Lethal Bizzle joins The Dotty Show on Apple Music 1 for an extensive interview, in which he discusses his career highlights plus teases plans for future releases. During the chat, he shares his hopes to one day hear Jay-Z's verse on 'Pow', shares his regret at making music "for the charts" and why he now dislikes tracks such as 'Blinded', shares how he navigated tricky moments in his career, and more.
Lethal Bizzle Tells Apple Music About Jay-Z's Verse For 'Pow'...
Jay-Z allegedly has a verse. Big up, Just Blaze, he went on national TV in the UK and basically said, "Yeah, Jay-Z has a verse for this." And the story behind that is Jay-Z used the instrumental beat at his UK Europe tour. He saw the response and I think he thought, nah-. At Royal Albert Hall, Wembley, I think even in Africa, I started seeing videos. And then one of Jay-Z's team reached out to me and said, "Yo, Jay-Z wants to do a version of ‘Pow’." I was like, "No way." So he said to me, "Yo, he wants you to do a chorus for him. Try to say his name in it." I was like, all right, cool. I did the chorus, sent it to the guy. He's like, "Yeah, he loves it. We're going to get back to you." A week's gone. I'm texting. He goes, "Yo, yo. Just don't worry. We're working it. We're working it." Then the person that I was speaking to, he was a DJ, it got announced he got sacked by Jay-Z. So I was like, oh my God, that's the only connect I've got for this whole thing. I just had to put my hands up and say, you know what? It's a lost verse, isn't it? And then five years down the line Just Blaze comes out on TV and said, "Yeah, yeah, Jay-Z's got a verse for this. I heard it. Yeah. Yeah." So me and him have been trying to get this verse, but apparently the person that got sacked is the person that has the verse on his hard drive. I don't know if he speaks to Jay, or I don't know what it is, but he's just like, "I'm not leaking the verse unless Jay says I can leak it." So apparently there is-. There’s a verse.
Lethal Bizzle Tells Apple Music That He's Waiting To Bump Into Jay-Z To Discuss His Verse...
Yeah. It's mad. I'm waiting to bump into him. I mean, I've seen him a couple times, but I just didn't think it was the right time to ask him like, "Yo, remember that verse that I done for you?" I was just like, nah, you're enjoying yourself right now. I don't want to talk to you about work. I just hope I'll just catch him in a cool vibe where we can just have a calm conversation and just speak about it. I just want to hear it, man. Because Just Blaze has heard it. And then he would say to me, "Yo, he killed it. It's good. Yeah, you done a chorus for him as well." That's when I knew he weren't lying. I was like, yeah. He goes, "Yeah, I heard it. It's crazy." I was like, "Oh nah, bro. I need the verse." We've been just working on it. But he's just like, "You know what? Two things. It's either the hard drive's lost, or Jay just don't want the verse to come out anymore." I don't know. But bear with me, man. I'm going to have the conversation hopefully one day and see what happens.
Lethal Bizzle Tells Apple Music About His Favourite Verse On 'Pow' Didn't Make It On The Track...
Do you know what? My favourite actual verse on 'Pow' didn't make it to the national release, which was a guy called Hotshot. And he was at the end, but his verse was so explicit it just couldn't be on the song. It just wouldn't have got no airplay. It just could've been... You know when you're reversing? It just would've been silent. So the obvious thing was to take him off. But he was my favourite, which is Hotshot.
But in terms of the verse that made it, I'd probably say D Double, D Double E. It's actually funny because that's not the verse I wanted him to put. I actually had another verse. I said, "Bro, put this verse down." And he was like, "Nah, nah, nah. I don't want to do that verse." So I was like, "All right. What are you going to do then?" Then when he went and done it in the studio everyone was just going crazy. And I was like, "Nah, nah, you actually smashed it. It's just different. It's like, where'd you even think of that?" D Double, definitely my favourite. Everyone done their thing, but D Double for me was my favourite. But performing it live, Napa, that verse live on stage is... I know it's funny. He comes in after D Double. So yeah, that's mad. Because the response, everyone starts screaming. And it's just like, oh my God. It's just so disrespectful. But personal favourite, D Double.
Lethal Bizzle Tells Apple Music Why He Regrets Making Music For The Charts & Reveals The Song He Dislikes...
