10 Things We Love About Cicero

Cicero is so unapologetically West London. There is a pride about it that runs so deep, it’s where she was shaped into the person she is today. Sitting down and having a conversation touching upon so many interesting topics like the breakdown of her new single 'What do I do', as well as the major influence that her parents have had on her and how she ended up working with legendary producer and pioneer, Roska. Cicero's sound is hybrid blend of Hip-Hop, Garage and Alternative R&B that resonates with listeners, bringing them back to the Garage and Funky house days that she loves so much.

We Love how proud of her roots she is

“Family is a big point to me. I grew up with my mum, and my dad both of them were born and raised in West London same as me. So we have strong ties to the area.

In school, it was rough, because at the time a lot of people had this thing about being African. For me at home being black and African was something I was taught to be very proud of, my mum used to tell me never be ashamed of where you come from, you’re from both places… I even watched Roots (TV) when I was nine.

We love that you have a hidden talent for acting

Being the type of kid I was, I always liked dancing and singing but acting was initially the thing I wanted to do. So, I started going to Young Actors Theatre in North London, I want to another one called Dream Arts.

I haven’t done acting in a minute, but at one point, acting felt like second nature after a while. I think it’s because I was doing it forever and then when your doing musical theatre you have to be ready to do all three at the same.

We Love the support your mum gave you

With me singing at first I didn’t really rate myself that highly, I felt that everyone can sing and then I started to really practice, and at this one show my mum came and it seemed that she believed in me. I have always loved music because both of my parents do, but to actually do it you have to be ouchea.

We Love that your a big fan of Kanye West

It’s like maybe we shouldn’t really doubt that thing we got because to us…. I was watching Jeen-yuhs, the other day that Kanye West documentary, I feel that anyone should go and watch it because I feel that we look at Kanye and think some of the things he does are crazy or whatever, but he makes sense of a lot of the things that he does. His mum said something to him that I think is a really good quote that sticks with me, ‘when the giant looks in the mirror, he sees nothing’. So sometimes we see a trait in ourselves that’s really good, but we don’t necessarily recognise its greatness yet

We love your new single ‘What Do I Do’

It’s my newest baby and I really love the song, I knew the minute I heard the beat. I was already working on other bits and pieces with the EP happening last year and it got to summertime and I already had the hook in my head.

We love the concept behind ‘What Do I Do’

Even when I was writing it I didn’t want to be cliché or something expected and the first thing that came to my mind funnily enough is that it annoys me when people are too persistent with me, it’s really off-putting and I think most people feel like that guys/girls whatever. If someone is hounding you and you’re not interested, it’s like just leave me alone.

I started writing, ‘What Do I Do’, then I sent it to my brother because I had the next verse blank, and I had loads of different ideas for that second verse. I sent the first part to Roska and he was like this wavy I can’t wait to hear you finish it. My brother’s really good at writing and music is his thing too so I sent it to him to help.

We love the Visuals that accompanied the track

With visuals I am always heavily involved, I’ve only now had three videos and the first one made me deceive to get into video production. From the conception of the idea of the video I’m brainstorming what I want, the colour, and themes every single thing is intentional.

We love the story of how you met Roska

I met Roska a year ago when I was working on a project for him. So, I got into doing visual production working with a production house and we were working together on that getting along, but in the background, I didn’t realise he was listening to a song of mine that I did with Jamz ‘Make it through the night’.

Roska and Jamz are friends so Roska messaged him who’s the vocalists on ‘Make it through the night’. Jamz was like it's Cicero, you can hit up 411 because he’s doing your video and he’s with her all the time. So then 411 told him it was me, Temi and in between organising things for his shoot he sent me my own song and said I didn’t even know this was you, you’ve been hiding

We love the nostalgic elements of your art

Yeah, my parents are from the Acid House/Jungle era so all that kind of music you hear from house is a big influence, I’ll be hearing all kinds of beats and rhythms at home. My dad will go out DJing and my mum would be out with my godmothers and stuff. We’re in West, so living in the thick of Carnival.

Growing up I heard a lot of garage, it’s a big part of my childhood and reminds me of summer and then when you get a bit older you have funky, which was a massive part of my childhood as well. Everyone remembers skanking and being kids in school - the raving culture was massive back then, so I wanted to rave and dance to funky and garage. I also listened to a lot of roots reggae and soul thanks to my mum those were her tunes.

We love that your dad is a DJ

My dad plays loads of different music in the car, it’s like he’s the aux DJ. His whole thing is music, he still DJs (in clubs) now, he does a lot of soul music and he can do the house tunes but mostly it’s Reggae, dancehall and soul music.

He started doing it when I was in school as a hobby but now it’s something in West London that if you don’t know him as my dad, you know him for doing Djing in North London and North-West London.