PRESSKIT

BIO

We are thrilled to introduce you to Darrell Cole an artist from Antwerp (Belgium). He
seamlessly mixes the sound of the Golden Era with trap elements from contemporary
hip-hop.

Born in London in 1989 to Sierra-Leonian parents, Darrell Cole had to stay in

Belgium with his mother and little brother to escape the political turbulences in his
home country. Amidst all the chaos he found solace in music. His love for music grew
throughout the years. Raised by a young single mother, music was always played at
home. This is where his passion for music cultivated. He learned the art of
songwriting through writing down the lyrics of songs for his mom.

Music has been the only constant factor in his life. Learning everything he could from
the best in his surroundings, he has thereby developed his own style and flow that
helped him make his mark in Belgian hiphop.

Throughout the beginning stages of his musical career he formed a rap collective
called Weardo with his neighborhood friends. But as always focused on his own
musical journey, Darrell Cole had bundled his energy and efforts into making his first
mixtape On My Way (2011) and his first in-house album Uncut Diamond (2013). One
of his songs Growing Pains was played regularly on MTV. But despite his efforts and
being in the charts of TMF and MTV, he never really got picked up by the Belgian
media. This resulted in frustrations and eventually made him delete all of his videos
from the internet.

Afterwards he encountered a pitfall and lost his passion for music. Nothing seemed
to inspire him to get productive musically, which led him to the edge of almost
abandoning his gifts and talents. Darrell struggled to discover his purpose for music,
but decided to make a life-changing decision to leave Belgium for Barcelona. A
metropolitan city but abundant with palmtrees and beaches, was exactly the kind of
environment he needed to stimulate his senses again. But even though he was
surrounded by an abundance of nature and culture, he was still juggling between a 9
to 5 and making music. Slowly but surely he picked up music again. Hesitant at first,
but with full focus and determination, he found himself making music again. Testing
the waters by releasing some tracks online, he eventually got picked up by the right
channels to expose his musical abilities. And this led him to Sony, where he found
his new musical home.

After this monumental event, everything has been going upwards for Darrell. He
became the face of a G-STAR RAW and iD & VICE photo campaign. His first single
Take Me Away was picked up for one of the episodes of Survivors Remorse, a TV
series by Starz - co-produced by Lebron James. Fujifilm lets Darrell make his
memories of his journeys last on Instax film.

At the end of 2016 he became the support act for Talib Kweli in Antwerp, London and
Amsterdam.
 QUOTES & PRESS

Born in London and raised in Antwerp,

Darrell Cole has unleashed brand new cinematic visuals for 'Take
Me Away'. Directed by the award winning Anthony Nti, the video
truly breathes life into Cole's sharp lyricism, smoothly blended
with minimalist production. The Belgian artist has been creating a
whopping impression across Europe, and I'm sure it won't be too
long until he transcends internationally. Captivating and filled with
vibrant animations, the visual is a must watch - trust me!
MTV Wrap-Up (UK) about Darrell Coles Take Me Away


This shit is like a Larry Clark movie by way of Europe. And
it's all soundtracked by a blend of music that sits somewhere
between Joey Badass and Illmatic, with a banging chorus
blended on top. Noisey.com about Darrell Coles first music
video Take Me Away

Amazing track from a young Belgian artist...

Jonathan Leahy, music supervisor for tv-show Survivors
Remorse, about Take Me Away

I believe that you become what you consume and its

important that we have artists that not only make good music
but also try and converse positive conscious messages
through their music. This is the case with artist Darrell Cole, a
rapper with a flow that will serenade you to sweet dreams.
Guap.co.uk about Darrell Coles performance during The Voyage
at Old Blue Last in London

DARRELL COLES VIDEO FOR TAKE ME AWAY IS A BIG

WIN FOR BELGIAN ARTISTRY - Into The Urban about Darrell
Coles Take Me Away

Darrell Cole scored last year with the single Take Me Way as
if he was the Babe Ruth of the Belgian hiphop scene
Quote on BRUZZ
 PRESS

https://i-d.vice.com/nl/article/i-d-en-g-star-raw-gaven-een-feestje
http://www.mtv.co.uk/the-wrap-up/blog/darrell-cole-shares-new-visual-
for-take-me-away
https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/pause-then-watch-darrell-coles-
video-for-take-me-away
http://www.guap.co.uk/arts-culture/voyage-new-creative-platform-
showcasing-emerging-talent-thevoyagepresents/
http://rwdmag.com/premiere-antwerp-rapper-darrell-cole-debuts-time-
video/
https://intotheurban.com/2016/10/21/darrell-coles-video-for-take-me-
away-is-a-big-win-for-belgian-artistry/
http://www.bruzz.be/nl/debat/column-barrio-sound
 DISCOGRAPHY
In 2014 Darrell Cole released his first album called Uncut Diamond, with this
album Darrell was the first independent artist to reach the MTV Top 5 in Belgium with
his single Growing Pains. The release party was held right under the Hilton Hotel in
Antwerp city.

For the first time in Belgian history, a hip-hop act had the mall packed with people
waiting to buy this album.
After that, Darrell moved to Barcelona because of personal problems and he had
worked himself into debt.

In Barcelona, Darrell linked up with DJ Twice who was one of the people to motivate
Darrell to pick up his music career again. Twice started taking Darrell as a host in
Barcelona to get the feel again and before you know it Darrell was performing his
own songs again and he started recording in Spain. Twice & Darrells former
manager Ivan, made sure that Darrell could be the opening act for many international
artists such as Rich Homie Quan, Ty Dolla Sign and the list goes on.

In 2015 he released 2 songs called Hasta Luego & Balance, which got picked
up by the Spanish and Belgian media!

In 2016 Darrell went back to Belgium and started releasing music online. With one of
the songs he caught the attention of some label heads including the SONY MUSIC
BELGIUM CEO. He later arranged a meeting for Darrell and before you knew it
Darrell got signed to Sony Music Belgium. Because he already had a catalogue they
first put him on a few festivals in Belgium and those worked out perfect for Darrell,
because he was able to strike a deal with Live Nation Belgium for the Belgian
territory.

October 21st 2016, Darrell Cole released Take Me Away on Noisey US. They called
his first single on Sony a movie , that led to major exposure for Darrell. Shortly after
that he went on an european tour with Talib Kweli! The song Take Me Away
reached 800.000 streams on Spotify and is still climbing.

He has been on a few European stages including cities like; Rotterdam, London,
Brussels, Amsterdam, Barcelona and etc.

In March 2017, Darrell released a song called Time that was published by RWD
MAG in the UK. That song has reached 60K+ streams on Spotify now! In total
Darrells Spotify account has more than 1 million streams! His next release will be in
June and July which will be songs to really party to.
Take Me Away (2016)
Imperfect Humans feat. Amo Achille (2016)
Hasta Luego (2016)
Balance (2016)
Time (2017)

APPEARANCES

Fixed (2017) by TheColorGrey

Home Stretch (2015) by Woodie Smalls
PHOTOGRAPHY