While Grime was born in East London, it has now grown into something much bigger than that. Artists nationwide are picking up the sound and making it their own, with a scene particularly thriving up north in Manchester. With the continued success of MC’s like Bugzy Malone, Geko and more, it’s only a matter of time before the city is a melting pot of talent to rival the one in London; arguably, it’s already there.
One of these names experiencing success at the moment is Blizzard. The 21-year old, born and bred Mancunian has dominated the battle rap scene, amassing millions of views on Don’t Flop, as well as kick starting his musical career, which includes a Radio 1-listed track. We holla’d at Blizz for a chat, who celebrated his home city and ran through his 5 favourite freestyles with our guy Griff, as well as touching on his forthcoming debut album. Read on to find out what went down.
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GRM: So let’s start this run through with your first choice, Slay on JDZ Media’s Spitfire.
Blizzard: This was the first time Slay had done a freestyle in a little while and the beat is heavy, it really compliments his lyrics. He’s proving that he’s still a legend in Manny. His pocket is perfect for the beat and the vibe of the whole video, with people nodding along and stuff is just so good. It’s Slay’s debut on JDZ Media as well and such a great example of his talent. He’s been around in Manchester for 10, maybe 12 years and he’s always had power, and he’s always been very sick at lyrics. “You don’t wanna get capped-in-america”, like that is so intelligent. His spin on words is just next level.
GRM: I thought that whole super hero scheme was so sick.
B: Yeah. Back in the day he had a track called “Everything” on one of his first mixtapes and he had this scheme where he was like, “I’ve got the heavy metal but I’m not into rock/ So you better know the metal will go pop/ If you get shot in the hip you’ll hop” – ah man, he’s just heavy.
GRM: Your second choice then, was Meany with a Warm Up Session.
B: Meany is someone I grew up listening to. He’s always been one of those people that has been gangster from the get go. His punchlines init – he said, “Ecstasy in envelopes, now that’s what I call an email” – another one was, “She gives me ’nuff brain/ I’m scared to come inside her like a bus lane”. Things like that, it gives you an insight into his life, but he does it in such a smart way. It’s the same reason I rate Nines so much. Even though I can’t relate to that lifestyle, me being a suburban kid from a posh part of Manchester, I can still get an insight into his life by the way he projects his stories. There’s something about Meany that I just took to, because he’s exactly what you’d expect him to be like in real life, he doesn’t put on a front. He’s not a dickhead, but he’s always been a sick MC, there is no fronting… Meany is from Manchester and you can tell that by his accent, there is no sugar coating it. In terms of road rap, it’s only him and a guy called Captain that are that good.
GRM: There were a couple of punches that were killing me. Like, “99% of bitches are Drake fans”, just because it’s so real.
B: Yeah man, there’s so many sick punches.
GRM: Number 3 was Hypes on Don’t Flop’s Drops.
B: The beat on this one is a remix of one of my favourite songs, “A Walk” by Tycho. Tycho’s album changed my life dude. When I heard the trappy remix of it, I liked it before the bars had even started. The first bar was, “From the home of Peace and Unity/ but there’s no peace and unity”. That’s a sick reference, because he’s referencing these 2 pirate radio stations in Manchester. Again, he’s another guy who knows how to tell a good story. “People reaching for guns before they’ve even reached puberty”. He’s from the areas where he sees that, that shit happens every single day. It’s so real to hear it from somebody I know. I grew up with him being like a mentor to me… he showed me the way to do a lot of things… he holds a place with me.
GRM: For me, I liked the contrast of the chilled Tycho beat and then him spitting the “Stop Dat” flow.
B: I never thought a track like that would work in trap. It works so well though.
GRM: Your fourth pick, was from Shifty, right?
