NEMZZZ KNOWS HIS WORTH

Nemzzz began making music at the age of 14, a step that seemed natural given his upbringing in Gorton, southeast of Manchester’s city centre; both of Nemzzz’s parents were creatively involved with music, his father producing reggae and his mother writing music. Since then, his career trajectory has been meteoric, a combination of the artist’s relentless, consistent hard work and exceptional talent. Nemzzz’s ability to rap with surgical precision over skittering, pulsating drum patterns is a formula that’s rightfully catapulted him into the spotlight, with breakout tracks like “Elevate” and “2MS” cumulatively racking up hundreds of millions of streams and counting.

But don’t get Nemzzz confused as someone who rests on their laurels. Since his inevitable breakout moment, Nemzzz has continued from strength to strength, steadfastly committed to refining his craft and cementing himself as a mainstay in UK rap. Case in point was his debut mixtape, “Do Not Disturb”, which released last month: a 15-track project comprised of razor sharp, captivating lyricism and buttery smooth production.

Ahead of the release of the Air Jordan 4 “Industrial Blue”, END. spent the day with Nemzzz in his home city, linking him up for a discussion with Joe McDermott, the founder of Victory Lap Radio: a monthly show committed to delivering a distinctive snapshot of modern UK Rap.

Joe: We actually met briefly for the first time in 2021 at Niko B’s tour — I’m Niko’s DJ and we brought you out at the Manchester date. I think you had really just made an impact on the scene when dropping “Elevate” and “2MS” and those two songs were played constantly on repeat in our tour van, so it feels full circle to be interviewing you now. I know you've been making music for a while before those two songs, but it felt like that was your kind of first breakthrough when those songs dropped, and you'd found your kind of signature sound that we still feel and hear in your music today. How did that signature sound come about and what would your advice be to other artists that are trying to establish their own sound?

Nemzzz: To be honest, it's a lot more of trial and error and just staying true to yourself. I feel like when I came into rap music, as a whole, I was more influenced by who I was listening to at that current time, so it's a case of really being true to yourself, trying to be original or find something different. Obviously, that comes with a lot of trial and error, like I was saying before: you’ve got to try things to see what works, to see what doesn't and to see what resonates with people. I sort of got to the point where I took a long break and I was looking at what was going on and just analysing what everyone else was doing. I decided to move away from that and that's kind of how I'm here right now.

Joe: How does Manchester, your roots and your community help inspire your music do you think?

Nemzzz: To be honest, I feel like because I'm from Manchester and not from London — which is where most artists are broken through in the game — I have a lot more to prove, and that's not just in music, it's just in general. You'll get a lot more support if you're from London and you're trying to become a top artist. There's not as many successful people from Manchester in the industry, so I feel like it's all about going that extra mile and putting in the extra work — that’s just how it is.

Joe: Yeah, I hear you. So what are some of the key differences you kind of feel between Manchester and London? I know that you're between the two quite a lot. Is it just that there's more of an infrastructure and more support in London at the moment?

Nemzzz: In terms of support or just in general? 

Joe: Yeah, just in general, really, because like you said, it does feel like you have to work twice as hard with art that’s from outside of London. Do you think Manchester is going to catch up, or do you think it's going to be quite a while before it can get to that same level of support as London?

Nemzzz: It's a lot easier to get out there nowadays because you’ve got social media and all of these different platforms where you can grow quickly. I still don't think it's gotten much better when it comes to Manchester versus London; yeah, in general London is more busy, more fast-paced — everyone's got something going on. In Manchester, it's a lot slower, you might have the one, two or three people you know who’ve got something going on; you might have a footballer there, you might have another businessman over there, but it's not as common. Yeah, I still think there's a lot of work to be done and a lot of growth needed around that in Manchester.

Joe: Yeah man, well I think artists like you coming through and shining a light and bringing eyes on it is going to help the next generation, you know? I think there's a big focus on independence in the UK at the moment, even in like the fashion world and clothing — brands like Corteiz in London, Lost Boys in Nottingham and definitely Drama Call and Clints in Manchester. How do you feel about what's happening in creatively in Manchester at the moment?

Nemzzz: I think it's going well, bro — obviously we've got Drama Call and lots of other things going on. I don't want to miss out on any names, but we've got a lot of people doing their own thing, and I feel like independence is very key because in that way you have no one else to blame but yourself. You can mess up, make a mistake and it's okay because you haven't got a thousand people saying “you should’ve done this, you should’ve done that”. It’s more about having creative control to just do whatever you want, and then obviously the most important thing is owning what you have — that can be a clothing brand, music or a business, for example, but you owning that is the best thing you can do.

Joe: Victory Lap Radio is a fully independent platform which I started as a passion project as just me and my friends, which is why I we've had people drawn to it and want to be a part of it, rather than it being like a big corporate entity — it's just me and my guys, you know? I know you also have a lot of lyrics about turning down deals and currently being independent. What is important for you about being independent right now at this stage of your career?

