This article is partly taken from the summer 2026 issue of Dazed. Buy a copy of the magazine here.

Right now, the prevailing narrative is hard to escape: impossible house prices, social media rot, and mounting political uncertainty have made the future look bleak for young Brits. But speak to 22-year-old South Londoner N4T, and he’ll paint a different picture. “I feel like these are the best times that everyone says are the worst,” the rapper-producer of Ghanaian and Jamaican heritage tells Dazed. “I feel like this is the first time in history you can listen to music from anyone and anywhere, any personality can cut through. I just love the times we’re living in, man.”

Far from the depressing headlines, N4T believes that we are experiencing a renaissance in British – specifically Black British – culture. He points to a wider creative network spanning Jim Legxacy, Ceebo, Chef Bkay, Afrosurrealist and more, who are all articulating a new British identity at the intersection of Afro-Caribbean heritage and contemporary London upbringing. They don’t shy away from the quagmires of the 21st century (just listen to the opening tracks on both N4T and Ceebo’s latest albums), but they also frequently find ample cause to celebrate the dysfunctional present. Crucially, none of them seems to lack new ideas.

For N4T, this stark optimism took hold while he was making 2025 album GHANAMUSTGO – a self-described ‘nu Afropop’ project that was made in parallel with Jim Legxacy’s Black British Music and Ceebo’s Blair Babies. “I dug deep into what it means to be Ghanaian but also come from a Black British identity,” he says of the project. “I’ll go back home and they say I’m a foreigner, but I come here and it’s like, ‘You’re not British’. I love all things British, I love all things Africa, so why not combine those identities and create something that is representative of people like me?”

Much like this Black British identity, GHANAMUSTGO is overlapping and unresolved: a 140BPM pendulum swing between sweltering Afropop, its British cousin Afroswing, and the present’s UK Ug rap distortion. Its title is a double entendre, both urging Ghanaians to go “up” and referencing the slogan associated with the forced exodus of more than one million Ghanaians from Nigeria in 1983. The album is a sonic exploration of complex heritage. But on his upcoming sophomore album, Good Time and a Long Time, N4T turns his attention to the present.

“I thought, ‘Cool, GHANAMUSTGO, I found myself. I found what it means to be Ghanaian, but where do I go next?” N4T explains. “Like To Pimp a Butterfly, I realised the answer was at home. I love this city so much. I love everything being busy. I love that the trains don’t run. I love how everyone’s always annoyed. I love it. So, for this next project, I’m going to write a love letter to where I’m from.” 

N4T continues: “Me and my friends realised the future of [our movement]. Everything is predicated on how we move and what we do now, so, if everything was rooted in bleakness and dystopia, what would there be to create? We have to think it’s better. Man, I still live at home in South with my mum, but I believe in the next generation so much. I know it’s going to be me [to succeed], but I know that the person after me is going to be so inspired, the same way I was when I heard Jim Legxacy’s Homeless N***a Pop Music. That’s where hope lies beyond the present moment – what are we building?”

Below, the South London renaissance man speaks on his reappropriation of the Union Jack, working with Jim Legxacy, and his upcoming album, Good Time and a Long Time. 

When did you first start to take music seriously?

N4T: In around 2024, Slawn had Bobo’s Cafe. It gave me the confidence to pursue music properly, because you could literally rap next to Unknown T, or anyone. It helped me come into my own. 

I came up off the sample drill, jazz drill era, and then this new wave came. Like everyone else, I’ve been enthralled with it – Lancey, Len, Fimi, the Conglomerate album. I hear [Lancey Foux album] Back2DaTrap and, as a young person, I think, ‘Yo this is for me!’ It’s led me to a sound I can’t even describe right now, but I’m excited for where it goes next. I feel like we needed that terrible sample drill era to get to this. 

Can you tell me a little more about the opening track on GHANAMUSTGO, “I Don’t Wanna Hear About Africa”? 

N4T: [Laughs] Yeah, it comes from a Spaces [group call] on Twitter. Some Americans were in there, then some UK people came in there, and they started berating the Americans in it. The Americans are defending themselves and eventually it devolved into politics. They were arguing about where braids are from, they were like, ‘Braids are from Africa’, and then the Americans were like, ‘You’re British! I don’t wanna hear about Africa…’ and so on. 

I thought it would be a sick intro because it leads into [second track] ‘London 2 Ghana’. Even if you say you don’t want to hear about Africa, you might not like Afrobeats, you might like GHANAMUSTGO because of it’s UK-ness, it’s bravado. 

Why do you think something special is happening with this generation of Black Brits?

N4T: There’s almost a pretentiousness that British people like me, second generation immigrants, have against Americans. They don’t know where they’re from and we think we’re better, like ‘My dad’s from Ghana’ or ‘My dad’s from Poland’. But we’re not any better. We’re often still not accepted and have to assimilate. Our racism is different. It’s not like, ‘Ah, you’re an inflammatory word’, it’s more subconscious. We might feel [end up feeling] shame, like ‘I’m not actually British!’

But I think Jim would agree when I say I am British. No matter who wants to take that away from me, that’s who I am. I’m as British as I am Ghanaian. Like the Union Jack, right? Even though that’s been used against us for years, I think now is the time to be proud of where we’re at. All I’ve known is London. When I go on holiday, I miss it here, you know? 

I recently clocked you in the Jim Legxacy “3x feat. Dave” video. How was that experience?

N4T: We always tell this story jokingly but when Dave arrived to the shoot, he pulled up with a three-car convoy in the rain. Then, as soon as he got out of the car, the rain stopped. He stopped the rain, bro! It was magic! 

But, anyway, it’s mad how supportive [Jim’s] been in allowing us to be part of the Black British Music moment, bringing us in on studio sessions, showing us how to do the vertical videos. He really cultivated a space for all of us. I feel like Ceebo will tell you the same thing: before we heard Black British Music, and afterwards are completely different things. It took us to a place where we thought, ‘I can do so much more, I can be myself’. I’m so thankful for that. 

What can you tell me about Good Time and a Long Time?

N4T: Well, it’s a double project – the first seven are the ‘good time’, party bangers and whatever. Then the second section is the ‘long time’, appreciating what’s around us. I want to have queer artists on there, because I feel like no one represents queerness in our scene right now. Also, women artists, why have none of them been platformed? Where are all the Black girl British pop stars? 

These people should be able to see themselves in [my] art as well. I feel like the UK has been behind in infrastructure and it’s sad, man, like why should you have to go to LA to be the face of whatever thing you’ve got here? That’s what I want to change. That’s the ‘long time’, the longevity. 

What three albums do people need to hear to understand N4T?

N4T: To Pimp A Butterfly, that’s the greatest album ever made. It influenced the story structure on both of my tapes. Blonde just did something to me when I was a yout. It helped me think about myself in a more three-dimensional way. This last spot is hard – I could give it to Rihanna’s Loud, Kano’s Hoodies All Summer, or Dave’s Psychodrama. Ah, it pains me, music pains me! I can’t think.