UK artist Lethal Bizzle changed the grime scene when he stormed into the picture with his collective More Fire Crew and their absolute banger ‘Oi!’. He has since released many top tracks – ‘I Win’, ‘Flex’ and ‘Wobble’ included – and has collaborated with several reputable artists (including Skepta, Stormzy and Stefflon Don).
So how did he get to where he is now? We spoke with the London rapper and actor to find out more about his musical journey, his plans for the future, and of course, his favourite slang words…
Lethal Bizzle is now huge in the world of grime, but it was football that initially caught the artist’s interest. “My parent’s weren’t really into the idea of me playing football,” he said. “Music was more of a hobby to me – when I started there wasn’t a blueprint of anyone in my community doing anything similar for me to think I could make it into a career, so I was kinda shooting in the dark and just having fun.
“It wasn’t until I started going to pirate radio local stations and doing free-styling and underground parties and stuff when I started to take it more seriously because people were getting my lyrics. It elevated to studio sessions and making songs – ‘Oi!’ began gaining momentum and blowing up underground. Next thing you know we were doing PR tours around the country and then we got a record deal and then I was like “oh, maybe this is something I could do, this is the path chosen for me”. Sometimes your career chooses you.”
The name Lethal Bizzle is one synonymous with rap and is, funnily enough, one that began as a school nickname. The ‘Lethal’ part was due to his intensity playing football and command on the pitch, and the ‘Bizzle’ came later because of urban influences (specifically, the popularity of the add-on ‘izzle’).
Playing with words is one of Lethal Bizzle’s talents; as a rap artist he is inevitably skilled at this, and an understanding of slang has certainly helped him to reach new heights. For example, he now has his own clothing range named ‘Stay Dench’. (To those unfamiliar with the term, ‘Dench’ basically just means cool).
“‘Stay Dench’ has a nice ring to it,” Lethal Bizzle said when asked about his use of urban language. “You know what, I kinda make words my own. The word I am saying right now is sensational. It’s my new favourite word and I’ll be saying it every 10 seconds – it can even be one of my chat-up lines: “You look sensational!”
The smooth-talker, who obviously knows how to woo the ladies, also offered up some advice on how to live a happier life: “I always try and stay on a good, positive path,” he commented. “I believe that you get back what you put out and I always try and have a good energy mode and stay on that frequency, because it is easy to get drawn away from it with what is going on on social media and in life.
“I would say a positive mindset makes for a positive life, and life is what you make it. I am from the most violent council estates in London and I am grateful to have come away from that world and to have changed my life around, so I want to spread that energy out as much as possible.”
It is likely that this confident and forward-looking approach was what guided Lethal Bizzle on the road to success. He managed to prove the doubters wrong when he first made moves – ‘Pow’ wasn’t a song that was warmly received during its initial listen. “No-one other than myself liked the song, apart from maybe 2 people,” he explained. “I played people the beat and everyone was in shock, they were like “what the f***k is this?”. They just didn’t get it.
“Grime was evolving at the time and I wanted to change it up. I was like, “yo, we don’t have to make something with the same sound – trust me, this is the one”. People were honest with me but because of my relationship with them they put the track down and a few months later it was the biggest song in the country. I think they thank me for it now!”
As well as being well-grounded in music, cultural values is another area of interest for the Londoner. Unsurprisingly, the outspoken and strong-minded Lethal Bizzle had plenty to say about the topical Jamie Oliver Jerk Rice debacle, which he had tweeted about prior to our chat.
His take on the matter? That the chef was wrong to create a product named Jerk Rice, but that it was an honest mistake on his part. “I get where Jamie Oliver is coming from and I don’t think he means any harm but still, when you are doing something that involves culture you have to be careful in the way you are trying to add your little twist to it,” he commented.
“I think it is a bit of a slap in the face that he has kind of just took jerk chicken, a well-known dish to the Caribbean culture, and just added the word jerk to rice. It is very disjointed and doesn’t make sense culturally. He is trying to be clever, as Caribbean culture is huge and influential, but he can’t use it as a marketing ploy because there isn’t really such a thing as jerk rice.
“He is trying to pay homage to it but it has kinda back-fired in a big way. I can see what he is trying to do but it is a bit disrespectful that he has just taken a word from a culture and added it to something that literally doesn’t make sense to the culture it is from. I don’t think he thought it through.”
Lethal Bizzle’s passion for this stems from his appreciation of heritage, as he continued: “Culture is important and should be to everyone – if you don’t know where you’re from you don’t know where you are going. It is important in culture that you know what you are talking about because if you haven’t executed it properly people can get highly offended.”
Moving on from cultural controversies, Lethal Bizzle was keen to discuss his involvement with 50 Cent’s upcoming tour. The grime pioneer will be joining 50 Cent and G Unit on the ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ tour, which was organised to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Fiddy’s amazing debut album.
“It is quite surreal as I am such a big 50 Cent fan,” Lethal Bizzle said when asked about this partnership. “I got a call from a mutual friend that we have and he was just like, “50 Cent wants you to come on his tour” and I thought he was joking at first because so many other big rappers wanted to jump on the tour, but he wanted me! It is an honour as he was so influential to me and my career. Going on tour with him wasn’t even on the bucket list but it definitely is one of my greatest achievements.”
The question on everyone’s lips may very well be – why this album? After being released over a decade ago it seems unusual to revive these tracks on a modern day tour, but Lethal Bizzle has the answers: “It is a classic album, man!” he enthused. “The time it came out was a real good moment. 50 Cent was surrounded by so many greats like Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Dr. Dre – all these guys are my favourites – and the music was so on point.
“The music industry at the time was very soft; people were making music to just get on the radio, but 50 Cent was like fresh out the gate, saying “this is who I am, this is what I’ve been through, this is what I am gonna do, take me for who I am”. A lot of people connected with that and the real rawness of it.
“The songs most importantly were amazing…the storytelling, the big production by Dr. Dre, the collaborations on there…it is such a solid album that you can go back and listen to it now and it still sounds as fresh as it did back then. It marked a place in people’s lives and this is probably one of the reasons it still has an impact and why 50 is still being able to tour 15 years later with that album. It will live on for much longer.”
The ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ tour is hotly anticipated by many, and Lethal Bizzle is hoping that his appearance will draw in new fans. “With the size of the venues I am definitely gonna meet some people who may not have heard of me, so I am really gonna put the best performance on that I can. I don’t wanna upstage anybody but I am gonna give it my all. I have known for a while so I am just counting down the days for the tour to start!”
In other news, Lethal Bizzle is aiming to drop an EP in September and is looking to do his own tour in the coming months. He has plans to release an album in 2019 and will be heading out on a 12 date Australia/New Zealand tour with Wiley and other artists this October.
The tour is a three date special and will cover the following venues: Arena Birmingham (18 Sept), 02 London (20 Sept) and Manchester Arena (21 Sept). To get tickets visit nvite.com/community/50centtour.
> Hannah Montgomery
