Music from the Heart

Strange Boy is a 1000-year-old poet channeling through the body of a young man from Limerick. With hard-hitting, thought-provoking lyrics, Strange Boy’s unique mastery of flow renders him one of the most important rappers of our time. With genius and poetry, Strange Boy paints a living picture of the raw truth country’s youth - Waiting. Unfiltered and nuanced, it's a slow scene of the rapper's inner life and the lives of those in his community. Strange Boy combines hip-hop and Irish traditional music, the old and new cultural influences dominant in this country. The music was composed and produced by Enda Gallery in Kilfenora, Co. Clare during lockdown. A master of multitudes of genres, Enda also releases music under his own name, and is currently writing and producing debut albums for not only Strange Boy, but also Tolü Makay and Willzee.

Anyone on the Irish music scene would have heard of Strange Boy (aka Jonen Dekay). After a powerful performance at Make a Move festival in his home city of Limerick, he began working with Rusangano Family and Deviant/Naive Ted on his debut mixtape: Passionate Example. Since then, he has worked with PX Music and a string of artists such as Hazey Haze, Citrus Fresh, GavinDaVinci, Naive Ted, Mankyy and was featured on delush’s single ‘It’s Alright’ (Soundtrack of new BBC series “Normal People''). Singled out by Blindboy of the Rubberbandits as having the “best song to ever come out of Limerick'' and named a “national treasure” by District Magazine, Strange Boy is an artist for the new generation in Ireland, featured on Ireland Music Week 2020 and about to tour the USA with ‘Ireland In Music’ and fellow Irish acts such as Tolü Makay, Enda Gallery and the Hothouse Flowers in 2022. 

‘Prayers’ is the final single before the arrival of Strange Boy’s upcoming debut album HOLY / UNHOLY, coming June 25^th via Welcome to the New World. Strange Boy’s hard hitting, thought-provoking verses have been balanced with traditional Irish music led by Bodhrán, Flute and Banjo. And in this case this unsual combination comes across as truly unique, even more than on his previous releases. And his resemblance to Stephen James Smith's passion is even more striking.

The young Limerick rapper recorded just one vocal - straight from start to finish, no editing.

bless me god when you test me

I been less of a man since shit got rough

check me when I get empty

when this heads heavy and I feel like life’s too tough

bless me devils they tempt me

tryna convince me you’re the one that’s crooked

been walking this desert still looking for you

come quench my thirst…