Rising Croydon rapper BZ made waves with his highly anticipated debut mixtape, ‘Best of Three’. Blending Afro-influenced production with a hard-hitting Hip Hop cadence, ‘Best of Three’ showcases BZ’s relentless drive to evolve and push his sound forward. With each track, he cements his place as one of the UK’s most exciting artists to watch. Get familiar…

What five words define your sound?

Groovy, diverse, raw, authentic and versatile.

Tell me something unique about your creative process.

It’s based a lot on my feeling and the atmosphere at the time. Most of what I write are songs I make in session with the producer so it’s inspired heavily by the conversations we have; so my creative process is quite organic and authentic.

Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?

I would say ‘Want It’.

What inspired you to make that song?

I listen a lot to R&B but I would say my sound is very Afro-inspired and previously most of my tunes have been gritty and hard hitting. With ‘Want It’ I wanted to mix the R&B elements of sampled vocals with an Afro-influenced beat and a smooth approach.

What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music? 

It would definitely be opening up about losing people close to me in some of my unreleased songs, and how certain experiences growing up impacted as a man. It isn’t easy to speak about these things especially as a man that’s meant to be strong all the time so I will definitely say these are times I’ve been most vulnerable when writing.

What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?

My best experience was Reading Festival. Seeing thousands of people mosh-pitting and knowing the words to my songs by end of the set meant a lot. The worst would actually be when I had perform to some kids I was mentoring at a school. I was telling them to chase their dreams and not be nervous but when I performed, I had a mind blank and forgot all my words [laughs]. Was quite ironic actually.

What is your favourite song to perform?

It’s has to be ‘2 G’s’. The energy in the room just shifts whenever that song plays.

Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?

Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’.

What’s the meaning behind your name?

It’s quite moist [laughs], let’s just say it’s a shortened name of an unwanted nickname I had growing up.

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?

Definitely something fashion related, I think I’ll still explore this.

What’s success to you?

Success is to me is impact. If what I do can touch or inspire one person, it’s success to me. It’s a cheesy answer but it’s definitely true. The reason I keep going is so my music can reach and impact as many people as possible

What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?

My faith definitely made me change direction in everything I do. I try to make sure everything I do is not just for myself but God is centred around it and I think this changed my direction in a lot of things.

Where can people keep in touch with you? 

On all socials @bzofficial1.

Photo by Fin Nichols.