“The one mantra I go by is ‘Urban and Proud’”, declares East London’s UAP AB, serving up shots of hip-hop deserving to be spoken of with the caps lock on. “This keeps me grounded and to never be ashamed of my people and where I come from” says the BLK NICHE emcee inspired by artists such as Dave East, Travis Scott, Skepta and Giggs, and with visions of grabbing all the game has to offer alongside crewmates iBDXDE and SoromTBTE.
Spending teenage years filling notepads with poetry, listening to Dizzee Rascal destroy Choice FM, and taking home cultural souvenirs from time spent in Texas and Los Angeles to accent his Hackney upbringing, UAP AB joins Lewis Recordings (home to Edan and Stig of the Dump) with his craft polished and his engineering of heavyweight sounds balanced by clarity of performance.
Following the blasé brute force of ‘Where You Been’, skanker’s delight ‘Mary’tackles one of hip-hop’s most favourite subjects, a soundsystem scatter and swing with wafts of Madlib about it that sparks up and slaps hard. Holding down a rudeboy jam that keeps an accessible, love song balance, AB lets off a hook that crowds will throw back to him like a boomerang, bound to capitalize on the UK’s unprecedented heatwave.
Speak On It!