Kojo Kankam (born 20 January 1997), better known by his stage name Novelist, is a Grime MC and producer from Lewisham, South London.

His first appearance on the scene was back in 2013 when he clashed with Wiley’s younger brother Cadell for the grime DVD “Who’s Da Boss”, later garnering attention as an underground artist from regularly popping up on pirate radio stations.

After releasing an instrumental called “Sniper” which began getting airplay on London underground radio stations, this led to Novelist getting signed to produce an instrumental EP for influential grime imprint Oil Gang.

In 2013, a freestyle he did for JDZmedia starting doing numbers and continuing to contribute to the rising popularity of Novelist. In mid-2014, his crew “The Square” were signed to NoHatsNoHoods. The first EP release The Formula came out in August 2014.

In 2014, he recorded a song called Take Time in a studio session with experimental producer Mumdance, which later was signed to Rinse and released as a single during the summer. XL Recordings later signed him in 2014, and he recorded a track with Jamie xx for his forthcoming release on the label. The debut became a collaborative 2-track EP with Mumdance called 1 Sec, and was released on 20th Jan 2015, the day he turned 18.

Novelist was emerging as one of the new faces of grime MCs that rank in the top tier. He is known for his fast and cutting edge bars and delivery. He is considered very much a throwback but bringing his own modern style into the fold.

On 1st Sep 2015, he left The Square to further his solo career. Novelist supported Major Lazer at Alexandra Palace on 17 Oct ‘15 during their tour. In 2016, he featured on a Baauer single “Day Ones” and appeared on Skepta’s Konnichiwa album on “Lyrics”.

On August 2016, he was dropped from XL Recordings. Subsequently he went on to announce he was launching his own label named MMMYEH Records, for the release of his own music and friends. In the same year, Novelist started pushing his own genre, Ruff Sound that is somewhat faster than Grime (152 -160 BPM, whereas Grime is typically around 130-140 BPM). In order to promote the new sound, Novelist performed a “Ruff Sound Movement” radio set on rinse.fm, which only featured Ruff Sound instrumentals.