Page 54 - Powerlist 2019 - Digital Edition

Media, Publishing & Entertainment

Akala most dynamic and literate talents in the UK. He has also
Educator, Rapper, Poet, Activist featured on numerous TV programmes across Channel
4, ITV2, MTV, Sky Arts and the BBC promoting his music,
poetry, as well as speaking on wide-ranging subjects from
Over the past few years Akala has emerged from London’s music, youth engagement, British/African-Caribbean
hip hop underground and into the mainstream as one of culture and the arts as a whole. 2018 saw the publication
the leaders of a new British artistic renaissance. of Akala’s acclaimed book Natives; Race and Class in the
MOBO award-winning hip hop artist, writer/poet Ruins of the Empire. The powerful Sunday Times best-
and educator, Akala is a social entrepreneur who fuses seller is part biography, part polemic and confronts the
unique rap/rock/electro-punk sound with fierce lyrical issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy
storytelling. Inspired by the likes of Saul Williams and Gil of Britain’s racialised empire.He also released children’s
Scot-Heron, over the years Akala has developed a stellar book Hip and Hop; You Can Do Anything. This series aims
live show, headlining six UK tours. to inspire children to grow up as happy, emotionally
Akala is more recently known for his compelling intelligent and socially responsible human beings.
lectures/seminars, journalism (Guardian, Huffington Post Akala has been awarded two honorary doctorates: one
UK and The Independent), TV presenting and script- from Oxford Brookes University and another from the
writing talents and has gained a reputation as one of the University of Brighton.

50 Powerlist 2019