The consensus amongst artists is that it is complimentary for their music be recognised as ‘arena-sized’, that their sound belongs in stadiums, sonically enormous and ‘for the masses’. Devsz, AKA nineteen97’s latest tape LOCAL BOYZ triggers quite the opposite response, albeit for the all the right reasons. Saturday night’s crowd reception to the full-length play through of the project deemed it an ‘instant classic’, as listeners have since told him following its release, with bar after bar relayed back to the Birmingham rapper from start to finish. It’s the grimy nature of nineteen97’s vocals and lyrics alike that energises the small but packed-out room, steeped in a juxtaposing brew of dreamlike soundscapes and infectious garage beats that carries the tape from opening track, ‘SORRY’, to the atmospheric ‘REMEDY’. In fact, it’s the beats themselves, as credited to Love George and Off Key, that solidifies LOCAL BOYZ as a standout mixtape in the underground scene at the moment, its unique take on UKG, Electro and grime as original as it is derivative of separate influences. Choppy, almost industrial sounding at times, ‘LOCAL BOYZ’ moves with a certain buoyancy yet grittiness, its consistent tempo carrying nineteen97’s unbroken delivery, so much so that it would be apt to classify most of the track list as dance-worthy. As he announces on closer ‘REMEDY’, “I just wanna make dance songs, let the people dem danced to my pain”. The realistic imagery and vulnerability of nineteen97’s bars combined with the overriding high-octane pace of the tape is epitomised perfectly in this conclusive lyric.
Opener ‘SORRY’ sets the tone with its bass-heavy looping intro as a prime example of what’s to come, garage riddims with a contemporary house-y twist reminiscent of OPM-era Streets. nineteen97’s catchy hooks are abundant, each song an earworm in their own rights through both rich wordplay and carefully placed breaks, as ‘SORRY’ and follower ‘CATFISH’ display perfectly. If anything sees nineteen97 wearing his EDM influences on his sleeve on LOCAL BOYZ, its on this track. Harder and heavier than anything else on the project, in relation to its quick tempo and the murky melodies employed in the beat, it’s no reason that ‘CATFISH’ was put forward as a single before the project’s release. Its house-inspired, almost Detroit-derived ghettotech sonics sound like something straight out of Berghain, which Devsz still manages to flow over effortlessly. Standout track ‘079’ is next, a tune that after several reloads had the whole venue feeding the lyrics back just three days after its release. Fellow midlands MC Unruly’s contribution lets Devsz breathe, offering a brief change to his own style of vox with one that’s contrastingly weighty, dark and resonant.
While the second half of the tape is lighter in both melody and mood, the consistent pace never slacks. Summer bangers ‘DRUG’ and ‘WHEEL-UP MERCHANT’ are high-energy compositions, the former assimilating Vince Staples’ stylistically similar 2017 LP Big Fish Theory perhaps more so than any other song on here. It’s an album that’s experimental qualities and dance-oriented sonic palette have inspired Devsz’s creative direction somewhat on LOCAL BOYZ, a blueprint for the marriage of hip-hop and EDM for new-age fusion rappers. The pitch-bent vocal sample that repeats underneath the entirety of ‘DRUG’ is evocative of Staples’s ‘Crabs in a Bucket’ especially, the track’s use of manipulated samples and inner-city soundscapes comparable in its overall vibe. The ethereal ‘1AM’ exercises such techniques, a celestial femme voice cut and paired with a contagiously catchy UKG type beat.
Built around a resounding kick drum and little else, closer ‘REMEDY’ is as stripped back and intimate in its production as the bars on top of it. Even the kicks themselves are unsaturated and organic, sounding as though they have been recorded live and untampered. The lack of instrumental clutter gives Devsz space to talk on his own trials and tribulations in a sincere light, a reminder of the overall subject matter of the mixtape. As he reminds me, “it’s very honest”, and honest it is, both thematically and texturally. LOCAL BOYZ is nineteen97 doing and saying what he wants, at a time when his creative vision is so obviously transparent to him. The efforts exhibited on this project mark him as not just a respected rapper and lyricist but an artistic visionary, the hyperactive, dance-centric motion of these seven tracks laced with realism, depth and experimentalism that clearly connects the performer to the audience of whom decree LOCAL BOYZ a contemporary classic – a consensus I can second.
LOCAL BOYZ has been out for around three days now, congratulations on its release. How has the response been to the tape so far?
“My people are telling me it’s an instant classic. They’re saying it’s a staple bit of work that I’ve done, you know what I mean. Like finally, that thing that reflects what I’m about and who I am.”
How long has LOCAL BOYZ been in the works for? When did you begin constructing it?
“I made a version of it last year. I actually put a release date out, artwork and everything – four days before release date I pulled it down, it just didn’t feel right. Stopped making music for like six months… really we made that version of it in like ten days. Just locked in for ten days. it was the right point in life, I had a lot to talk about, and I just got everything out.”
How would you describe the creative/recording process? How much involvement did you have in its production?
“Every instrumental was produced with me around and like, my influence. It was predominantly produced by Love Goerge (lovegeorge.v) with contributions from Off Key (itsoffkey) and that. It was just like my emotions in audio form from a production perspective. You can kinda hear it in the project with the way I approach certain songs.”
A couple of the tracks on the tape include verses from Jaycen Spades and Unruly, how did these features come about? Who approached whom?
“So, Unruly (unruly.cmu) is my blood cousin, my little cousin, and Jaycen Spades (jaycenspades) is a Birmingham based artist that kind of reminds me of me a few years ago. I wanted to strip back the features of my other projects, they’re usually quite kinda big features - I wanted it to be very local, very internal. So, I had these ideas, got them in sessions, got the songs over and it just worked out how it worked out.”
Lyrically, does LOCAL BOYZ explore any kind of theme or concept?
“I’d say it’s very honest, it’s an honest piece of work. Like, it’s to the point where I was very nervous about putting it out to be totally honest. So, there’s no exact lyrical theme but I kind of just went out with no filter and just tried to be me and spoke through it all.”
There’s a lot of genre exploration on this project, employing elements of garage, hyper-pop, EDM etc… Were there any artists that you were listening to at the time that you’d cite as an influence to the sounds were hear on Local Boyz?
“Big Fish Theory – you see, Vince Staples, I don’t think he’s ever gonna make a better project than that, I’ll be honest. Him being this guy from LA that’s just out here saying mad things but constructing it in this crazy way, I wanted to really kind of take influence from that and break it down. And I think, Big Fish Theory was, I’d say the core thing, not to take from the sounds on that album but to say like, yo I wanna display everything on this crazy canvas. (Big Fish Theory) is a known album but it’s not a known album like that.”
When can we next expect to see you live?
“We got a LOCAL BOYZ night in Cardiff coming up… my manager’s trying to convince me to do a headline…. I don’t know how I feel about it. I did one last year, but possibly a Brum headline, and obviously whatever the booking agents throw my way…”
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