They crossed paths as teenagers, and twenty years later the Scottish trio of Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham “G” Hastings is still standing as the same unit that shaped them: Young Fathers.
With bands like this, it’s clear that, these days, pinning a sound down to a single label feels outdated. But if there were one word to describe them, it wouldn’t be an adjective — it would be an adverb: too‑much. Too chaotic for the mainstream, yet too pop for the experimental fringe.
Their sonic texture is unmistakable: perhaps not normative enough to reach mass recognition, yet exceptional enough for their talent to land them the soundtrack for 28 Years Later. In theory, their music could be filed under progressive hip‑hop but limiting them to that would be selling them short; each album experiments with wildly different genres, turning their discography into a kind of exuberant, polyamorous collision of sounds.
Most recently, they contributed their track Don’t Fight the Young to the charity album HELP (2), released by War Child Records, a label committed to supporting children living in conflict zones. The title offers a glimpse of the song’s message — a call to protect younger generations and a denunciation of a tragedy unfolding simultaneously in different parts of the world.
“It’s an obvious title, but it felt like exactly what we needed to say right now: don’t attack the young, don’t bomb children, don’t do the things that are happening. We chose it precisely because of the power it carries.”
Author: Paula García Salido
Translation: Malena Llabrés
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