Kae Tempest

Born in Westminster in 1985 and raised in Brockley, southeast London, Kae Tempest — long known as Kate Tempest — has developed since the 2000s a body of work at the crossroads of spoken word, hip‑hop and performance poetry. Trained at the BRIT School and forged on the London open‑mic scene, Kae Tempest first came to attention with the band Sound of Rum, before taking a more central position with the poem‑play Brand New Ancients in 2012, and later pursuing a solo musical career in which spoken‑word writing, rap and sparse production are foregrounded. The albums Everybody Down (2014), Let Them Eat Chaos (2016), The Book of Traps and Lessons (2019), The Line Is a Curve (2022) and Self Titled (2025) extend this approach, between urban narrative, social observation, rhythmic tension and understated melodies. Kae Tempest’s work also spans theatre, the novel and published poetry, but the stage remains a central space, in formats ranging from full‑band concerts to more stripped‑back performances. Kae Tempest has collaborated with artists from rap, indie pop and electronic music while maintaining a direct, narrative writing style deeply rooted in oral delivery.