14-year-old Hammad Kamara has received lots of positive praise
Published in BBC, on Oct 17th, 2018,Â
UK rapper Dave has praised the talent of a 14-year-old boy who has made an animated version of his number one hit.
Funky Friday knocked Calvin Harris and Sam Smith off the number one spot on Friday. However, Dave and Fredo were not the only winners.
Hammad Kamara produced an animated version of the song, which already has over 65,000 views.
In response to the animation, Dave tweeted: “Wow. Super talented kid!”
Speaking to the BBC’s Kash Jones, Kamara said: “I never knew he would actually see it.”
The star’s surprise retweet came after the teenager’s older brother Ibrahim – editor of an online video magazine – tweeted the video on Sunday.
The cartoon shows an animated version of Dave’s official music video, which features the two rappers in a tropical glasshouse.
Since Dave’s comments, the London-based schoolboy has posted his video on Snapchat and has received lots of positive praise.
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“It was an amazing feeling,” said the young animator, adding that “the number of DMs [direct messages] have been crazy, people are now asking for collaborations.”
One of those requests appears to come from Dr Kane, one half of the Dr Vades duo – responsible for funky house hit Tribal Man Skank.
The music producer apparently posted a comment on the video, asking if he could get in touch with the talented teen.
It took the teenager just two days to complete the video.
The self-taught animator said he used YouTube as a mentor while admitting the learning process did not come easily.
“I felt like I watched over five million YouTube videos,” he told the BBC.
“I moved to my dad’s house, put aside my computer games and started watching YouTube [animation tutorial] videos.
“I told myself, ‘I am going to practice all this stuff I’m hearing.’ I practised everything and this is the level I am at now.”
Kamara also recognised the help he’s received from brother Ibrahim, saying: “He helps me with the difficult choices to make, and acts like my manager.
“The feeling of going viral was mad, it made me feel happy,” said Kamara, who intends to follow up his video’s success with more drawings and animations that he will post on social media.