Two of my favourite tracks out this year have been drill tunes dropped by emerging artists from London. Loski’s “Cool Kid”, released back in March, is an ice cold production that allows the MC lazily rap over the beat as if he’s about to fall off it.
Unknown T’s “Homerton B” was released on August 19, and since then I’ve had it on constant rotation (currently clocking in at around five times a day). With “Homerton B”, the brand new drill artist from east London has charted in the Top 100 without a label, upset the Daily Mail, drawn praise from Dizzee Rascal, and had over two million views on his first video.
While he chooses his beats wisely, the strength of “Homerton B” is his effortless control of rhythm and melody – it’s both incredibly catchy and completely menacing.
Yeah, this is a tune largely about gang violence, and drill is always going to court controversy as a genre – with moral panic in the tabloids, bans from YouTube, and Met Police warnings. But there’s no doubt that there’s a generation of kids in London, not only reflecting their reality through their work, but making some of the most forward-thinking music in the country.
Watch “Homerton B” below.