Jetfly Multz sat down with journalist Mason Meyers to talk about his rise to fame and where he sees the genre progressing in the future.

So, who are you? What do you do outside music?

I go by the name of Jetfly Multz; I’m a rapper and an artist from Camden. I’m a father to a five-year-old, I’ve got clothing on the way, I’m a very busy guy, go-getter, hustler, and I’m fortunate enough that I’ve been blessed with a talent to rap.

I’ve always had that creative background behind me. My dad used to be a sound engineer, and my mum’s younger brothers are all pianists, guitarists, and bass players. It’s all in the family; it was bound to be passed down to me. I’ve always been around music. I’ve got cousins that rap, and in the area I’m from, there’s a lot of rappers in the ends, a lot of guys come through Grime, you’ve got Amy Winehouse and N Dubbs, Dappy lived down the road from my mum, so all the dots are connected.

I just released my latest single, 2 For 1, and a B side has come out with that, called 2+2; I make vibe music.

You released a B side in the digital era? 

Yeah, man, we’re bringing it back; as much as we’re moving with the future process, you know how everything goes with the fashion world and the media world, there’s always that recycling of everything. So my team and I thought because I’m always recording and there’s so much music, we might as well give them an A-side and a B-side. If you’re a follower, you’ll understand that every drop will have a B-side now; that’s the new wave we’re on.

You’ve seen a lot of success independently, especially on the radio, tell me about that.

I’ve been making music since I was in primary school; I was taking it seriously then. I used to go on pirate radio stations, which was my thing. I was rapping on busses, clashes on the streets, clashes in school, in the youth clubs. I dropped a tape in 2013 under a different name. I was working on rap and trap more neo-soul, I was playing around with my vocals more, then life happened, and my daughter was born in 2016, and since then, it was all “let’s go”.

The past two years have been amazing, I got put on BBC introducing, and then I started building traction, and I noticed that I had to let the momentum keep going, and here I am. I’ve had a couple of features on Capital, Kiss, GRM Mixtape Madness, and now you have the force coming at you now.

So now you have management and PR, how come you decided to go down that route and give up some of your independence? 

It’s all good doing a lot of things by yourself, especially the journey, but once you start getting to a certain level, things start getting out of your hands and out of control. Without the team, I wouldn’t be where I am right now because I believe there is only so much and so far you can go being by yourself, so I needed a team to get to the next level; especially people that understand your journey and want to see you succeed as much as you do.

I built the team myself. I’ve had management before, and it hasn’t worked out, so I thought, let me build my own.

You’re still building on your own; your music video has been released on your own channel, right? 

Yeah, but you know what, though? It’s hard psychologically; before, I didn’t have the confidence to do that; that’s why I’m happy I have the team I do. Before, I thought I needed other platforms to help, but then I realised that I’m my own artist, I’m my own brand, I’m on my own journey, I believe in myself, so why shouldn’t I do my own YouTube channel? Why shouldn’t I have my own website? Why shouldn’t I be the driving force to my own success?

I’ve got the right PR team beside me, I’ve got the right management team beside me, I’ve got the right supporters as well, I listen to my supporters, with all of that balancing out, I just think I’ve got the right ingredients.

You originally wanted 2 For 1 to release on GRM but decided to release it on your own channel. How do you feel about the release? Would you have preferred for it to still have been released on GRM? 

Nah, I’m happy with everything that’s happening because I get to view everything, all the insights, all the statistics, me and the team get to do everything. It’s all us, and we don’t need to rely on anyone. We dropped it on a Wednesday; we’re not trying to compete with anyone else, and I think that’s how it will be now.

Was there a time when you were trying to compete with everyone around you? It must be easy to do when you’re from an area with so many people making similar music? 

Yeah, earlier on, I would say it’s been like that until this release. It has been like, “ah there’s all these lot around me, in Camden, in London, in England, who’s doing this? Who’s doing that? who’s dropping on this date? I wanna make sure I’ve got the peak time”. That messes you up mentally, but now it’s just self-belief. I’ve been getting played on these radio channels, top DJs. I was on radio 1 XTRA track of the week for a whole week. If all of these things are happening, why should I worry? I know my heart’s good. I might as well go about my business.

