Get To Know:Bz

Hailing from Croydon in South London, it was only inevitable that BZ would one day take to music after exploring spoken word and being exposed to an assortment of genres from a young age. From attending Church with his family, to listening to the likes of Fred Hammond and Kirk Franklin, to eventually stumbling across US heavy-weights J Cole and Kendrick Lamar; BZ intertwines his African culture in with South London’s raw edge to form a distinct sound of his own. He’s already shown his talent on his previously released songs ‘No Lay Lay’, ‘Act Like A Fool’ and ‘No Rule’s

New Wave sit down with Bz to talk about the newcomers latest single ‘2 G’s’, growing up in Croydon, the power of representation and of course season 2 of the Netflix TV series crime drama Top Boy.

The song ‘2 G’s’ originally came about when Bz was invited to a writer’s camp by a friend. He started working with one of the producers at the camp, they “caught a vibe” then within 40 minutes the song was born.

The track is both Fearless and unapologetic and effortlessly captures the grit of London’s inner city. One first playing the track we are introduced to the waking sounds of sirens and a bold percussive backdrop, produced by LiTek he offers an exciting canvas for Bz’s fiery flow and bodacious attitude.

For the process of creating the visuals for the track both Bz and his team “in terms of the concept and the vison we were all very hands on with it.” The visuals were released on GRM Daily, and are filmed on an estate in London using a handheld camera. We see Bz driving around a car, chilling on the estate

“it’s funny because at the beginning of the year I jokingly said to my manager and I’m going to be in Top Boy and then a year later the song got picked up.”

The song is placed in the iconic scene where Jasmine Jobson’s character Jaq is driving to meet the opps complimenting it perfectly.

Speaking about the massiveness of Top Boy, “I was supper gassed”, Bz admits “Top Boy Summer House was one of my favourite series growing up”. But not one to sit still we move on to what the South London rapper plans to do next which is to further build his catalogue of music with the aim of releasing a few singles in the upcoming few months.

As an artist Bz is only interested in making music that only represents himself, his culture and his community. His sound is unique itself, he sees it as an emergence of two sounds “Afro-Hip-Hop”. growing up in Croydon Bz has always displayed his urbanism through his delivery allowing him to paint a vivid picture of his experiences.

“For me personally music is an expression of how I am as a person, so everything I do is intentional.” Identifying himself as British-Ghanaian, his Ghanaian heritage is an essential part of his sound putting these elements into his “music and production, cadence and flow.” However growing up in Croydon he always displays his urbanism through his delivery allowing him to paint a vivid picture of his experiences.

Bz growing up has a had a mixture of experiences, sometimes getting into trouble but that soon stopped when he wizened up and realised that he has a “talent and a passion that’s way bigger” that’s way bigger than his circumstances.

Continuing, “for me, growing up in south London had it’s difficult parts and tough times” but the rapper overcame it because of his parents and their support. They would say “your place to be and your vision and where you want to go is way bigger than where you are currently”. And this helped the rapper see music as a means to break out of the “South London Cycle”.

The 20-year-old rapper acknowledges that when growing up it helped to look outside and see other rappers who looked like him from South London working towards success inspiring him to chase his own goals. The scene has seen a number of incredible talents emerge from the area such as Dave, Giggs, Stormzy, Krept&Konan and Hardy Caprio to name a few. He’s been a Stormzy fan since back in the day, “I went to Stormzy’s concert last week and it made me believe that I could be shutting down the O2 Arena one day”

To end we go back to the beginning of how Bz originally got into music which was through his experiences of taking part in spoken word poetry at primary school developing his skill of being a lyricist. He also looks back fondly of his time spent in the changing rooms with his mates during secondary school and how “me and the boys always use to make beats on the benches and then we use to all freestyle”.

Listen to ‘2 G’s’ on available on all platforms now.