Razor is a musician from North West London who has been
pursuing a career in music since he was in school. Artists such as Wretch 32,
Chipmunk and Tinie Tempah have shown him that working hard and preserving with
what he believes will one day gain him success in the music industry. He’s
performed at I Luv Live and Camden Unplugged, has current single Sci Fi, is
listed on rotation on the Channel AKA playlist and has his début mixtape Reinventing out on all mixtape outlets including Mixtape Madness and UK Rap City.
I thought I’d catch up with Razor himself to find out more
about his journey, sacrifices and aspirations for the future.
‘I've been writing lyrics since high-school, but only since
the start of last year I decided to make mixtapes and do shows to promote
myself. I would say my career started last April after doing a show in Camden
‘The best place music has taken me is on TV, because it's the best exposure where loads of people around the country can see me. My song
'Sci Fi' is currently on Channel AKA, its playlisted to 'hoodtube' which comes
on everyday from 12-1am , its actually
a regular song on that playlist. When it first came out I promoted it with my
life, I originally filmed the video for rap city so for it to get onto Channel
AKA was very good for me. It’s been up for about 3 months now, and I have had a
few people text or come up to me and say 'I saw your video on TV’, I couldn't
believe it! To request the video text 5421 to 71000 it's only £1 pound, thanks!’
‘I’ve worked on quite a lot of projects, I release a mixtape
last year called 'Venting’, which was just about me being away from music and
coming back with a lot to say. That mixtape had on 7 times jump off champion Sam
Khan on it who is also my childhood friend. This year I made a mixtape called
'Reinventing' which was the follow up to 'venting'. The mixtape just shows that I've grown up a lot, and I am more focused. I had a lot of people in my past
who hated on me for the wrong reasons.’ Reinventing' just shows that I am over
that nonsense and I’ve moved on and it has made me a better and stronger person’.
‘The only sacrifices I’ve made have been in my social life,
and to be honest that's not really a sacrifice. I do a lot of shows so it can
mess up my sleeping pattern at times but that's part of the cycle. Obviously,
going up and down London
He thinks ‘the industry is doing very well', he continues'. 'It's shown me to believe
in myself and I work hard so I can get to where I want. The fact that Tinie,
Chippy, Wretch and a lot of artist are putting out music that they actually
like, shows that the scene is getting better and they are opening doors for
other artists to go through it.
‘My inspirations are J Cole, Drake, Skepta, Wiley, Wretch
32, the list could go on, I would be here all day telling you who it is and
why. The one that sticks in my mind the most is Wretch 32, I've been listening
to wretch ever since his mixtape 'Learn From My Mixtape', since then I’ve followed
and bought all his music. The reason why he inspires me is because I actually
had the chance to meet him before he got signed. We met him on New Years Eve
2009 in a club in Tottenham called 'The Black Grape', my sister’s husband and
comedian Eddie Kadi ran it. Richard Blackwood was there as well, that night I
was thinking about taking music seriously’,
‘It was New Years Eve so I was kind of drunk, when I walked
in I saw Wretch just on the dance floor with his friend Calibar. I remember
kind of being star struck even though he was still an underground artist at the
time, we had both been drinking. If I was sober I probably would have been too
scared to approach him, but I just went up to him and said 'You’re wretch init?’
he smiled and said 'Yea'. We had a chat and I said to him 'if you clashed Jay Z
you would win', he just laughed but he didn't deny it’.
‘I was amazed at how down to earth he was, I told him to not
stop music because he will blow. When I said that it’s like he froze as if he
couldn't believe what I just said. It’s like he was trying to take it in but he
couldn’t. I could tell it meant a lot to him. It made me think 'wow, this guy
is one of the most talented rappers in the UK
‘After that night I saw him a few more times and he'd be the
one to say hi to me before I did. Even when his track 'Traktor' made it to
number 5, that same week he performed at 'I Luv Live'. I jumped on the open mic
but didn't win; when he saw me come up the stairs he had a big smile on his
face and said 'Wa gwan blood?' in a jokey way. He was standing with Eurogang
and all them big artist, I just said 'I'm cool' smiled and walked away. I kind
of felt out of place an awkward but its shows that he respects me and because
he is so talented and down to earth I respect him a lot more because of this he
inspires me the most, almost as much as Wiley’.
Although Razor uses online mediums such as Twitter, Youtube,
Facebook and his Blackberry, but he would say that Facebook is the most
successful, he explains ‘I have a lot more people on there and when I post one
of my new videos up, Facebook usually gets the views up for me.
In the future you can expect to see a lot more videos and mixtapes
from him. He continues. Hopefully I will be performing at the next Bigga Fish
event which is on the 27th of October but I will find out by this weekend. I am
just working really, if I not at studio, I'm doing videos, if not videos then
ill be doing shows. If you want to check out any of my videos go on Youtube and
type in 'Razor Rap
City
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