News, Cambridgeshire
Qays Najm/Rapper Fekky has said he has found “peace” after moving from south London to a farm in the countryside.
The musician, who has collaborated with artists including Skepta and Dizzee Rascal, began his journey after he started gardening in the Covid-19 lockdowns.
He moved from Lewisham to a farm in Cambridgeshire a few years ago – where he has chickens and vegetable patches – and said “there’s so much more that I want to do but I feel like the learning process is key”.
Fekky is documenting his journey through a YouTube show, Hood 2 Farm, where he meets other farmers.
The 38-year-old has released seven albums, as well as singles and EPs, and his collaboration with singer-songwriter Runtown for the track Unleash has nearly 11 million streams on Spotify.
He fell in love with nature while in Thailand for three months, before gardening during lockdown and posting it on his social media.
“Everyone was calling it the garden show and whatnot so I had a bit of a following through it,” he said.
“And I was like, ‘Do you know what? I want to live in nature full-time’.”
Sarah Jeynes/Fekky said he felt “like people can see my passion, they can see that I’m genuine”.
His show draws inevitable comparisons to the Amazon Prime hit programme Clarkson’s Farm, which documents TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s quest in farming.
“I’m inspired by Clarkson’s Farm,” he said. “I think this is where I want to get to. I’m on seven acres. He’s on like thousands or something.”
FekkyTv/YouTubeFekky said he wanted to learn farming in the UK and abroad, with hopes for a farm shop, glamping and a pub.
“Hopefully within the next few years, it’ll be Fekky’s Farm. Clarkson’s got to get out of the way for a minute and give me a go,” he joked.
He hopes his move inspires others from a similar background to think about different career paths.
“I feel like when you grow up in areas like mine, you’re under a lot of peer pressure to follow the crowd. People think, ‘Oh, be a footballer or be a rapper or whatnot’.
“These are like the cliche ways to get out and I want the youth to learn before I did.
“I got into a lot of trouble when I was younger. It took me a long time to get to this place where I am now, where I’m living in peace and enjoying myself.
“I’m hoping that people are watching me and thinking ‘If Fekky’s doing it and he’s like the hardcore rapper and now’s on a farm, I can do it’.”
A spokesperson for the National Farmers’ Union said: “With the average age of a farmer in the UK at 59, we need to bring younger people from a diverse range of backgrounds to give farming a positive future.
“We are positioned better than any other industry to really be at the forefront of the climate emergency action that’s happening, in terms of reducing carbon emissions with things like sequestering carbon.
“To achieve these things, we need a younger generation of people coming through who have a massive passion for this.”
