An interview with Young T & Bugsey
During my first year of university, I decided to keep my ear to the streets in search of emerging talent from the UK. As I’m sure you know by now, I am a hip-hop head. I grew up on networks such as Channel AKA (what many back then knew as Channel U) which helped to showcase emerging talent from the UK. Yet, I found myself focusing more on emerging talent from the US. I reckon that’s happened to everyone a least once. There’s a vast amount of talent that stems from the US reaching across the globe and because of this it’s easy to forget that there’s still so much coming from our home scene. Being at university helped me to realise that. I started following Link Up TV and GRM Daily, which is where I stumbled across this…
The freestyle was strong, as were their lyrics and flow. I really liked how they incorporated popular lines from The Game’s classic How We Do whilst making it their own. They came out hard and they were doing it together. Two best friend’s from Nottingham that were managing to captivate the youth with their witty bars, charisma and charm. They came to perform at my university (yeah, I’m not going to disclose the name) shortly after I started bumping their music. I was out there singing No Mickey Mouse Ting word for word…’2.a.m she made my iPhone bling’, I said with confidence. My friends were looking at me knowing I had rinsed the track, which was true lol. Yet, I continued to belt it out with no shame. Their energy captivated the audience and even those who hadn’t even heard of them became intrigued. I knew they were set to blow.
Introducing Young T & Bugsey…
Who are Young T & Bugsey? Tell the readers a little bit about yourselves.
Young T & Bugsey are two best friends from Nottingham. T’s from Jamaica and I’m from Nigeria. Our sound and style of rap stems directly from both our heritage and childhood. As kids we liked listening to people like 50 Cent, Ja Rule and Pharrell etc
What is your opinion on the state of the UK grime scene today and which artists do you look up to?
The scene right now is probably the best it’s ever been in terms of life changing opportunities and an actual successful and lucrative career in music. Unlike before in the scene, when people were putting out great music and giving it their all but not making no money to show for it. Now there’s more of a proper business infrastructure in place, so everyone can make good music and also make money to feed themselves and their families.
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Who would you guys like to collab with that you haven’t already?
We wanna do a song with the Migos, 21 Savage, Rae Sremmurd…UK wise AJ Tracey. We’ve worked with AJ now. Got a banger with him!
Can’t wait to hear that! I was actually on YouTube the other day listening to one of your songs and someone commented saying that they wanted you to collab with Rae Sremmurd. So you know…we’re waiting on it. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
In the next five years, we think we’re gonna be firmly cemented into the UK scene doing songs with UK greats and overseas superstars. If we are not there in five years, then we haven’t worked hard enough, because all of that can really be a reality.
Nice and it definitely would be nice to see some more collaborations with artists overseas. I don’t think there’s enough of that. What advice would you give to young musicians and entertainers struggling to break into the music industry?
A lot of new artists work really really hard, but they don’t work smart. They just dash songs and freestyles out on YouTube, but don’t get it on iTunes or Spotify. They don’t get their brand nice. You’ve gotta know what you bring to the table, then get your brand right and stick to it. Stick to it and believe in your own sauce. Like really, that’s all it is. Working smart and believing in yourself.
True. What do you hope to bring to the culture? What do you want the youth to take away from your music?
What we bring to the culture is pretty different to the norm because we’re not from London and you can hear it in our songs. From our accent to how we pronounce stuff and even our slang…it’s different to what’s already out there.
Yeah, I clocked that in Glistenin’ actually. Last time I checked Gangland is sitting on 2.6 million views on YouTube. That’s wild! How does it feel to see your music making waves across the country?
Whenever we’re out and about in Notts (Nottingham) everyone recognises us and it’s always all love. We don’t have any beefs or problems with anyone. When we go to London or other places in the UK, like Manchester or Brum (Birmingham) and people still recognise us and ask for pics it’s mad! We still just see ourselves as normal guys, we don’t think or act like we’re famous or some sort of celeb. It’s mad when everyone else we come across treats us like we’re more than normal guys. It’s very humbling to be honest.
You’re songs are hella catchy! Right now I’m bumping Gangland…a couple months back I was hooked on No Mickey Mouse Ting. What was the inspiration behind that track?
Basically, those two songs are like ‘cultural songs’, if that makes sense. When No Mickey Mouse Ting came out everyone was using that saying. It became part of the culture, part of everyone’s slang and day-to-day dialect. Gangland is the same. Bare people say ‘Lifestyle Gangland’ now! They are ‘cultural songs’, that’s what we think about when we’re making our singles – we keep that in mind. We make songs that really have a impact on the culture and people can attribute the lines or slang in the song to Young T & Bugsey.
What can we expect from you guys in the future?
We’ve got a new single coming out called 4×4 and the video looks crazy! We’re looking to do a headline show in Notts this year (towards the end of the year) and maybe a mixtape this year too before that. Then, we’re hoping to do a tour at the start of next year. That’s the plan.
Keep up with their musical journey on their social media networks:
@YoungTArtist & @BugseyETMG
@youngtmusic & @bugseymusic
Main image taken by photographer Christopher Cargill (@christophercargill1)
Written on: Friday 14th July 2017
INTHEWRITERSMIND 