Nemzzz: I feel like to sum it up in one sentence: I've got this far without a label, why do I need them now? A lot of people make the mistake where they're trying to get something viral and they think they need someone else, but if you think about it, you just got that thing viral by yourself, so why do you need them? That's a question a lot of people need to ask themselves, bro.

Joe: How do you think you've developed as a person and as an artist in the last few years since breaking onto the scene and dropping your first EP? What’s one of the most important things that you've learned that you'd like to maybe share with other artists that are coming through?

Nemzzz: To be honest, I've learnt to not put as much pressure on myself and I'm just focused on being the best version of myself I can be. You know, I feel like people put too much pressure on themselves, they end up overthinking, and then that's when the downfall starts to happen. I feel like the way I keep myself going is just focusing and working and not letting any achievement make me think, "oh, I can chill now. I can take a break. I can do this". It's always the same plan. Say I was to make a million pounds yesterday. I'm still going to think, all right, “let’s just keep working the same way and let's keep trying to impress myself”. If I go to the booth today and make a song, then think, “oh, this is hard. This is it.”, then I know everyone else will like it. I try not think "ah they might not like this, they might not like that", you know?

Joe: You’ve got to be your own biggest fan, first and foremost, and if you know you've gotten this far, it’s obviously trusting your own judgment, innit? So yeah, you’ve got to not worry about what they're thinking and saying and lead a lot more with what you feel I guess.

Nemzzz: For real, bro.

Joe: You've worked with a bunch of highly respected artists in the UK, including Knucks, Stay Flee Get Lizzy, Blanco and, more recently, Headie One and K-Trap. It was also really great to hear Jay G on the latest project who's a past Victory Lap guest. Are there any other UK artists you're eager to work with in the future, or ones that you think we should be keeping an eye on?

Nemzzz: To be honest, I'll just say, for now, there's no artists I really want to work with that I haven't already connected with and have something in the process. You get me? That's all I'll say on that, bro.

Joe: Sounds good. Aside from UK artists, you obviously blessed us with a Lil Yachty collab track. I remember a few years ago, there was a snippet with Yachty on the 2MS remix, so it wasn't a crazy surprise to see the link up. But how did it come about and how was it working with him?

Nemzzz: To be honest, it came about very organically, bro. Like, Lil Yachty obviously heard 8AM in Manny, my track where I sampled Drake’s 8AM in Charlotte. He heard that and put it on his story. I was like, "yo, sick". I basically said, “my guy”, he said, “yeah, let's work together”. Obviously, we exchanged contacts and whatever and then started chatting a little bit. In fact, I sent him a song to get on. He obviously couldn't fit that vibe. He just sent me back "It's us" on that beat. I was like, "yeah, I can rock with this". Recorded that. And then yeah, bro, he let me use it for the tape, man. Big up Lil Yachty every time.

Joe: Come on, man. Yeah, I remember that. I remember there being a little snippet of the remix popping around a few years ago. I think I'd seen you playing it more recently on a TikTok or on a live or something. So it's good that something finally dropped from it. It's cool that these big artists are watching on an organic one like that.

Nemzzz: Yeah, man.

Joe: I guess that's what's good about Instagram and stuff nowadays. I was going to say, the internet's also been demanding a linkup between you and Cench for a while. I've seen him showing you lots of love during your project release, as well as you also modelling for SYNA recently. Cench also came down to Victory Lap with Dave last year, ahead of their collab tape that came out. They showed some love to Victory Lap and our platform. It feels good to me to know that the kind of really big artists in the UK are willing to put on for what's next up. How does it feel to have the kind of support of guys like that?

Nemzzz: It just lets me know I'm doing the right thing, bro. I'll never sit here and be like, “oh my God, I can't believe it”, because a lot of this, a lot of what’s happened, I knew it was going to happen down the line. Whether it ended up being five or ten years from now now, I sort of knew it was going to all happen, bro. But it's definitely a reassuring feeling.

Joe: Yeah, definitely man. I think it's important as well for these guys to be willing to show love, especially in London. We've got like a really bad culture for gatekeeping, you know, people trying to protect their own thing and not really putting on for the next people. So, I think it's cool that people are realising we're kind of stronger together and it's cool for the big guys to be showing love. Like they pulled up and were showing love to Kirbs and Jay G and a bunch of the guys at Victory Lap, a bunch of the younger guys. So it's nice to have these people showing love because I don't think it's always been that way.

Nemzzz: Absolutely, bro.

Joe: So the last question I was going to ask is super simple: we just want to know what's next for you and what can we be expecting?

Nemzzz: I'd say I'm just going to keep working. There are things that won't change — I'm just going to keep dropping, keep giving the family what they want. Yeah man, when it's that time again, we're getting back in the EP mode. Yeah, we'll see where we are after that, bro. 

Joe: Nice one.

Nemzzz: I've got my tour approaching next week, and then I've got my European tour in October, and then I’m possibly going to be in Australia. So yeah, I tell people keep an eye out for that. 

Joe: Nice, man.

Nemzzz:  Nothing but good music and vibes, bro.