Words By Claudio De Palma

Released today, ‘More Than Rhyme’ represents the evolution of his quick entry into the UK Drill scene. For 163Margs, the mixtape is his disclaimer. "Every lyric is real life, like a diary…" he explains. "...It's not just lyrics, it's more than that". His words aren’t just metaphor. Between the intro and ‘More than Rhyme’, you’ll get some idea.. Trust him, “...it’s more than music”. Later on, tracks like ‘Aroma’ and ‘Backroad’ add to the atmosphere and talk about what the real London grind is about. Straight drill themes, soft intros followed by hard beats. Reading between the lines,  you see a young rapper maturing from the street to legitimate hustle through music. ‘Even Though I Rap’ and ‘Back Then’ show some contrast in what the old and new life are like. In both cases, life is fast.

“I literally came into it accidentally." 

In the beginning he was just “Margs” to his friends. Raised in South-East London and with no intention of becoming a rapper full-time. Previously, he rapped over homemade beats, he was discovered: “...My friends kept telling me to take this seriously. I went to see Digga D once and previewed a track, my first recorded song, and it just went off!”. Like the rest of his life, things moved quickly from there, “I had to come up with a name quick, so I just picked some numbers… 163”.

On the back of an aggressive stomper ‘2x2 Ft. Bandokay’, the emotional anchor of the track is ‘Cold World’ ft. Marnz Malone. This comes in equal parts of song and rap, the feeling of grief threaded inside the melody. Personally, this is top of the pile. It’s a well-produced groove with 163Margs and Marnz chatting some heartfelt bars on this. ‘Make Your Move’ adds further soul to the mixtape overall.

Sitting alongside heavier raps like ‘Clock It’ and ‘Ye’ (ft. Clavish), which he describes as the "jumpy ones". These are more upbeat and show some skill, again with a decent production level and delivering clean bars in more ways than one.

Although signed to Believe Records, 163 still maintains his own path and when asked about his influences, there actually aren’t many; "I do this for myself, I just put my head down and do it" The mixtape includes international collabs with LILCR, Mig and Marlo who all claim a worthy spot.