There is no denying that if you have been somebody who is monitoring the UK Hip-hop scene, there has been a massive evolution over the past 10 years. As somebody who moved to London back in 2008 the change that I have observed in that space has been second to none. Where Grime and UK rap was at the forefront at the time of my arrival, the past decade has seen the growth of genres like drill and trap, two of the very sounds that make up the UK hip-hop scene.

These evolutions have allowed various UK talents to rise and represent the vast expanding UK hip-hop genre for what it is. One of the artists who has been making strides and taking up space in the trap scene is Ghostface600. The rapper infuses both drill and trap into a wavy sound of his own hails from Catford and has been making music since the age of 14 as a member of the UK Drill group Block6 which consisted of members A6, Lucii, Young A6 and Tzgwala. Deep in the trenches with the group, Ghostface600 was involved with everything until 2019 when he released his first solo project 600 SZN. What has followed since then are two mixtapes including Just a Wrapper Wid Melodies in 2020 and last year’s 600 SZN 2. As the ride continues, Ghostface600 has just released his latest single ‘Super Freak’ and will put out the next project that will introduce fans to a new side of himself whilst propelling his career forward.

As with most artists, his musical beginnings started at home with his family “My mum introduced me to music, and there was always music playing so I got into it from when I was young. I listened to a lot of rap from the US and a lot of Garage”. Building on those early influences, he got further into exploring his musical interests of rapping and making music before Block6 until he decided to venture solo. Having been a part of the group for some time as well as being influenced after watching the 2018 Lil Baby PREACHERMAN documentary he was inspired to take the chance on himself. “I’d always been in and out of music before I decided I wanted to take it seriously for myself. I used to just push my friends to do music, I did a lot of my friends’ music, I did their music videos, and I used to edit the videos for them. I did a lot of stuff that was behind the camera. So when I decided to do it for myself I knew that it would go, I had a decent following so I just went for it”

“With me, I block out that noise”

- Ghostface 600

Since that moment Ghost has released several singles, some strong visuals and three mixtapes that have been giving people a better flavour of who exactly Ghostface600 is. With time there has also been growth and shift in music in terms of his sound and what he is about. Even though on the outside one may classify him as drill which is something that he doesn’t shy away from, as described by the title of his mixtape he describes himself as “a rapper with melodies” which makes sense when you consider what arrived with his latest single Super Freak. For Ghost, this represents the last of the era people have come to know him for over the last three projects. The next chapter of his career offers something new and different from where we are. “I feel like in the time that I made the three tapes the music has developed, a lot of the stuff you’re hearing now even Super Freak, I made that two years ago but I felt like I wanted to release that hence why I put it out now, it’s kind of the transition between where I was and where I am now and where I am going because on my new tape, I’m going to release a madness, it’s going to be crazy.”

Shifting the conversation to his upcoming tape everything about it is a fresh experience from where he has been in terms of where his mindset was. As well as, how the approach changed in comparison to his other tapes. “With 600 SZN 2 a lot of my songs were made in 10 minutes and the process was very quick in how we made the tape. But with one I took more time with it. When I sat down, I had a thought process instead of just jumping on the mic freestyling. With the first tape, it was just straight freestyle. Like not being serious. My second tape, I recorded in my country, the Philippines, and I freestyle the same, but it was just a bit more focused. With SNZ 2 it just came together with a lot of singles and the music and we just put it into one. I feel like the tape that we have next you get the real Ghostface600.”

As somebody who has come up in the streaming era and has seen how much of an impact it has had just in terms of hip-hop and drill, I was intrigued to get some insight as to how this has impacted his creative process as an artist and how he has adapted to it. “With me, I block out that noise, I’ve got a good team around me and my manager, when I first came in, I picked a lane for myself and I stayed with it. When I started, I said to myself, I’m not going to be a rapper who releases loads of tapes. I’m always going to do it my way”

Before wrapping up the conversation I was intrigued to know what Ghost has learnt about himself not just only as an artist but as Ghost the person on his journey so far “I look at things differently and that there is a bigger picture instead of just one thing. My journey was more about am I prepared myself before I even touched down. It wasn’t just that I came up and everything just happened, the people who know me have known that this is something that I have wanted to do. I would say honestly, my plans took me like two years and then I had to set new plans. But even in that things happen and so you can’t over plan and just go with the flow. Sometimes that’s something that Colin told me. That’s why now I’m kind of going to flow music.

I want to know what’s next for Ghost and what he is thinking for the next phase of his career. “Right now, the next step that I want to take is I want to get my tape out ‘T Mac Trench Melodies Ape Colours’ that’s what it’s called, T Mac is my brother who died so that project is in memory of him. Everything about it will be in memory of him from the visuals which are still going to be cold, but even colder. We’re going to start getting some features for this tape also. I’ve got some features lined up and I just feel like the tape itself is going to be crazy.”

Watch the visual for ‘Super Freak’ below -

Follow Ghostface600 - @ghostface600

Credits:

Photographer: Charlie Roxburgh

Art Design: Lazy Goat Club

Words: Seneo Mwamba