ARTIST WATCHLIST 2024
WRITTEN BY NICHOLAS O’CONNOR
JANUARY 4TH 2024
RAI
Rai, the multi-genre singer/songwriter, further discovering her sound, uses music to express her emotions in depth to help people understand who she is. The artistry behind who Rai is, is deeper than just a song, it’s a principle that establishes a line between emotions and lyrics, using both together to bring a feeling alive for her listeners. Inspired by siblings, parents, even extending to grandparents, it’s clear music runs in Rai’s blood. She utilises this artform as a tool, expressing feelings to compel a bond between her and her music. Rai finds a way to create art in her free time, especially in uni, consistently writing poems, drawing, watching anime and making food to sum it all up. However, apart from her musical ability, Rai highly values family and her faith to lead her in life.
Furthermore, Rai aims to discover new opportunities to grow and develop her confidence this year, putting her name out and channelling her art towards an audience to captivate her sound. “I told myself this year that I’m going to take every opportunity as it comes and do whatever it is to my best ability because I know it will develop my character and my music career.”
Additionally, she aims to present her versatility and unique sound with a raw and meaningful intention to connect with different listeners who can relate, “it’s all a matter of timing” mixed with hopes to release more music.
On the other hand, one big struggle she faced last year was procrastinating, constantly pondering on whether to release music for the last few years, but never committing to it, “strictly because of self-doubt, having zero confidence in myself and fear.”
However, she overcame this by one simple piece of advice a friend told her. It was that your audience will love your music for who you are, and the right people will also like what you like to make. “And it’s changed my mindset and mentality ever since.” Moreover, “it’s definitely encouraged me to do what I feel is right and release what I feel is right in my own time.”
Lastly, Rai indicates she’s managed to remove as much self doubt in her head and space as possible when it comes to her music career because of God’s grace and blessings with her talent to generate strong music and her faith. “I realised my passion for music was never a short-term thing”, writing and freestyling for years with hopes to make a career out of it, involving “zero procrastination and zero doubt.” However, ever so often doubt creeps in, but she extinguishes the nerves by staying consistent and true to herself, trusting her talent and journey.
RIGHTEOUS RECK
Righteous Reck, AKA. Mr. Lover Boy
“There’s things I did as Reckless that affected me as Cameron”
Inside with Righteous Reck we asked:
What are your aims for this year… on a personal level? How do you aim to incorporate that development into your Music?
“This is my year of absence and growth. For a long time I felt myself hoarding music. Now I just wanna get everything out and allow it to be out there in the world.”
Any struggles you faced last year personally and how did you use music to overcome them?
“One of the biggest struggles last year was trying to juggle music with finishing my degree. There were many times I felt like quitting both but sticking with it strengthened my patience.”
How have you overcome and eliminated any doubt you’ve had in your career thus far?
“The best way to overcome doubt is to prove it to yourself. I’ve done it 1000 times and then 1000 more. It’s just about trusting the process.”
TENANT
Music fulfils my main aim, happiness. Consistency is something I continuously strive for and set bars to reach each year, and this year is no different. I’m in a place now where I find solace in spending time with friends and the people I love, and pushing my music to a place I feel it can resonate with the people that listen to my songs, this is important to me.
“Music is my therapy”. After losing his father early on in his life, Tenant struggled to heal the wounds from a young age, trying so many different forms of healing, even trying to talk his pain out with a therapist, but it just didn’t cushion the effect his fathers passing had on him. I mean, how do you learn to talk your problems out and push through with such a weight on you at a young age? But Tenant found music, crafting songs together, releasing his struggles and voicing his opinions and feelings on instrumentals, reflecting on emotions with captivating lyrics and delving deeper into his craft. He found a path, a purpose and a motivation.
Tenant, to this day, uses music to escape any situation, any problem he’s facing and any hard, raw emotions he’s feeling that just can’t be dealt with alone, constantly engaging with his craft, making any obstacle simply conquerable with music.
“There’s always going to be doubt”, Tenant resonates with a lot of like-minded artists when he expresses that overcoming doubt is never easy, but with sheer determination and perseverance it is tangible to reach extreme heights in your career. Even at the top of the mountain doubt will always settle in to anyones mind state in some form, especially at the bottom of the mountain, but to Tenant, it’s all about progression, and knowing that if you keep working, striving towards the place you want to be, you’ll make it. Patience is key to Tenant, and there’s been times where he’s admitted he felt he’s glamorised himself being in a different position to where he was then, but in reflection years later, understood the key of waiting and perfecting his craft so when he does make it, he know that then, it was his time.
NXMZ
“I started rapping as a hobby and was encouraged by those around me to take it more seriously. So I’ve just been setting personal targets for myself since then. Right now I’m working on my output and strategy in terms of releasing everything.”
“This is the year I break into the UK industry”, Nxmz sets his standards high this year as he aims to drop a strong body of work as well as other singles to build a well-rounded, diverse discography. His controlled, smooth cadence mixed with his meticulous flow, unique to most artists in the UK, also being versatile within the genre gives him high hopes this year to really set the pace and break into the industry.
Nxmz feels as though last year he took a backseat from music to focus on personal life, as well as work that goes on behind the scenes of an upcoming artist. Even with the pressures and responsibilities of a man in his early twenties, Nxmz still managed to drop two singles towards the close of 2023 and has kept up the pace, doing overtime in the studio this year, stacking up on demos and features from other artists within the upcoming UK space.
On the other hand, doubt can linger around in the background of any upcoming artist, but Nxmz stays resilient, “going back to the drawing board every time”, staying patient and waiting for his day to crack the industry.
ROSE
“The person behind Rose is a kid with the dream and the drive to achieve and overcome difficulties in order to win. For me I’m a very persistent person, Someone who, when given a challenge, will keep going and keep finding solutions in order to progress. For me, I make music to feed that inner child of mine whose dream is to be a musician. Not just a rapper/ singer, but the whole package. I also do music for my mental being, does a lot for me when I get to release music and hearing the positive and negative feedbacks, it brings me joy and an extra boost to go and work on more music.”
“I come from a family that is music through and through, all of us have some kinds of talent in music, whether it’s singing, playing instruments, producing, rapping, music businesses and etc so it was a no brainier for me to do what I’m doing right now. And to also have the backing of your family, it spurs you on to succeed no matter what and if that means by me pivoting into a different avenue then that has to be done.
The music I make, is uk rap but I don’t want to limit myself to just that. I’m a performer and a songwriter before a producer so yeah there are more genres that I will be tapping into in the future but rap is what I’m on right now. For me the beat has to provoke some kind of emotion or mindset for me to really get going. I really take the phrase “let the music speak to you” literally because music evokes emotion, it can change how you feel, your behaviours and all so when I hear a beat and it’s giving me this feeling, I tap into that and focus my lyrics on those feelings.
For me it’s about positivity and spreading more love but also spreading the truth with life and the everyday challenges we all face. We are all human, we have days when we are sad, happy, frustrated, excited so for me however I feel on that day mostly dictates what type of topic I want to speak on. My music can be listened to in a feel good” way but when it’s time to really deep the lyrics then you’ll understand more about me because most of the times what I write is a message to myself, a way of motivating myself when I feel down or when I wanna talk the talk
Of course like anyone we have our doubts. For me, it’s moreso of being scared of what could happen this year. Feel like last year was a good year for me and wondering how this year will play out can take a toll but I’m very optimistic about this year. A lot of people look at what you do on the gram and think yeah he got motion or yeah looks like they’ve got it all together but truth is we’re all trynna figure it out. These short clips that you see in our life’s that we post are just moments. They don’t see the times when you’re really up till early morning recording, writing or even days when you doubt if this is the right path for you but you on this path for a reason so don’t lose track on why you started.”
JOSHUA
“My name is Joshua, I’m 20, born n’ raised in South London with Ghanian origins. Who am I on a deeper one? I’m a delusional young artist with a God given talent who wants to make art that ages gracefully. I would describe myself as an avid listener, with an eclectic taste in music, enjoying artists from all times. Learning from guys likes MF DOOM, Dave, Pharrell, Andre 3000 and many more. Whilst enjoying and extrapolating the artistry of Adele, Aaliyah, Childish Gambino with so many on top. Beyond music I enjoy a lot of the arts knowing how beautifully they guide the musical process.”
“I basically make music to make my listener and I feel. Whether I’m painting the reckless infatuation that comes from being young and in love. Or whether I’m hoisting us 80ft into clear skies just to clear our minds, it’s a bonding experience. In the same breath, I’m trying to buy my parents a yard with this music ting so they can smile for real, God willing.
Making all kinds of music allows me to stretch a hand out to a person in every direction. I predominantly rap but I look to expand in the future. Learning new instruments and mediums but most importantly, new experiences to share.
The greatest trial I face as an artist is fear. Fear that a song that I give isn’t received the way I want it to be. The fear that I’ll be lost in a grey 9-5 staring down the clock with no way out, no control. The fear that I can’t reach my potential out of cowardice.
I would love to say that I have no doubt in my mind that I’ve overcome this and have no doubt I’ll be a renowned artist to many and myself. But I would be lying through my rass teeth.
I’m everyday grappling with these feelings, and that’s why I continue, to prove myself wrong and to make something out of me. So I often have Joshua 1:9 on my heart just the way my late Grandma intended it. Because surely God didn’t bring me out here to fall into the hands of the enemy.
But yeah, I ain’t a puss. SDG.”
