Fresh back from the French capital and speaking to whynow, his passion for fashion, however, hasn’t always been his greatest interest. “It’s a grey area,” he half-jokingly says, “sometimes I love it, sometimes I’m just completely the furthest thing away from it. But I’m down to learn, I’m definitely down to learn.”
It’s been this approach to learning that has paid off for Yizzy, and continues to do so, where it matters most. His lyrical flips and tricks took form when, he explains, he “used to do clashes in the playground. So me and a couple friends would throw on an instrumental in the playground, just go out there and start clashing.”
“And then from there, I decided I wanted to do more than that: I wanted to make songs, do freestyles. So I started just following around, copying people I already knew in grime. So that was Novelist and Koder, both from Lewisham.”
“Obviously it’s one of those things where you’ve gotta have fun at all times, otherwise it starts looking like a mundane experience of work or some kind of structure in place that takes away that fun. So I’m glad that my entry-point was what it was – of having fun in the playground, spitting bars.”
In truth, Yizzy has become one of a handful of artists making the grime scene a playground of their own. Granted this didn’t arise without the hard work and determination to “start building a name” for himself via the grind of open-mic sets and the circuit of community radio stations like Reprezent Radio and Mode FM – “Anywhere I could go basically, to show what I could do.”
“I still believe I’m finding my own sound ’cause you can always improve, but it’s one of those things that’s definitely matured over time, through meeting certain people, through mistakes, through working out what works well. And it will continue to do so, really. A growth of maturity – musically and emotionally – has definitely helped me from when I first started out.”
This growth has culminated in the release of Welcome to Grime Street last year. Featuring the likes of Dizzee Rascal and Devilman, the scorching eight-track album is a testament to Yizzy now making his mark. “If you told me at the age of sixteen, seventeen that I was gonna accomplish that, I would have said you were lying.”
“Even just being affiliated with certain people in music – like pretty much every legend in grime, whether it’s Dizzee Rascal, whether it’s Skepta, whether it’s Lethal Bizzle, whether it’s JME –everyone knows who I am, which still blows my mind ’cause I’ve only been releasing music for three years now.”
“But it shows that I’ve definitely been doing something right and I’ve been on the right path to gain a level of respect from other peers and also find my own sound. Being able to work with people like Dizzee and Devilman, who are obviously legends and have their own experiences, is really insightful.”
Another insightful and inspiring moment for Yizzy came last October, when he was one of 30 of some of the UK’s biggest names in rap, R&B, grime and afrobeat that came together, to creatively concoct new content across a three-day song-writing bootcamp. The likes of Big Narstie, Conducta, Diztortion, Kamille, Maverick Sabre, Nadia Rose and more combined for a studio session run in a joint venture by PRS for Music and Spotify.
Twenty tracks were created in total, packed with energy and flare, and all devised from the state-of-the-art RAK Studios. As if letting such an occasion pass by without an attempt to capture its magic would be an outcry, a short film was produced to showcase the event from behind the scenes, which you can view here.
ArrayThe event wasn’t merely a signifier of the resurgence of rap and grime, and the desire to see and hear more of its content, through the sparking of ever more musical partnerships within the genre. It was also a celebration of Spotify’s WhoWeBe brand, which is continuing to evolve since its first live show at Alexandra Palace back in 2017 – growing almost parallel to the take-off of Yizzy’s grime career.
For Yizzy, put simply, “it was a vibe. Something I’ve only ever done once. Specifically, it’s helped me out with voice memos that I do on my phone. I’ve started doing that when it comes to things like skats and different melodies. That’s something that ‘Mavs’ [Maverick Sabre] helped me out with.”
“Man, he’s just such a good guy. He says it how it is – he doesn’t beat around the bush. And when it comes to the creative process, his consistency is ridiculous. I can’t even put it into words, he’s just one of those people. When you’re in a room with someone who is so on-point – whether that’s never a note out of place or always managing to come up with the right melody or the right riff – anything they do just sounds immaculate.”
AmzyOBR
AmzyOBR
“It’s inspiring in terms of making me want to be that on-point with my rapping, but obviously at the same time he’s a singer. There were many other things to learn from him that differ from me as a rapper – whether that’s writing, how to find a melody, or not just the melody of a chorus being sung but a melody of flows. Flows are a very big part of a rhythm and enable a song to have a bounce with it.”
“The song-writing camp has definitely broadened my outlook on how you approach songs when it comes to the writing process. Previously, I’ve tried to go in and be very structured with what I do. Now I tend to go in and just freestyle and try and catch a vibe before anything else; I’ll just throw on music and start dancing, do a little freestyle, just have fun with it. I mean, at all times it’s gotta be fun. If it’s not fun then a track isn’t gonna have that infectious vibe to it.”
With music coming out later this year – some of it the product of further collaborations with Dizzee Rascal – Yizzy is certainly immersed to the fullest in what he’s doing. Above all he’s having fun with it. Welcome to Grime Street. Welcome to Yizzy’s playground.
