Target is continuing his stream of Tuesday night grime conversations with the OG’s of the game. Last week he chatted to Ghetts about his progression into music and this week’s guest in Lethal Bizzle.
Lethal Bizzle is another original player. He’s been active on the scene for over 15 years and was there making music when grime wasn’t called ‘grime’ yet. Through his hits “POW”, “Police On My Back” and “Wobble”, as well as working with indie musicians like Kate Nash and Gallows, Bizzle has carved his space as the lighthearted, yet lyrically ferocious MC that the genre needs.
After taking the end part of last year off to record the rest of his album, Bizzle blew back onto the scene with his Giggs and Flowdan featuring track “Round Here” last week (check the video here) and is ready to talk to Target about where he came from and where he’s going. Check below for 7 things you might not have known.
He never thought music would be his career
When Bizzle was a kid, football was more his kind of thing. He enjoyed music but it was definitely a hobby and he definitely never thought his life would turn out how it has now. “I thought I’d be in uni, have a career and this would be a fun thing I’d do on weekends.”
Shabba and Skibadee were huge influences
Before grime there was garage and drum n bass. Bizzle cites these genres, specifically their figureheads, Shabba and Skibadee as his influences. In a time when UK rappers were trying to sound American, they were MCing with British accents. He even goes to far as to say that they were the equivalent to Drake these days.
He credits So Solid Crew for patterning the UK scene
“That was the game changer for me” he tells Target. So Solid, a South London garage crew, getting a video on MTV Base? That’s when Bizzle knew he could make a career from music.
“Oi” was recorded in a bedroom
Despite knowing Ozzie B, the two had lost contact. One day they linked again when Ozzie and Nico were already making music. Bizzle joined them and More Fire Crew was born. After the trio made a track in a bedroom they thought, “this could be alright” and kept working together. That track was “Oi!”, which ended up on radio and after performing it at a BBQ (that Target was at) the whole thing popped and ended up at #7 on the UK charts.
Not getting signed inspired him to start Lethal Bizzle Records
After Dizzee won the Mercury prize back in 2003 and the grime scene had received that mainstream validation, every MC thought he was going to get signed. Bizzle was one of those guys. He says he was waiting for the call to come but it never did. “I’ve got bars, we’re getting big reloads, why are we not getting signed?” but instead of waiting for the opportunity to come to him, he decided to start his own label, Lethal Bizzle Records.
No one liked the “POW” beat
When he invited everyone down a studio to record the Lethal Bizzle Records joint, none of the other MC’s were feeling it. Dee Double E mocked the hook and even Nico wasn’t sure. However his boys were loyal and said “Bizz it’s you, so let’s go”. After the track got played on radio (without Bizzle’s permission) the rest was history. Can you believe it came out 13 years ago?
There’s a secret Jay Z verse on “POW”
An iconic moment for the scene is when Jay Z spat over the “POW” beat while recording in London. Imagine a “thirty piece orchestra” playing “Pow” at the Royal Albert Hall, madness. Bizzle was then able to meet Hov soon after and thank him “18 million times” for featuring his track. A few weeks later, Jay Z recorded a verse for the track, however as he dissed someone on his verse which he then changed his mind on – he vetoed the whole thing. Come on Jigga, we need that verse.
That’s a lot of info to process in one interview – and there’s even more in the video above – let’s see if Target can top it with next week’s guest.