The past year has seen SamRecks become an exciting new UK rap prospect. His infectious jams have been inescapable on social media but in the best way possible, successfully carving out his own lane with tunes like “Don’t Tell No one” and “Love & Attention”. We sat down with Sam to learn a bit more about his journey so far and what we can expect from musically in 2023.
If you wanted to describe yourself as an artist to someone who has never met you or heard the music, what would you say?
“Expect the unexpected, whatever you think I’m gonna come up with is not what is going to come”.
Who would you say your influences are?
“Early influences were people like A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Wretch 32. I got drawn into lyricism. That was the first thing that got me into music and made me want to start writing. When I would hear a bar I thought was hard, I’d want to re-create something like that. So a lot of the early artists I listened to were solely lyricists, J Cole – them sort of people “.
Would you say it changed as you got older?
“I wouldn’t say changed I started realising that the vibe needs to be there as well. The hooks and the whole feel of the song. I started listening to more RnB and melodic songs. I listen to a lot of Brent Faiyaz.”
Having made early waves with tracks like “On Me” a few years back, SamRecks is more well versed in the game than newer fans may realise. We were keen to delve into that and whats affected his journey.
Would you say you’ve kind of gone through the motions from when you first started making music?
“It’s always been that something I’ve just loved doing, from early. I’m talking about primary school times, I was doing music. People from primary school that pull up to me now they’re surprised that I’m still doing this. I just love to doing music. So back then if I made any type of money, I’d want to shoot video or record songs, I’d go studio. So I was just doing this as a hobby[…]When I got the chance I’d save up, pay for video and get it uploaded on GRM Daily or any platform that’s out there.
“But within the last two, three years, I realised that like there’s nothing else I really want to do aside from music, even if I had a job that was paying me a crazy amount. If I hear someone drop a song that’s hard, I then want to make a song and drop it. My focus shifted more towards music full time. Decided I was going to take it seriously, study the industry, theres more to it than just posting and waiting to blow”.
How important are the visuals, and the other creative aspects that surround the actual music itself?
“To me, it’s as important as making the music. Because the creative side is what people see visually more time, that’s what brings life to every song you make. You can make a hard song and then the video doesn’t match and it makes the song feel like its not all that […]if I made the song feeling in a type of way, and the rollout represents that and in the video represents that, you understand the whole vision, you can put yourself in my shoes”.
Going on to express his involvement in each stage from cover art, video direction, styling, a hands on approach is important to him. Also going on to state that he wants to get deeper into producing his own music. An interesting feat, that sets him up to become not only a great rapper, but a well rounded musician. Touching on the potential pressure of being so heavily involved, Sam says: “No pressure at all. The fun part is making music and creating all the stuff around it. The pressure is more with like, how are people going to take it”.
His singles have appeared in TikToks UK Hot section this year, the platform has seemed a pivotal part in his elevation this year. Kicking off with “Don’t Tell No One”, we asked him how the explosion of that song felt.
“I couldn’t believe it. Because it’s like, it’s one of the moments where you plan something and it actually goes to plan[…]I just wanted people to hear it, I didn’t think so many people would start creating videos[…]My plan was always to drop it on Valentine’s Day regardless of how the sound did, but the fact that I actually did well leading up to Valentine’s Day just helped even more”.
The single crafted after on a random night shift with his engineer Biggy. One of four songs recorded that day, they finished it and let it stew, Sam starting to think of ideas for the roll out. Stacking up 20+ videos with friends and then dropping releasing the sound on TikTok a year later – the aim being to get it into peoples heads and it worked.
With social media being a big part of his promotion and trends being picked up and dropped quicker than ever before. We asked how he felt about it all.
Have you ever felt like there’s been a point where you don’t want to be active on social media?
“It’s not so much not wanting to be on socials. I’m quite reserved but its more juggling socials while working. A lot of people don’t know I work 5-6 days a week, finding time to make this content and put it out consistently is the struggle for me[…] it’s the juggle of making as much content as I can and then spreading it out. So when I’m working, it’s not like I’ve just ghosted”.
Love and relationships a theme throughout much of his music. We touched on how conscious that is.
“Everything in my music has meaning, it has a lot of meaning to me”. He goes on to delve into each of his recent singles: “Situationship” connecting with people due to its honest nature. “Love & Attention” influenced by a past break up and released on his birthday. “Suns Out, Buns Out” delivered in summer fittingly. His most recent single “Would You Let Me” questioning whether someone was actually real. An artist willing to be vulnerable via music but also clued up on how much to show people.
Having not dropped any collaborative music this year, SamRecks let us know there is some in works. So for the mean time we got into who he’d like to collab with.
Dream collab, DOA?
“I’d want to make a song with Brent Faiyaz and Smino” .
Dipping his toes into live performances earlier this year, he let us know its definitely something he’s keen to get into but when the time is right.
Also checking in who he’s been listening to.
“J.I.D, Westside Boogie, Flowerchild, old school 50 Cent, J Cole, some real old school Drake[…]I’ve been listening to a lot of different music as I feel like they inspire me more.”
Check out SamRecks’ latest single “Would You Let Me“. And look out from newness from SamRecks, him setting out to make timeless music, showcase his creative prowess across the board as well as a debut EP!