“We’re Gonna Flip Over Some More Tables!” Lorenzo RSV Interviewed
NiNE8 creative surges into a space of his own…“We’ve been limited for a year due to the pandemic but this year we’re gonna flip over some more tables.”
The energy of Lorenzo RSV reflects a nation ready to step back into party season.
Having been locked down for over a year, the young MC is primed and ready to explode onto the scene, kicking off with a high energy, four track EP released today.
1/9 of DIY art collective NiNE8, the West London rapper has been building an underground following alongside his peers Lava La Rue, Biig Piig, and Bone Slim.
With his new EP ‘DICE’, he explores the unexpected nature of life and its parity to the roll of a die, tapping fellow NiNE8’er Nayana Iz and Sophie Demasi along the way.
We caught up with him on the eve of the EP’s launch to chat the struggles of lock down, Pharrell’s influence on his music and how he got together with NiNE8.
You can check out the new EP below.
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Tell us about yourself, whats your story and how did you get into music?
Lorenzo RSV is a young kid from West London who crafts sounds and strings together songs from his multiple life experiences, extracting that of a young kid with Caribbean heritage, living within the big city.
For those that don’t know you, describe your sound in three words.
Vigorous, restless, wizardry.
You’re part of the amazing NiNE 8 Collective, how did you get together with the rest of the crew?
Funny enough I met Lava La Rue at her first event a while ago and a mutual friend Tommy Gold was DJ’ing there put us in touch. I done a short set which saw moshpits, drink spillage and typical wild youth behaviour. Me and Lava were both enjoying ourselves and next thing you know there’s about 200 people outside who couldn’t get in and feds had to lock it down which was jokes. We found that our energies clicked and from there I naturally found myself within the collective.
How has lockdown been for you?
I can’t lie, the very first lockdown we had back in March 2020 was hard for me man. I’m such a social butterfly that having to isolate myself from my friends let alone the world felt like I was in a cage. I felt like I started to lose colour and I just wasn’t myself. I never get lonely but this was the first time I felt consumed from loneliness and loneliness alone, however this made for great music output which birthed the EP.
And on that note, tell us about the EP, what can we expect from it?
My new EP DICE comes from the concept of relating the idea of being born to the similarity of the roll of a die. When you’re born into this huge wide world you don’t know the life you’re going to get and the experiences you’ll face. Similar to the roll of a die which you don’t know what side it’ll land on leaving you to anxiously wait for it land.
The EP looks at me discussing my life experiences throughout the years being that of a young Black kid within the city facing specific stereotypes, trials and tribulations as a young artist today as well as loneliness due to the recent pandemic. All of this comes boxed up into a small refined project made up of four songs which like a die if you look at it from one angle, side or face, only has four corners.
And what’s your favourite track from the new EP?
‘MCT’ is my favourite track. Not only because it features my fellow Nine8 Sister Nayana Iz but because the song directly looks at the challenges we’ve both faced due to being people of colour. With me coming from Caribbean roots and Nayana Iz being of Asian heritage the song comes together to discuss the one thing we both have shared experiences of.
This song’s important to me as I sometimes find it hard to discuss things especially cause I know that a lot of people find it hard to relate, however I found this song allowed me to directly express myself and get these things off my chest as racial injustice has been a big problem forever however it’s affected me the most within the last two years due to global events.
Tell us three artists who have inspired your sound…
Three artists who have inspired my sound are Kanye West, Travis Scott, and Pharrell. All of them have proven over time why the way you express your creativity and your creativity alone is important and that you should never conform to the expectations of having one style or sound. This has definitely impacted me as you’ll see throughout the EP and my other music in general that I float within genres. Just like a wizard, with a book of spells, I have a book of flows and it’s all due to these guys… ha!
Who should we be listening to at the moment?
Lava La Rue as she’s someone who’s been advocating for racial justice and deffo has another important perspective on it, being someone who is part of the LGBTQ Community.
Definitely Lord Apex, his sound offers great escapism man, his ‘Smoke Sessions 2’ helped me a lot through the first lockdown and he’s just dropped ‘Smoke Sessions 3’ which is a crazy body of work.
Lastly I’d say Nayana, L!baan, Bawo, Bone Slim, Mac Wetha, Nige, Biig Piig, Finn Foxell, Leks Rivers. I can go on but all of these people are extremely talented and I believe we’ll see a lot from them this year as well the rest to come, keeping it a buck I think a few of these artists will definitely influence the music scene within London. And it’s changes within the next five years but that’s a conversation for a different time.
What’s can we expect from you in 2021?
In 2021 you can expect a whole bunch of music as well as other creative outputs. I’m tired of sitting on the bench of the court just watching my team mates doing well haha! I love seeing everyone doing well and now I just wanna be playing alongside them and you’ll see that this year. Especially through Nine8 stuff as well as my solo stuff. We’ve been limited for a year due to the pandemic however this year we’re gonna flip over some more tables.
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Words: Angus McKeon
Photo via.
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