Rubicon Lychee - namesbliss (2021)
Effortlessly mellow and melodic drill from a talented barrer who is now on the cusp of UK scene stardom. His inspiring formula remains simple: Wavy + Conscious = Lively
Three years ago, at the start of the summer in 2021, I was gearing up for the publication of Cut Short when I received an email from an artist called namesbliss. He’d sensed our shared passion for leveraging the power of music to work with young people and reached out to connect.
At the time I was drowning in the anxiety and excitement of becoming an author. I found writing and marketing my book exhausting as we eased out of Covid lockdowns. I wouldn’t change a thing — life happens and we learn — but I look back on 2021 now with increasing clarity about how certain conversations truly helped me to get through such a hectic period filled with self-doubt.
Chatting with namesbliss became one of them. After Cut Short was published he listened to its audiobook and his manager Josh messaged me to organise a link up. It turned out they wanted to use part of the Cut Short marketing video on his debut project, Light of Mine. Snippets of my conversation with Jhemar Jonas aka Rippa are therefore woven into the EP’s two opening songs: Frontline (Intro) and Light of Mine, both of which are mature, catchy, conscious takes on UK drill.
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When me and Bliss finally managed to link up we rented studio space to record a conversation about his music, my writing and our experiences as individuals trying to do things differently in the education system and music industry. I brought Jhemar along and Bliss took him for a lyric-writing session.
He had been a mentor at the North London-based music college SoundSkool, which I’d written about a few years beforehand, whilst practicing and perfecting his own style of music-making. He is old enough to spit like a golden era grime MC but impressively plugged in enough to find pockets on a UK drill beat.
His catchphrase, which makes me smile every time I think about it — “wavy and conscious equals lively” — is evident throughout the Light of Mine EP. My (and I’m sure many people’s) favourite track on the project is Rubicon Lychee, which epitomises Bliss’s laidback, effortless and uniquely colourful character on the mic. Like someone penning a daily diary but also energetically preparing to clash an opponent on a pirate radio set, he weaves the details of everyday life together with bold, conscious commentaries about society and fun braggadocio. Producer Vagrant Real Estate lays melancholic keys alongside soulful saxophone over stripped back UK drill drums and a humming bassline.
Bliss has since shot to widespread appeal by mastering a relentless, addictive delivery, live show performance and social media virality. He is a regular on Victory Lap, a live monthly radio show showcasing the latest talent in UK rap, on which he teased his Iniesta Flow freestyle before it became popular as a song in its own right. His latest single Woi is bound to light up dance floors as it spreads.
Big up namesbliss!
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