Born in Nigeria and raised in Ireland. Archy Moor is a 22-year-old rapper preparing to share his story with the world. 

I spoke to the talented artist ahead of the release of his debut project, ‘Bonnie Hill’, a 6 track project filled with raw and honest lyrics as well as a number of talented support acts and features throughout.

We started our chat reflecting on his time growing up in Ireland, still so young the rapper moved over to Ireland from Nigeria aged 2 and has been there ever since, 20 years on from his arrival Archy was able to cast back on his childhood in a way that wasn’t as clear to him at the time. ”At the time it just was what it was, don’t really know anything different but then kind of reflecting back on it now, It was mad isolated… like, you know, the whole narrative of like I was literally the only black person in primary school to secondary school. There wasn’t really anything I could relate to so I kind of had to shape myself to fit in and all that kind of jazz. Now that I’m grown up and stuff I’m kind of like that’s not the way to go about things”. 

Archy no longer tries to fit in, while talking to him I felt as though he cared not to impress anyone or to make music that appeals to the masses, but creates music for himself as a tool of personal expression ” I’m kind of just doing my own path regardless of if it’s the popular thing or not the popular thing”.

Nevertheless, he doesn’t look back at his childhood in a negative light and sees it as a time that was useful in creating the man he’s become today, “It wasn’t good or bad, just different”.

Archy was in the early stages of his career when he decided to take a break from creation and focus on building a team to work with. “I tried doing the thing of making music with those hot at the moment.. Thinking that was the way to go about things but honestly it’s not for me”.

Aged 19 he took a break to build a team of business and creative minds,” I had to step away and figure out what I wanted”. When speaking it was obvious to me how important a team that Archy could trust and grow with was for the 22 years old rapper. “I’m about growing together with people … maintaining that we grow together, we fall together”

Archy’s team was complete when he set out on the year-long mission to create his debut project ‘Bonnie Hill’ which dropped on Friday the 10th of November. 

He had the helping hands of Earl saga who executively produced the whole project, Mike Wavs who aided production on track 1, Nick Mills who co-produced on track 3, and Jgrrey and Litany who added their vocals across their project, ”It was a close-knit experience, I didn’t really brand away from the squad. The family.”

Still young, Archy’s work to build the perfect team has led him to have no real worries or pressures when creating his music,” I don’t force it, I used to beat myself up when I was trying to write and it wasn’t landing ..  now I’m like if it lands it lands if it doesn’t it doesn’t”. Working closely with Earl Saga on the project their calm and relaxed energies molded perfectly “We can go into sessions and just chat shit for 6 hours and not really think of that as wasteful time”.

  Archy’s journey to create ‘Bonnie Hill’ was done primarily alongside Earl Saga and saw the pair of them visit Korea, Japan, and LA in their creative forage. The last stop when creating ‘Bonnie Hill’ was LA which was the birthplace of the project’s name,” The area we were staying at was called Bonnie Hill … I saw the street sign and thought YO, that’s kind of a hard name”. The opening track ‘Beautiful’ makes reference to this with a voicemail from a friend unable to find ‘Bonnie Hill’.

 The title was an ode to the area in which the journey ended “We are in this place with a sick name, where this whole year-long journey is about to end, what a better name to call it than the place where it’s all ending”.

With ‘Bonnie Hill’ being Archy’s debut project it will hopefully be the release that puts Archy’s first stamp on the budding British rap scene, with Archy not really feeling any pressure for chart success or insane streaming numbers the 22-year-old just wants “People to hear it and be like, oh shit there is still people making real music, there is still people telling their stories and being vulnerable, and being who they are and not afraid of that… If people take me for who I am, not some artists tryna get on and be famous and all that jazz, that for me is the win. That’s the goal”

The project is exactly how Archy describes it: Vulnerable, Raw, and honest. Listening to ‘Bonnie Hill’ it was clear that the artist I spoke to wasn’t lying or trying to sell a false image he truly was just creating music the way he wanted and on topics that meant something to him. 

Track 2 is titled ‘Pray my ma’ and touches on Archy’s relationship with his mother and the importance he puts on making her proud. Coming from a Nigerian background Archy always had a fear that his mother wouldn’t be happy or support him if he began making music and would want him to follow more traditional routes, leading Archy to hide his music at first, sneaking out to create music under false pretenses. When it was no longer possible to create music the way he was previously he felt as though he had to fess up to his mum and “Surprisingly she was so welcome about it” now ”She’s sending me songs, saying you should do this one and this song, if you take out the drums here it will be crazy, I was like Jesus christ look at you becoming a producer”.

“It was crazy she did a whole flip from what I thought she would be”, his mum’s welcoming attitude allowed him to fully focus on music putting his university work behind him in order to pursue his passion “for her to say you’re doing well, I’m really really proud of you. It means the world to me.. She has that belief in me when sometimes I don’t have it in myself”.

At 22 and releasing his debut project, Archy is only at the beginning of his journey and while the rapper has plans to visit London, New York, Tokyo, and South Korea this year, that is the furthest his plans go, “In between that shit will go down, I just don’t know what yet”. The easy-going artist hasn’t dreamed of this career since childhood,” This whole music thing wasn’t a childhood dream, it’s all quite recent” and that is evident when he talks about his future plans, the 22-year-old is just taking it one step at a time, with no rush to achieve certain things or reach certain stages. Archy has no pressures in his career and said it best when he told me “I’m just gonna run my race”.