When rapper Kidwild was 17, it seemed like he’d already hit the jackpot, landing a deal with Atlantic Records. “We’re rich!” he recalls telling his mum at the time, but soon the dream turned to a nightmare – the A&R who’d signed him left the label and he was eventually dropped. “You’re meant to be the next star, and then you just exist,” the now-21-year-old tells NME. “You’ve got fans messaging you. You’ve got songs. And you can’t do nothing.”⁣ ⁣ Instead of letting this turn of events hold him back, though, he went all in on himself – and it paid off. When he shared a clip of 2025 single ‘Redemption’ online, it racked up over 1million views in 24 hours, and reached Nemzzz, who asked Kidwild if he could jump on the track. “That whole year was redemption,” Kidwild says of the time the song came out of. “I was literally on a redemption arc. It wasn’t a choice of ‘I will.’ Man has to.”⁣ ⁣ kidwild12 is on The Cover. Read the full story at NME.com/the-cover or at the link in bio⁣ ⁣ #Kidwild ...