As the home of bassline, it’s only fitting that Sheffield has produced the country’s sharpest bassline MCs. Step forward K Dot, the man who’s been shelling down raves around these parts since the noughties, flying the 0114 flag on the Lord of the Mics series and later proving he could bully any beat put in front of him with a standout freestyle on Charlie Sloth’s Fire in the Booth.
Kyle Lewis has never stopped grafting, but a resurgence in bassline, a run of strong releases and some standout live shows – including 7,000 fans turning up to watch him shut down the Tramlines T’Other Stage – have put K Dot back on the scene in a big way.
With fresh singles landing, more collabs in the pipeline and a huge 2026 already taking shape, Exposed caught up with the artist to reflect on a massive year and see how he’s planning to push things even further.
We’re coming towards the end of 2025 and it’s felt like a big year for you. What have been your highlights?
Live shows wise, it’s got to be Tramlines. The amount of people that turned out for me, and the excitement before and after, it were crazy. They told me that if the tent was filled it’d be seven thousand – and there were still people spilling out of the tent.
Surely that’s a main stage slot sorted for next year?
We’ll see! I’d love to play Tramlines again on an even bigger stage – I’m just going to keep working, I know it’ll happen sooner or later.
On that note, it feels like you’re riding the crest of a wave at the minute. The output’s been consistently strong and there’s a real buzz around what you’re doing. Has anything changed in your approach, or have you just hit a run of form?
I’ve completely changed my whole life approach – everything. It started with sorting out my personal life. I lost a lot of weight – I’d been quite overweight my whole life and it got to a point where I was partying all the time, dealing with depression, beating myself up. But I got to a place where I thought: I’ve got to do something about it. I started gymming, eating healthily and I’ve lost nearly ten stone. My brain’s completely different now. If I haven’t got ten things to do at one time, I don’t feel right. So it started with the personal stuff and that’s had an impact on the music.
I’ve just seen you’ve released a new single with Kav, a remix of the Dexplicit Dubz ‘Might Be’ tune. How was it jumping on such a nostalgic one?
Absolutely, that’s why I did it. I grew up on the original and I think 1st Born did it justice with the remix. The beat is so sick, still to this day. It just took me right back.
Talking about big releases, the link-up earlier this year with TeeDee on ‘Outside’ seemed to capture people’s attention and have a similar impact to the ‘Get Milli, Get Mad’ release back in the day. What’s the secret sauce behind making those bangers that stay in people’s heads?
When you try and overthink it too hard, that’s when you won’t do it. The one with TeeDee, we just went to his studio – no pressure – and just started making music. We made like three or four songs before we did ‘Outside’. I must be a nightmare for producers as I’m very specific about melodies and don’t want a melody that’s been done before, so I’m always asking to change bits here and there. TeeDee can make beats in five minutes just as good as anyone out there – I left to make a phone call and heard it coming together as I came back in. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was the one.
Did you instantly know the opening bar ‘Get feral, all girls allowed including Cheryl’ would be a winner?
Yeah! Listen, it’s nowt new – that’s my thing. But you know when you’ve got one that’s gonna resonate. It’s so simple, one of those ones where people are thinking, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ And obviously, Cheryl is like a national treasure, so it works.
It feels like Sheff is finding its voice a bit. There are artists like yourself and TeeDee making big moves, events like Slambarz providing a platform for MCs and TRACKS bringing Ed Sheeran and some of the biggest grime artists to Fargate so they could showcase local talent. How important is it to have these platforms for younger artists so the scene can grow?
Absolutely essential. I recently became an ambassador for TRACKS because I came out of a youth project – we’d be taken out of school every Friday, probably about 13 years old, and we started by spitting our favourite rappers’ lyrics. They got some funding, we got a studio bought for us and we ended up performing. That’s when we started taking it seriously, formed a little crew and took Sheffield by storm in that day and age.
There’s always a lot of chat about the guitar bands coming through in Sheffield during the mid-noughties, but if you were sat on a bus in 2005, chances are kids were playing bassline and niche through their phones, not Arctic Monkeys.
Yeah! You’re right – at that time people weren’t playing them on the bus; it was the MCs like Shinobi, Tezz Kid, myself, Remz and Coco and all the Sheffield crews. The scene back then was so competitive – everyone was an MC. There were loads of crews and we all put in a lot of work, whether it was doing sets, tracks or clashes – we were active. Shoutout all the crews from back then: Scumfam, Regiments TRZ, Youth Camp, JD and AOK, to name a few.
Over the last couple of years, bassline seems to be booming again as a genre. What do you think’s behind that?
I think a whole new generation – and I don’t know how they got on to what we did back then – are growing up on it and it’s becoming their number one music now. This is how I knew it had changed again – back in the day, there were loads of bassline MCs and when all the grime MCs saw there was money to be made they wanted to do bassline. Then it kind of died off and we saw years and years with no new MCs, and now kids are growing up wanting to be bassline MCs straight out of the gate again.
But I don’t really know what happened to cause that. I think there are a few key players including myself and some fresh faces breathing new life into it, like Denon [Reed] and TeeDee bringing new bangers into it, and once it catches… it’s like wildfire. This younger generation have gone and educated themselves on everything we did, then there are new guys bringing the fire, and with how social media is now it’s one of the biggest genres in the UK on TikTok.
I was walking through town the other day and these kids were walking past playing ‘Get Milli, Get Mad’ out of some speakers. They must’ve been 13 or 14 years old, tops.
They probably wouldn’t even have been born when it came out! It’s mad.
That’s probably the tune you were best known for, but it must be nice to have dropped new bangers like ‘Outside’ that people are now just as familiar with when they come to shows.
Yeah, there’s a few that’ve gone down really well, but it feels like ‘Outside’ is gonna get as big as ‘Get Milli, Get Mad’. That tune was before the streaming era – actually [DJ] Q messaged me the other day to say it had only just passed a million streams – and it never even got a proper release; it was on the Sound of Bassline compilation album.
Those albums were just iconic back in the day, weren’t they? That’s how everyone got switched on to these artists.
That’s it. It was a different time for consuming music and they were a big way of getting our tunes in everybody’s cars and around the country. It wasn’t like now where you put a tune on TikTok and can watch it fly overnight.
How are you planning to build on a big year – what’s coming in 2026?
I’m working on a solo project as we speak and there are gonna be some really big features on it. I’m dropping another single in December and jumping on DnB a bit too. I’ve got some tunes with big players in that genre coming out and I genuinely think they’re gonna shut the country down. The solo project’s everything I’ve done genre-wise – a UK melting pot.
Things are looking good, but where would you like to be in five years?
I’m not really bothered about being the most famous. But as for goals, I do want to do Glastonbury at some point. I’m not really looking as far ahead as five years – it’s more the here and now, trying to be bigger and better. I’m thinking more about what I’m going to make tomorrow.