The charts, yeah. That was the weirdest time. They could see the money. Mate, it was horrible for me. It was horrible, because it was like, I organically want to do the music I like making, but the music I like making isn't the "in" thing right now. It's very soft. It's very poppy. I even tried to have a go at it. I'm not going to lie. I've got a couple tunes that... I heard one tune I made, I was just going through it the other day. Was it 'Blinded' or something? I think it's called ‘Blinded’. Mate, the tune is rubbish. I'll be honest with you. It's my song, but I'll say it. I was literally just following what everyone else was doing, because if you wasn't doing that you couldn't get airplay. And again, social media's still not really kicked in yet. You know what I mean? I think we had MySpace and a few things like that, but it wasn't so impactful as it is today. Yeah, it was just so weird, man. Just seeing how even some of the mandem that was on radio with me. And now, they had to make this music because the music that we want to make is not accepted. But some of it was cool. I'm not going to lie. Some man made some decent ones, but I just knew it wasn't us. It just didn't represent us. You know what I'm saying? I more or less had to sit on the sidelines for a little bit, to be honest.
Lethal Bizzle Tells Apple Music About Navigating Difficult Career Moments...
It was hard. But do you know what I was doing though? Because I discovered the festival world in 2005, when all that stuff was going on I started linking up with the Rock Mandem and the festival guys, the cool guys, the punk guys, because they had that similar grime energy. And then they started accepting me in that world. So I started doing more festivals and more weird venues, like pubs and stuff like that. Because I could showcase the music I wanted there. But in terms of where I wanted to really be, I didn't really fit in. A lot of us had to just let the wave die and just watch it happen and maybe get involved. I think I done a tune called ‘Keys To The Bentley’, knackered tune. I don't even know what I was doing. Tune was knackered. I was just thinking... But a couple of the Mandem were doing it. Wiley done ‘Rolex', and then it's gone mad. So I'm like, all right, ‘Key to the Bentley’ then. Ah, what was I thinking? But again, just trying to fit in and trying to get air play because didn't really have any other resources. So I was just trying to play the game. But it wasn't my finest time in music. I can say that.
Lethal Bizzle Tells Apple Music That ‘Pow 2011’ Came Together "By Mistake"...
Do you know what? 'Pow 2011' happened by mistake. The reason I say that is because I think this is when... Is it Pop Idol? Or it might have been an XFactor. I don't know. When Rage Against The Machine went number one for Christmas one year and he beat, I don't know, Simon Cowell show, or whatever it was on TV. They always try to get Christmas number one. And then the fans made Rage Against The Machine, that mad song they got, go number one. So the year after someone must have been like, yo, we should get ‘Pow’ to go number one. Let's upset Simon Cowell again. So I was like, yeah, let's do it. Let's get ‘Pow’ to go number one. And then one fan was like, "No Biz, what you should do is a new version, put some new MCs and some of the old Gs on it, and make that go number one." And I thought, yeah, that's too much work, man. Anyway, left it. Wiley calls me out of the blue a day after, "Yo yo, yo. What's this about? You're doing a new ‘Pow’?" I was like, "What are you talking about? I ain't doing a new Pow. I'm talking about the-" "No, no, no. You got to do it, bro. You got to do it, bro." I'm like, "Really?" He goes, "Bro, I'm involved, bro. Trust me. Get the beat. Ring the Mandem. Let's do it." I was like, "You really want to do it?" He goes, "Bro, trust me."
Lethal Bizzle Tells Apple Music About His Plans To Release New Projects...
You know what? I've got a plan, and God always laughs at your plans so I'm not even going to say it and jinx it. But all I want to say is, consistency, forever hardworking. I think consistency is definitely going to be one of my main factors in this last decade. I feel like it's a good place right now to just feel free to do what you want musically now and not worry about if you're going to get playlisted or if you're going to chart. I just want to make good music for my fans more on a consistent basis. Because I always just flood the market then I might go away. Flood the market again, might go away. Where now I almost want to give them projects. Some people don't even know I've got three albums, but I haven't put an album out for a while. I definitely want to give them an album in this next decade. I'm going to continue to give them little EPs and projects. But yeah, just consistency, man. That's going to be my main focus for this next decade.
Lethal Bizzle Tells Apple Music About Supporting Himself Early In His Career After His Parents Moved Back To Ghana...
My mum and dad went back to Ghana. So funny story that my parents didn't like me doing music. They didn't support it at all. My dad was just very much like, "Music is a very fickle business. It's very cutthroat. People come, people go." So when I dropped out of college and I was doing an electronic engineer A level, and my dad was so disappointed because I dropped out to do music. So he was just like, "All right, cool. You stopped doing education. My job is done. I'm going back to Ghana." So he went back to Ghana and left me in Walthamstow in this two bedroom house. And that actually motivated me because I was like, wow, mum and dad's not here no more so I need to actually make this work now. I'm in my parents' house by myself having to pay the bills, looking after the yard. That motivated me to say, yo, Biz, you have to really go for this now. There's no, "Oh mum, can you let me 10 pounds please?" You have to go and get this bag. So that gave me the fire on my belly just to be as strong as I can because I just knew that I had to depend on myself. That definitely triggered ‘Pow’ happening.
