WSTRN: We want to put West London on rap music map

Chart challenge: Akelle Charles, Haile and Louis Rei of WSTRN
Alistair Foster13 November 2015
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A trio who signed their first record deal a month ago and are now challenging Adele in the charts say they want to put west London on the rap music map.

WSTRN, pronounced “west turn”, are riding high in the midweek charts with In2 — a single they recorded in their bedroom.

The band are cousins Akelle Charles, 24, from Shepherd’s Bush, and Haile, 20, of Hammersmith, and friend Louis Rei, 25, from Ladbroke Grove.

Louis said: “In2 was from our first session. We were just chilling and having a drink. We made the song then just put it aside — we came back to it later.

Latest music reviews

1/168

“The single is all home made. We’ve had to keep up with this song. We started getting radio play, then we had to quickly make a video, then the labels started calling. It’s been super exciting.”

The trio signed to Atlantic Records and are planning a second single for the New Year, with an album later in 2016. And on Friday they could topple Adele, whose comeback single has been number one for two weeks.

Haile said: “It’s amazing to be even mentioned in the same sentence as someone like her.”

The south London scene has spawned Tinie Tempah and Stormzy, east has produced Wiley and Dizzee Rascal and north is home to Wretch 32 and Skepta, but WSTRN believe west London has not enjoyed as much success.

Akelle said: “We definitely want to put the west on the map. A lot of our friends are saying, ‘You’ve really inspired me to do stuff’, it’s really nice.

“South London has had its thing, east has, north has — now it’s the west’s turn. That’s why we are called WSTRN — it’s a play on that. There is so much talent from where we’re from and so much music going on.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT