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Novelist interview: 'People don't value life for what it is'
Rising MC and producer on his debut album, violence in the streets, and why he has no regrets about staying independent
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Your support makes all the difference.You always remember the music your parents played growing up, whether itâs a certain artist or a soundtrack from an old movie. So, on Novelistâs stellar debut album, Novelist Guy, you pick up on influences as wide-ranging as the Pet Shop Boys and Beverly Hills Cop, combined with the most modern production styles and commentary about whatâs going on right now, in the UK.
âThe old 80s action cop films â I love them,â the 21-year-old south London MC, born Kojo Kankam, explains. âI wanted to emulate the vibe of some of the sounds that I grew up hearing. I repetitively mention Beverly Hills Cop: itâs fun, a little bit cheesy. Very bait noises. But at the same time, itâs a great soundtrack.â
While some of Novelistâs contemporaries have said they received a frosty reaction for attempting to avoid a âgrimeâ label, he says heâs less of a product of grime yet still pays respect to the genreâs old guard.
âIâm not calling all of my music grime,â he says. âSome of it is, but other tracks are just what I feel like creating. The public may call it grime because they might not have an understanding of it, in that way. But I feel that you canât make something and call it something else.
âItâs who I am as a person, so I wanted to express myself. Iâm not a product of grime, Iâm a product of how I grew up, and grime was only a part of that.â
He laughs at the double-take he causes when he confirms Novelist Guy was entirely self-produced from his bedroom. âI even mixed it down!â he says, citing a moment as far back as when he began MC-ing as an 8-year-old where he realised he wanted to make the entire project himself.
âObviously the beats back then were not like they are now. But Iâve always said, even before I stepped into the limelight so to speak, that I wanted to produce my own album. My debut album has to be me, and only me.â
Novelist Guy works because he finds a balance between very explicit, straightforward messages with more obscure, playful lyrics. He recalls when metaphor rap became bigger in the UK, which âdid his head inâ.
âI try to keep it as simple as possible, but sometimes Iâll do a play on words,â he says.
This is no clearer than on the track âStop Killing The Mandemâ, which sees Novelist deliver the request â or command â with a sharp, stern tone that despairs at the violence taking place, not just in the UK, but around the world.
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Itâs powerful because heâs speaking simultaneously to the police, the media, and young black men. âBreaking the law ainât cultural â breaking the law is social,â he spits, criticising those who try to paint gang violence as a cultural issue, which follows his question: âYo, give me an answer/why would you kill someone you donât know?â All of this is underlined by the beats, which recall an old arcade game, like a non-verbal critique of how desensitised youth have become to violence â like itâs not real.
âIâll give you the back-story on the movement on Stop Killing The Mandem,â he says. âThere was a Black Lives Matter march in 2016, I believe, and I just saw it online. So I got down there and did what I could. I was at the Rinse FM offices at the time, and I spray-painted on some paper âStop Killing The Mandemâ. Itâs as simple as that. And I donât just direct that message to police â itâs to everyone.
âPeople donât value life for what it is,â he continues. âThey forget all of those years that a mother or father has put into that person. Whether theyâre young or not, well, itâs even worse if theyâre older. You have to value peopleâs lives. Thatâs what the song is about.â
However, contrary to the opinion of many in his field, he does think there is some kind of link to drill musicâs perpetuation of violence.
âDrill music is murder music. Thatâs what it is,â he says with a shrug. âDo you know what a drill is? It means to put a hole through something. When you do a drill, it means when mandem link up and ride it out. Thatâs what a drill is about. And thatâs a lifestyle.
âIf youâre from the hood, then youâve probably been involved in or experienced this at some point in your life. Itâs something that I can definitely relate to, and understand, but I donât wanna feed my mind with that stuff no more.
âA lot of drill artists are not really musicians. Theyâre from the ends, and theyâre talking realness â their reality on tunes. I canât condemn anybody for that. I definitely can say, think about what youâre doing; you donât want your little sister or brother to get caught in a drive-by or a stabbing. All these little guys that are out stabbing each other, theyâre the shook ones â because the real Gs survive.â
He feels numb a lot of the time himself, he admits, because of the number of his friends who have been attacked or killed. Each summer, he dreads the arrival of a text to tell him another friend has died. Heâs been stabbed himself, he reveals, when he was 13.
âI know about this lifetime crime man, itâs real,â he says. âBut I feel that the drill music enforces that way of thinking on to young people. Youths are vulnerable. There are times that guys have tried me, and Iâve actually had to use my mind power to not retaliate. But thatâs a choice. Everyone has that choice. Choose.â
Novelist prefers to channel his energy into something altogether more constructive. Heâs confident â but not arrogant â about his capacity for success (âIâm going to be rich, I know that. But Iâm not chasingâ).
One of the reasons Novelist Guy is so rich in influences and themes, he agrees, is because heâs remained independent. Thereâs no one breathing down his neck, telling him he needs to do something a certain way.
âItâs so funny, isnât it? A piece of your soul is trapped, basically,â he says of major labels. âI donât know why people keep signing for them. This story has been on loop for years. I donât want anything to do with those guys. You know why? The core reason isnât even the money or being trapped. Itâs the fact that theyâre not even nice people.
âWhy would I want some nasty guy at the top of the pyramid telling me what to do? I donât even want that negative energy near me, man,â he adds with a laugh.
With his live shows, you never know what youâre going to get â but you can guarantee itâll be rowdy. Much of the time Novelist goes solo, âbut sometimes I bring my mandem as well. Sometimes I freestyle the whole show... and when I say freestyle, I donât mean with lyrics, I mean with the order of the show. Sometimes I donât even do PAs, itâs just instrumental.
âYou never know whatâs gonna happen. The crowd is just pure vibes. Weâre not here to get the money and leave. Iâm independent, whatâs the point? Itâs weird, man.â
Itâs predictable, albeit slightly depressing, that the only comparison much of the mainstream media has been able to find for Novelist is Stormzy â seemingly because heâs one of the few artists they know enough about. Really, Novelistâs flow and wordplay is more akin to his mentor Skepta, but heâs also pleased to hear itâs actually quite difficult to place him alongside any one artist.
âSomeone was asking me where Iâd place my record among everyone elseâs, and I said the thing is, in an art gallery you donât have art work that says âthis is number one, this is number twoâ, you just have different exhibitions. I feel that my music is in its own room. If you enjoy it, you enjoy it. Iâm not saying Iâm better than anyone else, or less than anyone else. This is just Novelist. And if you take it, you take it.â
Fans might have wondered why, if he was MC-ing as an 8-year-old, then more professionally aged 13, why itâs taken until the age of 21 to drop his first album. But he didnât have the life experience he felt he needed, he says, and now heâs gone through enough to say something: âIâm tired of seeing certain stuff happen.â
At this point in the interview, his mum/manager arrives â a force of nature who is clearly as proud as a person can be of what her son has achieved.
âThis boy has been like this since he was little,â she says. âHe was always ahead, even going to school. Heâd get dressed, do his jumper up, put whatever change he had in his pocket, and we left home and he was always walking ahead. It was like I was raising a little man. On one hand thatâs awesome, but on another, as a mother, you want him to enjoy being a child.
âAs a parent, youâre just trying to meet your childâs needs. Most mothers are out doing the same thing for their kids in one way or another. Thatâs really just what Iâm doing. I love the album. It really has a message for everyone, if you listen to it properly. Itâs very mature, but the sooner people grasp certain ways of thinking, the sooner theyâll take charge of their life.â
Novelist Guy, the debut album from Novelist, is out now via Mmmyeh Records
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