Not many artists can boast being the Godfather of a music genre. LD is one of the very few with such status, particularly in the UK. Spitting nihilistic lyricism over rumbling 808s and halftime melodies, the wordsmith, alongside his infamous 67 crew, paved the way for UK Drill to become England’s most globally recognised musical export. Although the genre is still in its infancy, LD has been making waves for a while, clocking millions of listens through his solo imprint and 67. He recently released his latest project ‘Who’s Watching?’, whilst still in prison for a charge he denies. VIPER spoke with LD to discuss the mixtape, 67’s craziest mosh pits and what food he’s been craving since being inside.
We heard that you bunked off church to record for the first time, meeting Dimzy on your way home outside of Sainsbury’s. Can you paint the picture of that moment? What was the first session like? I remember that day clearly. It was my first time going Church after I got kicked out of school. My uncle dropped me and I was like, forget Church, this is long. I was walking back to my new estate and I saw Dimzy. He was buying baguettes for his mum and we went back to his house. I remember that tune was all over my secondary school. Could you already start to hear the sounds of UK Drill then or was it solely grime beats you were spitting on? That was proper grime, with the violins and all that. We were still about the proper gritty stuff - my first tune was called ‘SW2 Head Shots’. I don’t think I could even find it now.
“I did say I was fed up with Drill, but it’s won my heart back. I love all the new artists coming into the game and taking it to new heights”
When was it you thought Brixton needed its own sound?
Why do you think yourself and 67 have always managed to stay relevant within UK Drill and rap music? No matter what, we created the original formula for UK Drill. A kid always goes back to its parents and shows them love innit. When you first heard Chief Keef’s music and the sound coming out of Chicago at the time, what particularly resonated with you about it? And why did you think the UK needed its own Drill formula? It was the beats that grabbed me first, they were dark and not just trappy. The basslines and drums were proper serious, you know what I mean? Me and Dimzy were already spitting at a faster tempo than the Chicago lot, I think that came off grime. We just mixed the two together.
108
•
VIPERMAG.COM
I think when I came out of jail in 2014, that’s when I thought, we need to take this more seriously. I remember dropping tunes that were getting love over 100,000 views. I was going areas and people were recognising me and my voice saying “Yo that’s LD.” That’s love. I couldn’t believe it to be honest. Since then, you’ve had quite a few landmark moments in your career. Are there any that have particularly stood out? We did a mini Europe tour and played Roskilde festival. If I’m right, like 70,000 people go there. We played the Red Bull stage to something crazy, like 5000 people. I saw the maddest mosh pit I’d seen in my life, people were back flipping. It was the biggest we’d ever created. We had a target to get a mosh pit at every show and we definitely achieved that. After being repeatedly denied those tours, how did it feel to finally get on stage and perform your art for the first time? We had done little shows, the whole uni scene and a show in Shoreditch. After that, the Police were shutting down everything. Obviously, we’d done Wireless. We
