Seekah Lytess: Rapper's life a whirlwind after Dog House success

Seekah Lytess's single Reality got to the number one spot in the rap and hip hop charts in February

An Ipswich rapper enjoying chart success after turning other people's stories into songs said the past few months had been a "whirlwind".

Seekah Lytess, 32, put "stripped back" freestyle video Dog House on TikTok, which got thousands of views in hours.

He said people found it "relatable" so he put out a call for their stories to inspire songs and got a big response.

Last month his song Reality was number one in the iTunes rap and hip hop chart and number 12 for all genres.

Speaking to BBC Introducing in Suffolk, he said his current success "wasn't an overnight thing".

Chosen to play on the BBC Introducing stage at Latitude in 2019, he found, like many artists, it was hard to build momentum during the Covid pandemic.

He then decided to "test the waters" on the social media app, dedicated to short-form videos.

Lytess (left) played at Latitude 2019 as part of hip hop group The Middle Floor, who performed with singer Cherise Phillips (middle)

"I was hanging back from TikTok for so long. Every time I went on I just thought it was kids dancing, but I saw a lot more artists going on there and thought I'd make the jump," he said.

He put a handful of videos up, but it was not until he decided to do something acoustic that the real interest came.

The first verse of Dog House was written on his way to work, the second at home and the "chorus just came into my head" when he set up his recording equipment in the kitchen.

He then got someone to film him performing it, sitting at a bench outside a local pub with a beer.

"I wanted to do [something] purely stripped back, [with] no drums so everyone could hear what I'm saying," he said.

"I thought it might be something... so I filmed it, put it out that night and within about two hours I had 100,000 views."

Lytess was filmed sitting at a bench outside a local pub with a beer while performing Dog House

Lytess said he thought its success came from how it was "just relatable".

"I've been doing music for a long time and it's like you are so caught up on everything being so perfect," he said.

"I thought I'd just talk about life [and] how it is for normal middle/working class people every day.

"I just think the reason why it's gone so crazy is that all of a sudden there was someone who was willing to accept their flaws, knew that they made mistakes and were comfortable in speaking [about] that."

He said he treated Dog House as "a pivotal point", as he realised the style was what people wanted, so he started posting similar videos.

Lytess now cites Dog House as "a pivotal point" in his music career

Seeing people comment that his songs were talking about their lives led to the series Your Story by Seeks, where Lytess asks for those stories to be sent to him to be transformed into a song.

"The abundance of emails that came through was a little bit overwhelming," he said.

"At one point I thought, I can't do this... I'm putting myself in these people's shoes which are very uncomfortable shoes to walk in. I was in unknown waters."

However, he said he began to get "great satisfaction from it", because he was "helping people and it gives me things I'd never thought to write about".

"My last one was about IVF - a couple struggling to have children - and [I didn't] think in a million years I'd have sat down and thought to write about that."

Lytess said when Reality went to number one, he was pleased that people had engaged so much with his work that they had sought him out away from TikTok.

"Reality was number one for about 48 hours - I just couldn't be more grateful about how much people are supporting me."

Seekah has just finished recording an official music video for Dog House, due to be released soon, which includes comedian Dapper Laughs, who got in touch after he kept being tagged in the comments section on TikTok.

The rapper said he was now ready for whatever comes next.

"At the end of the day, if it's what you want to do you've got to be ready... I'm ready to go full throttle."

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [e-mail]