July 28, 2026 – Kid Bookie doesn’t do predictable. For more than a decade, the South East London artist has made a career out of kicking holes through genre boundaries, dragging UK rap-rock-metal-trap and alternative music into the same room and daring them to coexist. Now, with his most ambitious album yet just around the corner, Bookie returns with “Familiar”, a striking collaboration with iconic UK rapper Lady Leshurr. Taken from Cheaper Than Therapy II, out October 9th via FLG Records, ‘Familiar’ is Bookie at his most exposed – trading some of his trademark aggression for a deeply human exploration of love, loss and the dangerous comfort of becoming too familiar with someone. The track explores how familiarity can mutate into complacency within relationships, ultimately becoming the catalyst for losing the very thing you thought would always be there. It’s complicated, messy and painfully real, and Lady Leshurr brings a vulnerability to the track that makes their collaboration hit even harder. For Bookie, this isn’t a random pairing. The two have been connected for more than 15 years, making their long-awaited sonic collision feel less like a feature and more like unfinished business. “‘Familiar’ is a song about how familiarity and complacency in your desired relations can be the catalyst to loss. Nobody has all the answers in love, and sometimes those answers come from a lot of loss; in life, love, lust and beyond. I started this whole record with Lady Leshurr in mind. I’ve been rocking with her for over 15 years and have only crossed paths musically a small number of times. She came through with her most vulnerable self and delivered exactly what it needed. Her honesty combined with the artistry she exudes. I’m honoured she’s still by my side; I love her.” That vulnerability is central to Cheaper Than Therapy II, an album that sees Bookie simultaneously looking backwards and pushing himself further forward. Following the success of 2024’s Songs For The Living // Songs For The Dead, which reached the UK iTunes Rock Chart Top 10 and landed on the Official Independent Albums Chart, Bookie returns with an eleven-track statement that refuses to acknowledge the supposed rules of alternative music. The album is a chaotic, emotionally honest melting pot of heavy music, rap, trap, huge hooks and brutally personal storytelling, featuring an extraordinary cast of collaborators including Corey Taylor, Rose McGowan, Lady Leshurr, Shona McGarty and Kate Nash. Production comes primarily from long-time collaborator Ziey Kizzy and Bookie himself, with additional production from Slipknot’s Sid Wilson and Romesh Dodangoda, whose credits include Bring Me The Horizon and Nova Twins. It’s an album built around collaboration without compromise — bringing artists from radically different worlds together and allowing each to reveal a side of themselves that audiences may not have heard before. That philosophy has already been established through the album’s singles. “Prettier” delivered one of Bookie’s most vulnerable songs to date, confronting domestic abuse, trauma and survival. “BLAME”, featuring Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor, saw two heavy-music outsiders collide in spectacular fashion, while “Rose McGowan ft Rose McGowan” transformed an unlikely collaboration into another deeply personal piece of Bookie’s ever-expanding sonic world. Then came “H.A.T.E.“, a ferocious return to the trap-metal intensity that helped establish Bookie as one of the UK’s great genre disruptors. With razor-sharp lyricism, crushing riffs and punishing production, it served as a reminder that beneath the vulnerability is an artist who remains completely unwilling to be contained by convention. That refusal to conform is precisely what makes Cheaper Than Therapy II so compelling. Bookie has spent his career moving between scenes rather than belonging to any one of them. From his early recognition on BBC Radio 1Xtra to his MOBO Award nomination for Best Alternative Music Act, he has consistently challenged the idea that rap, rock and heavy music need to exist in separate worlds. Cheaper Than Therapy II takes that philosophy to its logical extreme. Bookie describes the record as “the closest thing to a full circle fuck you imaginable”, reflecting on a period in which he lost a home, relationships, friends, family, agents and labels, yet continued to hold onto the belief that there was another way forward. “Cheaper Than Therapy was always about giving the underdog their moments, not just me,” he explains. “An underground artist bringing the legends and stars of rock and beyond into a melting pot of post-genre feeling and mood whilst asking them to bare their truths in audio format.” That spirit runs through every corner of the album. This isn’t simply a sequel – it’s a progression of the original idea: an underground artist creating his own ecosystem, bringing together people who traditionally wouldn’t share a record and turning those collisions into something entirely new. Sometimes the heaviest thing you can do is tell the truth. And truth, chaos and rebellion have always been at the heart of Kid Bookie. This is Kid Bookie on his own terms. This is Cheaper Than Therapy II. Welcome to the next chapter. | 
