RICK FURY

NORTH EAST RAP ROYALTY RICK FURY TALKS TO JOHNO RAMSAY ABOUT NEW LP RETURN OF THE KING

“I had a girl message me and she was like I love your music, it’s so good… blah, blah, blah. It’s just such a shame that you never got anywhere,” Rick told me with a bemused smile. “What she means is I should be loaded and super famous…which is great because that means my music reflects that to her. But at the same time, she doesn’t know what I’m doing… I mean, I am broke… but she doesn’t know that! I could be ballin’ for all she knows. I said honestly don’t worry, I’m where I deserve to be – don’t worry about that.”

For an artist to call themselves a ‘King’ they either have a huge ego or a whole lot of confidence. In the case of Rick Fury, it’s more the latter. On Rick’s new album, Return Of The King, his claim to a metaphorical throne came to him seemingly out of nowhere.

“It’s kind of tongue in cheek, it can be interpreted a lot of different ways,” said Rick. “It was just a temporary title at first, but the king stuff started coming out in my lyrics and it just felt natural. Up until halfway through it just felt like I was trying to piece together tunes and trying to find a theme. Then it all fell into place like a nice jigsaw. This is possibly the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Many hip-hop heads in the North East have already crowned Rick the King of North East rap; on the face of it, you might think this album is Rick basking in his own local mythology, accepting the crown that many people have always tried to give him. It more or less is, but it’s more bittersweet and with less braggadocio. Rick comes with his usual slick flows and piercing punchlines on the project, flexing his stylistic range across old school boom-bap and glistening trap beats. Lyrically Rick oozes with confidence but still manages to keep it humble crown and all.

With that crown comes the concession that at this stage Rick probably won’t be a world beater. He won’t be a chart topper with millions of streams on Spotify, diamond rings and flash cars. However, with that same crown comes something better than all of those things.

I FEEL ACCOMPLISHED, I FEEL HAPPY, I THINK I’VE REALLY KIND OF FOUND INNER PEACE

“I feel accomplished, I feel happy, I think I’ve really kind of found inner peace. I speak to people and they’ll say ‘but you haven’t done this’, or ‘you’ve got to be promoting this way, make more videos!’ And I’m just like nah, I’ve done all of that in the past. It doesn’t bother me anymore. People that want to hear my music are going to listen to it and I’m totally happy with that. It’s embarrassing for me to be shouting on my about shit.”

Rick’s legacy as an innovator and one of the first to really make a name for himself doing hip-hop in the North East is worth more to him than fame and fortune. Rick doing what he did still inspires young artists in the region today and is the reason his name is held in such high regard. Never has the term ‘local hero’ been more apt. “You know The Hairy Bikers,” added Rick. “They were filming just down the road at this bakery. There was a group of people watching and these radgies turned around and shouted ‘IT’S RICK FURY!’ His mate was like WHO? and the guy said, ‘IT’S RICK FURY MAN, HE’S THE REALEST MAN!’ and The Hairy Bikers were just looking like who’s this? They were upstaged by the realest…”

Rick Fury’s new album, Return Of The King, is out now www.rickfuryuk.bandcamp.com