, considering we don’t have much infrastructure here, we make a lot of noise. The talent we have in East Yorkshire are a real force to be reckoned with.

What makes your city’s Black music culture distinct from anywhere else in the UK?

We are different because of the diversity of our Black experience. Unlike all the major cities in the UK where there is a heavy presence of Black people in their own communities, the Black people of Hull have never had this and have had to navigate a place where their music and culture isn’t ordinarily accepted. However, despite these barriers the scene has been able to flourish and create some amazing success stories, represented across so many different genres.

Who or what laid the foundations for the scene you’re part of today, and how do those influences still show up in the new music spaces being made now?

I would say the Afro Caribbean Centre on Park Street in Hull, founded by the late Tony Goulbourne, played a massive part in the development of any Black child growing up in my generation.

I would have to tilt my cap to my late uncle, Dennis Fyle, and my mother Justina Oraka for their work at the Race Equality Council, which provided a voice for Black and ethnic minorities. These people and organisations really set the tone for the representation of Black people in Hull and enabled future generations to have the confidence to step into spaces where they could make music and put on Black-led music events.

What Black tastemakers in your city should we know about?

David Okwesia, Kofi Smiles, David Appiah & Realbeats.

If you could change one thing to help Black music and culture thrive in Hull over the next five years, what would it be?

We need industry access and infrastructure — and watch us go to the top. We need a level playing field, which needs to involve the same amount of access all the big major cities get when it comes to art and culture.

For more on Chiedu Oraka: @orakald

BLK SCL! is building a living map of Black music culture across the North of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — the scenes creating world-class work even without the resources they deserve.

If you’re a Black music artist, organiser, tastemaker, or community builder based in the North of England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland (or you know someone we should be speaking to), let us know.