This Stevenage born talent quickly rose to grime stardom with his early career highlighted by performances with Wiley, JME, Skepta, AJ Tracey, Big Zuu & Boy Better Know. Get familiar with sbk via this interview…
What five words define your sound?
Honest, Melodic, Raw, Deep, Melancholy
Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?
For most people, I want to be known for my Rap stuff, so I’d recommend starting with my song ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ – a good introduction to me.
What inspired you to make that song?
That song was my transition from Grime MC to Rap and I feel like it’s the perfect starting track for my first ever mixtape under the same name. It just gives a good sense of my outlook and values at the time. I was inspired by the beat itself – the lyrics just followed what came after.
What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?
With my song ‘INSECURE’ I was very vulnerable because I’d never sung to that extent on a record before. I really committed to it and the lyrics themselves are so vulnerable too, I’m literally expressing how insecure and sad I felt at the time.
What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?
The worst experience has got to be chipping my tooth at a show in Worcester. That hurt so bad. I was jumping up and down a lot performing and cracked my tooth on the metal grill of the mic. I kept going though. Was too drunk to feel pain I think.
What is your favourite song to perform?
I like my more hyper songs, ‘Haters’ and ‘Moshpit Love’ always go off! I just know for a fact the new unreleased tracks are going to go crazy when I perform them too. The production and the uptempo stuff is always a vibe. I do like to break it up though.
Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?
Skepta – ‘Konnichiwa’ is probably the first album I listened to that changed everything for me. Skep and BBK are the reason I was inspired enough to do this and to have worked with them is an honour.
What’s the meaning behind your name?
sbk doesnt actually stand for anything. It’s just a name I came up with when I was about 13. I can’t remember why, I just stuck with it. I’ve come up with a few anagrams over the years; Sound Boy Killer, Something Beyond Knowing – but haven’t found the right one yet. It can mean whatever. There’s plenty of artists with names this short with no meaning.
If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?
I’d probably be making jewellery and stuff, I find it fascinating – something creative for sure.
What’s success to you?
It changes all the time but real success is waking up in the morning and doing what you want to do. In that regard I already have success. Mainstream success is something I want but that will come with time. That also tends to be very superficial. Real life is what matters.
What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?
Certain things I went through in Grime music made me want to switch genres. I feel like it’s a very negative space and I wasn’t aligning with it. I met and worked with my idols, JME, Wiley, BBK etc, but I feel like when I reached a certain level of success other people in the scene started to switch up on me.
Where can people keep in touch with you?
It’s @yungsbk on all socials.