B: Did you enjoy that one, personally? Because I’m not going to lie, I’m a bit biased because he’s my cousin. But I think, still, he’s one of the sickest to have done it in Manchester. He has so many punchlines right from the start. Every single other line, it was like a set up for a punchline and the lyrics never, ever, sounded forced. His words always made sense to what the punchline was going to lead on to… I like doing that too and I think I subconsciously took that style from him. The formula is really effective. You find yourself getting gassed over a punchline and in that time he’s already spat another and you’re like “fucking hell, stop man, chill out”. His multi-syllabic’s were off the chain and it’s sad people didn’t realise that until after his car accident, when he stopped making music. People started going to his older stuff and people realised that he’s a god. In Manchester, he was THE best to do it. Before Bugzy Malone, Shifty was the guy… he was like the Gandhi of the scene. That’s a bit of a bold statement, actually.
GRM: That may be a stretch.
B: I’m probably being biased, but I honestly believe there was no one better than him doing Grime.
GRM: From an unbiased perspective, this one definitely felt like the rawest one.
B: At that time in his career he was hungry… but later on he had a car accident and it just put him out of the game. He’s kind of a legacy that was unfinished. He could have been Devlin. He could have been Professor Green.
GRM: So he was a major influence on you?
B: Yeah, Shifty got me into MC’ing. I was writing poetry and short stories, I never knew how to rap on a beat… he was like the catalyst for my career.
GRM: On that note, the last freestyle you chose is one of your own.
B: I feel so arrogant for that.
GRM: Nah bro, you’ve got to get that plug!
B: The thing is bro, this freestyle is old as fuck. It was at the point where I was still living and breathing Manchester and I was hungry, nobody knew who I was really and I had a lot to prove. I think out of all the freestyles I’ve done that is my best. Apart from that Daily Duppy that I wrote and am still waiting to record… But no, there’s so many punchlines in this that I love. I wasn’t really a massive punchline person, but I like the ones that would be like “ah, that was pretty funny”. At this point as well, people still knew me as Shifty’s cousin and if people saw me in the street, they wouldn’t go, “oh you’re Blizzard”, they’d say, “you’re Shifty’s cousin, init” and I HATED it. After Shifty’s accident I went away for a bit and stacked all these lyrics and started dropping all these freestyles.
GRM: It was hard.
B: It was good. I was either going to include this one or my Fire In The Booth, or my Don’t Flop Drops, which was all about my life. It was literally a biography of my life in a song, explaining everything… but, as all the others I’ve picked were quite raw, I wanted to include one with the same kind of tone.
GRM: My favourite scheme was the “I put the M in…” scheme. “I put the M into MC…”
B: “…you put the M into empty”. Yeah, that was a good one. My favourite punchline in that was, “I eat Tunes, like my throats sore”. I dunno why that stuck with me, but when I wrote it I was like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe no one has thought of this”… the freestyle is just a perfect display of what I can do.
GRM: It was formulative in what was to come?
B: Yeah and when I watch it I get nostalgic. Rapping in a park, smoking spliffs and stuff and being on a mad hype. Looking back at that, now that I’ve got a song on Radio 1 and I’ve done Glastonbury, I never thought I’d get this far. I was screaming Manchester for life, but now I’ve moved to London and I’m brushing heads with all these people I used to watch on DVD’s. I was in the studio with Jammer last night. I never would have expected that. Wiley and Jammer and Footsie, they’re untouchable to me, because I’m just this Manchester kid and these guys are in London doing it big. Now I’m doing tunes with them. Going back to the freestyle, it makes me remember that I was on the come up once. I was fighting to be heard… it boosts my self esteem when I watch it. I was 17 and really good and now I’m 21 and can do so much more with it. Bit of a soppy back story, but yeah.
GRM: Moving forward, what’s next for you. You’ve got a project coming out right?
B: Yeah, I’m working on my album at the moment. I took a bit of a break to get my life in order and stuff, but now I’m working on it. I’m trying to produce as much of it as possible, as I make my own beats. I’m trying to produce the whole thing and if not, there will only be a couple of tunes produced by other people. I’m going to try and get that out before the new year preferably. I don’t want to put a date on it because I always fuck up, so I’m just going to say “coming soon”. If I say that, then it’ll give me the drive to actually fucking finish it.
GRM: Is that going to be an iTunes release, or a free download?
B: It’s going to be iTunes, with physical copies as well. I want to do what Jme did with his album on vinyl too, because it’s a concept album. So yeah, coming soon.
Words: Alex Griffin