Would you say that you make Drill? 

I wouldn’t say I make Drill; that’s what’s so crazy. I wouldn’t say I make Drill, and I wouldn’t say I’m a Drill artist. Yeah, the instrumentals I select – cool, I understand because Drill artists would jump on them beats – but it’s what I do with the Drill sound. I fully understand why I get called a Drill artist, but I don’t even rap like a Drill artist.

You’ve expressed disdain for being featured on Drill heavy outlets. Why wouldn’t you want coverage there? 

You know I would, but do you know what it is about my music? I do grown Drill; if you were to give it a sound, you could call it grown Drill. The content is none of that nonsense; you get what I’m saying? And how I deliver the content on the instrumentals, people don’t even feel like they’re listening to Drill. I speak to my supporters that listen to my stuff, especially the over 30s over 40s, and they’re like, “I don’t wanna hear the youngsters, I wanna hear you.”

And because they can relate to what I’m saying, for the older lot, they know what I’m talking about, but because it’s the latest sound, they can still bop to it.

I could have done it five or ten years ago, but now I’m a dad. I’m talking about my journey. I can easily rap on Trap or old school rap beats, but I like the tempo that Drill is, I like doing Grime, but luckily for me, I’m a versatile artist. 

Drill as a genre struggles to be introspective and hasn’t progressed as lyrically as Grime or American Hip-Hop, do you agree? 

I think someone that is changing that is Central Cee. He is someone I can say is trying to break down that barrier. But you’re definitely right, this is a genre that’s missing that, but you never know, it could be my time, it could be someone else’s; I just know I’m here to deliver my message and bring vibes, man. 

Being from Camden must be a blessing and a curse musically. Is Camden too saturated for music, or does it hype you up? 

As an artist, my mentality has never been Camden; it’s always been a worldwide type of thing. To me, everywhere is saturated if you want to look at it like that. You’ve got artists dropping music every day; it’s the world we’re living in, there’s always been competition, you’ve always just got to believe in yourself and your thing.

I’ve always believed in my thing –  from young I used to go to youth clubs and believe in my same eight bars. I used to have the same four or five bars and repeat them; every time I was on the mic, I knew I was going to get that reload. It’s all mind games, innit? I know loads of people who were making music, and then they just quit, and bruv, for me, as long as I can pay my bills, and people can relate to my stuff and feel motivated and inspired, I know I’ve done my job.

I’m not tryna be famous with paparazzi walking around my house every minute, or I can’t stand outside my house and bun a zoot, as long as the basis is calm, I don’t need that, I don’t care, as long as I can spend a whole day in a studio and not worry about anything else, that’s when I know I’ve made it. 

I just have to stay on course, stay hungry, and there are times where you get so demotivated, man, and that’s what I’m saying, things like waiting on a channel to release your music, do you know how demotivating that is? A lot of people don’t know that 2 For 1 was supposed to drop in February. It’s different if you’re shopping your single out to labels, but if you’re just sitting around waiting for a channel to upload, that’s when you have to take your destiny and put it in your own hands.

What separates you from everyone else in your genre? 

Because this is the real deal, I’m pure vibes; everything you get from me is pure vibes. You get hype songs, emotional songs, your gonna get that Jetfly Multz vibe, hear any of my tunes, hear any of my features, there’s nothing like this. It’s simple maths; I don’t need to say I’m the best.

What have you got going on in the future? 

A whole load of singles, to be honest, it’s all work, all work. I’ve got so much stuff I’ve been working on for years; I’m retouching certain stuff. There’s so much material I’ve been working on, where the sounds are so futuristic, that songs I was working on in 2013 sound like the current stuff now, all they need is a couple of touch-ups. More or less, there’s a lot of music dropping; I’m trying to get back to dopping monthly like I was doing at the end of last year.

There are some A sides some B sides. I’m working on a couple of tapes, I’m trying to hit up as many podcasts, and radio’s as possible, letting people know who I am, and who my team are. We’re here for the takeover, man, we’re ring leaders, that’s all it is, that’s all people need to know, there’s just a lot of content and videos, my face is going to be everywhere, so people had better get used to this bald guy, they’ve just got to get used to it.