First Listen: Bawo, 'Starts With A Text'

West-London native and multi-talented rapper Bawo returns to the sound-sphere with his intricately interwoven and dreamy new track “Starts With A Text”. Fresh from delivering a plethora of acclaimed singles last year, the precocious young star surfaces with a beautifully enticing soundtrack comprised of flawless percussive elements, soft piano keys and stunning lyricism in the form of singing and rap. Renowned for his distinct vocals and immaculate production methods of blending a multitude of genres from Trap and Drill to Garage and Baile Funk, “Starts With A Text” acts as a timely reminder of the Londoner’s unrestricted output and success in blurring the lines of British Hip Hop like no one else.

“Starts With A Text is about me getting to know a lady who I’ve just met and working out the vibe between us, while thinking that she’s potentially more interested in me than she actually is.”- Bawo

First Listen

Regarded as one of the most exciting and unique rappers in the game right now, having shot to prominence with his early Soundcloud productions, he has since garnered a huge amount of radio support in his time. Bawo continues to push the boundaries of the contemporary UK rap scene with his captivating productions and aims to level up even more with a slew of formidable productions dropped throughout the course of 2021. When speaking to Bawo I reflected on how the track made me feel at ease when first listening, with the soft piano elements of the song. Bringing a totally different vibe to the UK rap music scene, Bawo effortlessly intertwined his singing into 'Starts with a Text', which again transported the listener into a different space.

When I asked the multifaceted singer about the process of coming up with the melody to the song, Bawo shared his thoughts with me and delved in a little deeper into the production aspects "Madeleine Jones is responsible for the soft piano tones on the song. In terms of the hook and the melody, the lyrics actually came after the melody for the hook. I was humming the melody while listening to the instrumental and then I filled that melody with lyrics afterwards to build the song."

Artists Perception

"Hearing the piano melody for the first time made me think about the early stages in getting to know a lady and those initial interactions with her, where I’m trying to work her and the overall vibe out. The content came naturally after that.

I heard it [Starts with a Text] and thought yeaaahh, this is it. I knew this track was a vibe - it automatically clicked with me. I wanted to share it with people straight away."

When I asked what the rapper thinks makes him unique to his peers in the music space, Bawo remained humbled nonetheless "I don’t know what makes me unique to other rappers, to be honest. In terms of being in my own lane, I would say yes by default because every artist is in their own lane and doing their own thing, no matter how similar two sounds might seem to somebody." We spoke further about the artists ability to blend a multitude of genres throughout his music. I wanted to know if this was done consciously so he could avoid being boxed in to one category as an artist. "I don’t do it consciously - I tend to just do what feels right to me. I don’t ever really worry too much about what genre a song might fall into when making it so I’d say it isn’t deliberate. I'd like to think my music represents West London, and also London and the U.K. in general."

First Watch

The visuals to 'Starts with a Text' are just seamlessly, really cool. I wanted to know more about the creative processes behind the music video, Bawo gave me a further insight "I wanted to do my best to bring through the feel of the music, especially the feel of the piano. Seb, the director, had reached out to me before and it felt right to connect with him on this one. He brought his magic to the video and everything came together quickly and very smoothly. It was really exciting to watch it when it turned out as imagined. Seeing something come from the mind and into matter in that way creates a really good feeling.

The different lightings elements throughout the video really captured my attention and told a story. It’s refreshing to see creativity like this when it comes to visuals, for Bawo lighting and angles are crucial and very important when it comes to his music videos. "Lighting and angles add layers to the emotions and help to heighten the story and they can change the whole narrative and direction of the video. With this video, I wasn’t really trying to convey a particular message. It was more about painting a picture to go alongside the track and also to reflect it - I feel like this came through well in the video."