Bakar Tickets

Bakar is quite simply one of the most exciting artists in Britain right now. Resisting categorisation

during his steady growth into the spotlight, he offers all the lyrical power of a rapper, the virtuosic

poise of a producer and the pop craft of a singer-songwriter. Following two show-stopping

mixtapes, cosigns from several members of music royalty, modelling campaigns with Louis

Vuitton and Prada, and a single that topped a Billboard chart in the US, he’s now preparing to

send shockwaves around the world with the followup to his 2022 debut album Nobody’s Home.

With a mum from Tanzania and a dad from Yemen, Bakar — full name Abubakar Baker Shariff-

Farr — grew up in Camden, north London. His father was largely absent, leaving his mum to raise

him and his younger brother on Choice FM, R&B CDs and the Quran. During trips back to

Tanzania, Bakar first stepped foot in a music studio thanks to his uncle, who ran a local record

label. He describes those trips as deeply humbling, renewing his appreciation for the life he had in

London.

He started studying at state school, but his mum was concerned about his progress. “I wasn’t like

wiling out to the point where it was like ‘He has to go’, but I think you could see my trajectory

wasn’t amazing where I was,” he says. “And I think my mum just wanted me to get away from

distraction, cos I was an easily distracted kind of human.”

So she sent him to boarding school, where he made new friends and broadened his horizons.

From the age of about 13 he’d been into Madlib’s Quasimoto projects, J Dilla, Dipset and the

early rumblings of London’s nascent grime scene, but his new schoolmates introduced him to

bands like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and British indie acts like the Maccabees. Soon he was

making music of his own, cutting up samples of King Krule and Bombay Bicycle Club records on

Garage Band and posting the results on Soundcloud anonymously.

He announced himself to the UK music scene in 2017, self-releasing his official debut single ‘Big

Dreams’ — a fast, catchy work of post-punk that sounded like nothing else around. A string of

singles followed, before the 2018 mixtape BADKID, made with producer Zach Nahome in what

was to become a fruitful partnership. In 2019 Bakar dropped ‘Hell N Back’, an infectious, utterly

irresistible single that eventually reached #1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative chart. The Will You Be

My Yellow? EP came soon after, showing off a more varied, experimental sound and featuring a

collaboration with Dominic Fike.