Words by Tom Alston
The UK rap scene is a complicated landscape filled with a plethora of unique and contrasting subgenres. The likes of Grime, Drill and Hip-Hop have flooded the space for years with their hard-hitting lyrics and gritty instrumentals. However, a new bracket of UK artists is emerging through the rise of social media.
JBEE is a 22-year-old rapper from North London, who has already had quite a journey throughout his musical career. The artist began releasing freestyles on Instagram where he mentioned he was getting, “good feedback, quite regularly from other people.” Despite the positive comments, a lesser-received track would see him go viral overnight.
“With ‘4am’ it was a freestyle on TikTok and Instagram and I sent it to one of my friends to see what they thought about it. They didn’t even give me a mad reaction so I thought ‘forget it, let me just throw it out there and see what it does.’ I woke up in the morning and it had gone crazy. It [going viral] wasn’t expected, I didn’t know when it [going viral] was going to happen but I did have a feeling.”
The song skyrocketed and currently sits on over 127 million streams on Spotify. A year later in 2022, JBEE was back with another hit as once again he dropped a freestyle, but this time with Mixtape Madness, called “Next Up – S4-E2, Pt. 1.” The artist didn’t miss and has seen this track surpass his previous most streamed song and is now at over 146 million streams.
Such an intense start to your career at a young age does come with its challenges and for JBEE this meant spending some time to perfect his craft as he recently took an 18-month hiatus from releasing music. He went into detail explaining what he learnt during his time away.
“I was in the studio a lot, I’ve got a lot of music ready, but there was a lot of learning. With the music game, there are so many things that happen behind just dropping music and a music video. There are things like legal and other stuff I had to learn which I had to do with my management behind the scenes. I feel like that time away was needed most definitely because now I’m back and I feel more clued up on the game.”
And he wasted no time showing what he was working on as he recently dropped a new song titled Deja Vu.
“Deja Vu’s my first single back after not dropping for over a year. It’s really just me talking about what I was going through as I was away from music. I felt like the fans would relate to a lot of the experiences I had over that time.” He laughed, “It’s also quite self-explanatory, Déjà Vu, it’s me talking about feeling like I’ve been in these experiences before and knowing how to manoeuvre in them because I’ve been in those situations before.”
A common theme with JBEE’s music is the personal stories he tells through his lyrics. He spoke about how it helps him to write his songs.
“I like my music to be authentic and organic and I don’t want to be talking about something I haven’t been through before. I find it comes easier to me when I talk about my own experiences.”
Another concept JBEE loves to explore is the use of sampling in his music. The idea is by no means new but has recently seen a surge in popularity through TikTok, with artists using snippets from other songs and adding their own instrumentals to it. He explained his process of choosing the right sample, he said: “The majority of the time it’s me [who finds a song to sample].
“I’ll be scrolling on TikTok and find a song I like and then I’ll get in the studio with my producer and be like ‘lets actually try and flip this’ and we sit down and try to make something out of it. Normally when I’m writing music I like to base what the sample’s speaking about on my song. So if I like the message behind the sample then why not sample it.”
JBEE’s song ‘Next Up’ is a great example of this as it turns the popular song Lovely by Billie Eilish into a trap beat. Now you may wonder why more artists aren’t doing this; getting a really famous song and flipping it in their own way seems like an easy way to make a hit, right? Well, JBEE explained it’s not as easy as everyone thinks.
“It is difficult because there’s a whole legal process behind it, it’s not as easy as people think. A lot of the time you’ll post something with a sample on TikTok and people will be like ‘drop it right now’ but it can take weeks or even months to actually clear a song. You have to be quite intentional with what samples you use or you can just go with the flow and hope it gets cleared ASAP.”
JBEE laughed as he finished his last sentence indicating a grey area when it comes to getting permission. His smile continued when answering a question about samples that didn’t get the all clear, he replied: “There’s plenty of songs that I’ve got in my locker that I’ve been trying to clear that are not happening but I guess it happens.”
Another artist who has started to use this sampling method is LeoStayTrill. He’s seen his song ‘2s n 3s’ explode in popularity on TikTok after it sampled Clean Bandit’s Rather Be. But he’s not the only one on the rise as Manchester Rapper, Nemzzz, has also been going viral on social media and has even collaborated with huge US rappers like Lil Yachty.
JBEE expressed that there’s no better time to be producing music than right now and gave the UK artists, who are currently creating a wave of hype, their flowers, he said: “There’s a lot of artists doing well at the moment and there’s a lot of artists coming through. I feel it’s a good time for UK music.
“A lot of people hate on this new genre but it’s the time for the youth like me to come through. You’ve got Nemzzz, Kid Wild, A1 x J1 and LeoStayTrill, you’ve got loads of young artists coming through. I believe that it’s a good time for UK music and there’s a big shift happening. Also, I feel if you are a young artist right now it’s the best time to come through because everyone is tapped in and looking at UK music right now.”
As JBEE stated, the UK scene definitely has everyone’s eyes on it at the moment but you still need to capitalise on this and build your audience. This is where TikTok plays a huge part.
“TikTok is the best way to get your music out there because the FYP can push your videos to literally anybody in the world.”
However, bridging that gap across seas to the United States and Europe is a slightly different ball game.
“It’s important to bridge the gap because I feel like you can only go so far in the UK because the UK is quite small. Being able to branch out to, not only the US but, Europe and different continents is important. I feel if you can branch out to those different places you reach a whole new demographic and that’s the best way to grow your fanbase. Having fans in Europe and the US allows you to go on tour and bridging that gap is definitely an important factor in music.”
At the peak of his freestyle boom in 2022, JBEE got his first taste of live performing when he appeared at Wireless festival, an experience he said felt rewarding: “Actually being there [on stage] and seeing the fans who listen to your music and the fans behind the Instagram and TikTok accounts, it was crazy to see.
“There are thousands of people singing along to your music. It’s a good feeling for me actually being out there, it’s that recognition for your hard work.”
That same year he was also nominated for a MOBO award for Best Newcomer. JBEE reminisced on what was an inspiring time.
“It was a crazy feeling. Growing up I would watch the MOBO awards with all the big UK artists like Stormzy and Dave, so being in that category as a newcomer, it was a good feeling to be recognised for my hard work.
“We had our own table and it was a good experience. I got to meet other artists like Stormzy and it was a good experience and good to be in that environment around so many other artists and creators, it was inspiring.”
JBEE looks to be returning back to his best after his small hiatus. Deja Vu is just the beginning for the young artist who is looking to take over. He finished off his interview with some expectations for 2025.
“Way more music, consistency and definitely another project, maybe even two.”
