Vinyl Record
Kojaque - Town's Dead
Kojaque - Town's Dead on 2LP vinyl. A 2021 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.
2LP ยท 2021
Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.
Buyer notes: 2021 2LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.
Town's Dead is Kojaque's 2021 debut album and one of the sharpest Irish rap records of its moment. Built around a New Year's Eve narrative in Dublin, it turns a night out into a pressure map of housing anxiety, friendship, masculinity, grief, romance, civic exhaustion and dark comedy. Kojaque, born Kevin Smith, had already shown a gift for concept and visual world-building, but this album widens the frame without losing local detail. The title track snarls at a city reshaped by rent and redevelopment; Wickid Tongues and Shmelly move through smoky, jazz-tinted textures; No Hands brings family grief into the open; Casio looks back at the impossible dream of making the record at all. Town's Dead is angry, funny, wounded and restless, using hip-hop, R&B and indie color to make Dublin feel both specific and mythic.
Town's Dead matters because it made contemporary Dublin feel central to a fully formed rap narrative, not a backdrop. It connects personal loss and young-adult chaos to housing, class and cultural displacement with unusual wit and production detail.
A strong Irish contemporary vinyl title for collectors tracking the Soft Boy era, Choice Music Prize conversations and the growth of homegrown rap beyond singles. It is album-first work: narrative, skits, recurring characters and production choices all matter.
Irish hip-hop with jazz-smoked beats, R&B hooks, indie textures, anxious storytelling, Dublin slang and a volatile mix of humor and grief.
Recommended for: Collectors of contemporary Irish hip-hop and spoken storytelling; Listeners who like concept albums rooted in a city and a single night; Fans of rap that blends social anger, wit and melodic production.
What is the concept of Town's Dead? It follows a New Year's Eve in Dublin while folding in housing pressure, friendship, romance, grief and the feeling of a city changing around its young people. Is Town's Dead Kojaque's debut album? Yes. It is his debut full-length album, following earlier projects that had already built his reputation in Irish hip-hop. What makes the album work on vinyl? Its sequencing matters: skits, recurring voices, mood shifts and narrative turns make it feel like a complete front-to-back listen.