Yung Mal has a lot on his mind. It’s September, and up until now, rapping is mostly how he’s processed a year in confinement: several months in jail, and now house arrest. In his first interview since coming home in January, the rapper spoke to BRICK about his musical process, where he’s headed next, and how his support system has helped him navigate incarceration.
Durk’s latest album, The Voice, isn’t celebratory in tone. Much of it is a poignant look into the pain, loss, and tragedy that have surrounded his ascent. “I always found my lane was to be soulful, to speak to my past,” he tells Atoosa Moinzadeh.
Going five years back into the BRICK archives for a discussion with the 2022 MOBO Album of the Year winner from Edition 04.
"We’ve experienced a lot of life in the past year. We’ve grown up a lot, very quickly." In BRICK's Edition 05 cover story, BROCKHAMPTON reflect on their rise, before all jumping into a freezing cold pool for our photoshoot.
“I'm from Atlanta, this is embedded in me. It's in my veins, that style of music. That's why I ain't silent.”
In just four years, Lil Baby has attained all the signifiers of modern rap excellence — hyperproductivity, a heavy presence on the charts, and a growing list of successful neophytes — and it only took him about half as long as it did for his predecessors.
“Some people don’t want to improve; some people don’t like to be pushed. But I do. If I’m happy to stay at the same level and make another album like Stillness in Wonderland, I could have done that in no time. But that’s not growth to me, that’s not evolution.”
In the days leading up to the release of the eight kinetic tracks that comprise their new album At Least We Tried, BRICK connected with Surf Gang to learn more about their next chapter.
On the heels of the rapper’s self-titled project Highway, we spoke at length about his roots and moving back and forth, the city’s unique culture, the importance of maintaining his independence artistically, and more.
From grime’s early beginnings in the bedrooms and pirate radio stations of East London, Risky Roadz, armed with a Sony Handycam, documented the scene’s history in real-time.
As a born-and-raised New Yorker, the word “hip-hop” was synonymous for the culture of my city as I grew up; as a man from the Bronx, even more so. Every street I walked on as a kid had been graced by legends of the game, but none so great as Grandmaster Flash.