Isaac Bakshi smashed his GCSEs with 11 A*s despite juggling education with a rap career that has seen him play at Clwb Ifor Bach and earn hundreds from tracks he publishes online.
Isaac, a pupil at Cardiff's Fitzalan High School, spent the night before results day performing at legendary venue Clwb Ifor Bach. Isaac's hobby is writing and producing music. In lockdown, he started taking it seriously and, under the name One84K, started seeing some money in return and realised he could make a career out of it.
"I'm a producer and a beat-maker. All the rap song instrumentals you hear on the radio - I'm one of the people that makes that actual music. I publish tracks online and rappers get in contact and purchase the rights to use my instrumental. I've been making some money off that for about a year now and I've acquired a studio space, so I can get rappers and singers in who pay me an hourly rate.
READ MORE: Top GCSE results tumble in Wales but remain higher than pre-pandemic
"If I start working hard I can make good money off it. I'd say I make good money for my age, and it's all passive income so I can wake up and see I made £400 in my sleep."
Despite his incredible results, he said he didn't have high hopes due to his education being disrupted by the pandemic.
"I would've been happy with Ds - I knew I was capable of getting A*s but with the years we've had I didn't have high hopes. We had such a long time off and we didn't actually do much work. Getting the actual grades was harder because we weren't doing as much work as we should've in school, so at home I had to put in extra work and double down with my revision."
He made sure revision took priority though and he had a good role model to follow. His older brother Yousuf became the first pupil from Fitzalan to go to Harvard and the first member of his family to go to university after achieving 13 A*s in his GCSEs.
"When exam season was in full effect, I was prioritising my revision over anything and took a month off my music completely. It's only since my exams finished that I picked it back up. I did lose a bit of momentum and I'm trying to pick it up again."
The boys' parents, mum Runa and dad Nahed, are bursting with pride. Runa said: "Considering they didn't really have a Year 10 so all the exams had to be sat in Year 11, it was a testing time and for him to come out with those grades, I'm incredibly proud.
"The only credit myself and my husband can take is being supportive parents. I can't take any credit for the revision, that's down to them. His mum and dad are his biggest supporters in whatever he achieves and I think that's so important for a child."
He said: "I'm staying at Fitzalan for sixth form and I chose some pretty difficult subjects so I'll see when the time comes how I'm gonna balance everything. For the time being I'm gonna balance my revision and school with my music."
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