Akala for Prime Minister? Rapper and activist says 'never say never' to career in politics

For over a decade Akala − a rapper, talented poet, and activist − has used his platform to address polarising issues like racism, capitalism and whitewashing of history. And now, the socially-conscious artist has revealed that he would "never say never" to a career in politics.

"Culture is one of the most politicised areas of society that there is," the 33-year-old, real name Kingslee James Daley, stated when IBTimes UK caught up with him at his studio in north west London.

"This is why despite being able to sell 10-15000 tickets every year for the last decade, you will never hear a song like Murder Runs The Globe on daytime radio. Why? What is radio-friendly? What does that mean? That is the politically defined term."

Although Akala believes that running for office may be on the cards in the future, he is not convinced by the current parliamentary system, which has left millions of voters feeling disenfranchised.

"Would never say never but I'm dubious about the amount of difference and individual can make within the current parliamentary – two party, first past the post system which I view as quite an undemocratic façade.

"I accept we have degrees of privilege and freedom that many other people in other parts of the world don't have. I'm not trying to trounce on that, I'm just trying to dispute the reason why that is the case."

Because it is so hard to ignore the political discourse in his music, fans were stunned to learn that he only voted for the first in June's General Election. He joined the likes of grime stars JME and Stormzy in a campaign to get the Corbyn into 10 Downing Street.

In his essay 'By choice, I've never voted before. But Jeremy Corbyn has changed my mind', published in The Guardian, he explained that not only was he was he impressed with the majority of the Labour party leader's manifesto pledges, he had grown frustrated with a government that refused to recognise the importance of the poor and marginalised.

Despite the hung parliament result, which led to the minority Tory government agreeing a controversial deal with the DUP, Akala considers it a small victory.

"We were 22,000 votes off the candidate that we all backed winning. A candidate that we were told was on course for the worst election defeat in British history which the entire media including the supposed left-wing media ran with so you have to recognise the scale of the achievement," he explained.

"What we have now proven is that anti-war, anti-austerity politics – as someone said after the election – is electorally viable."

For now, the outspoken social entrepreneur says he is "very comfortable hopefully being part of a community that likes putting pressure on politicians rather than being a politician myself".