SamRecks is Enjoying the Ride

The first thing you notice about SamRecks is his composure. The emerging rapper from Thamesmead slides across dreamy melodies and resonant 808s with a tone that chugs like a steam train; his consistent monotone simultaneously bodies beats and makes you listen to every word he has to say. It’s a characteristic that transpires effortlessly on his new project, BALANCE: an eight-track odyssey that sees him step out of the monotonies of a nine-to-five and back himself as one of the country’s brightest stars. He credits the angsty ‘I Hate This Job’ as the project’s catalyst. Written days after quitting work in an Amazon Warehouse, he came away from the track with a tunnel vision; no longer was anything other than a career in music going to be acceptable.

“Don’t get confused nothing easy, you know // Most came up sleazy but gg, you grow // Watched it on TV I swear down it’s close // Nah I can’t let em down, more time I’m doing more than most,” he raps on ‘Everything’, opening the project with a stream of consciousness that acknowledges the hardships that come with chasing your dreams. This is an equilibrium that every artist has to balance, knowing their worth, while trying to rationalise the tribulations of the creative industries.

Born in Nigeria before moving to London and then Thamesmead, SamRecks’ love affair with music started in Primary School. Jotting down poems and song lyrics and eventually discovering the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Drake, those formative years created the groundwork for who the rapper is today. He later found Skepta, Chip, and the various UK voices breaking from online blog forums and flirting with mainstream success. “The scene started to grow and it made me feel like, ‘Yo, I can do this as well,’ he says on the other end of our Zoom call, just weeks after his NOTION shoot. “I wanted to be an artist but those times, I was only seeing Americans do it. When UK artists started blowing up, it made me want to do it more.”

Since the turn of the decade, SamRecks – also known by his alter ego REKKI – has joined a growing list of British artists who’ve snatched the formalities of hip-hop and run away with the DIY spirit of grime. Some coin the scene ‘UK underground/alternative rap’, but this devalues how incredibly nuanced each artist’s sound is. SamRecks’ music sits in another dimension. 8-bit synths give the impression of an old video game, punchlines reference everything from Sonic The Hedgehog to Bluetooth pairing, and the hooks are delivered with the catchiness of a noughties R&B tune, personifying the playfulness of popular culture right from the ‘00s to now.

What ties all of this together, is SamRecks’ obsession with nostalgia. It takes a brief browse of his music videos to understand his playful universe: Tamagotchis and vintage game consoles are favoured to wads of cash and your usual hip-hop vices; he sits in the currency of the past. “Y2K was about people trying to figure out what the future would look like,” he says. “The Tamagotchis and everything else, these were things that I liked when I was younger but I could never have. I’ve got the colourful ones, the rare ones, the transparent ones – it all still seems futuristic to me.”

In the video for ‘HIT or MISS’, directed, edited and styled by REKKI, this iconography is there in abundance. Green walls match the detailing of his Broken Planet hoodies, Nintendo Switches compliment the upper mesh of his Aminé New Balances and beige New Era snapbacks fit the tones of a classic VW Campervan. The sheer attention to detail is startling; it’s so aesthetically pleasing that you almost feel uneasy. Although, SamRecks had to learn to be meticulous the hard way. “When I was younger, videographers would bump me for shoots; they would take my money and not send me the video for months,” he explains, detailing the difficulties of being an aspiring artist. “I know that it doesn’t take so long to edit a video. I wasn’t a priority because I’m just another young rapper that they don’t care about.”

The thing is, people are really starting to care about SamRecks. On BALANCE, he leaves space for one feature: a link-up with J-hip-hop rulebreaker Jumadiba, who’s a fitting addition to ‘Better Days’ given that he represents to Tokyo what Sam represents to London. Capturing the attention of his city with a series of genre-defying releases, Jumadiba draws upon global rap sounds like drill and trap to test the limits of his scene. Studying videography, he adopted rapping as a new way to express himself. “He’s one of the hardest out there,” says REKKI, animated by their relationship as friends but as a fan of Jumadiba’s music.

If there is a moment that justifies the decision to quit his job and pursue his passion full-time, it would be the trip to Tokyo. In a year, SamRecks went from packing boxes and pushing palettes to bringing his cartoonish universe to life on the other side of the planet. “In the chorus, I’m saying, “Pray for better days,” and he’s replying, “The bad days are good, too”. It follows on from ‘I Hate My Job’. You’re picturing better days, and moving forward, but you also need the bad days to understand that life is never perfect. It ties into the concept of balance: you want the good, but you also need the bad.”

Being an independent artist and having creative control over his visuals and music, SamRecks has been banded by his contemporaries as one of the hardest-working voices in UK rap. He revels in the failures; they push him harder to try and achieve his goals, and if he wants something done right, he’ll learn to do it himself. Easier Said Than Done, his debut EP released last year, features a selection of songs for every mood. ‘5am Interlude’ sounds like a post-club stumble back home; the minimal and warped Afro-house beat tapping underneath his sleepy drawl. Elsewhere, he leaves moments of introspection to the baille-funk-tinged ‘Situationship 2’ while ‘SUMO’ makes you want to wind down a car window and rev up a motorway. Racking up millions of streams across the 20-minute runtime, the project announced him and his beautifully understated flows to the world, but you still get the feeling that he’s incredibly slept on.

Next month, he’ll be embarking on his debut headline show at OMEARA London: a venue that has kickstarted the live careers of many rappers. From AntsLive to Songer and even Skepta, the theatrical-feeling, 350-capacity space under the arches of south west London has played host to many of our country’s finest musical exploits. For someone who puts so much emphasis on the visual side of his work, the performance feels like a long time coming. But from our conversation, it’s clear that this is something SamRecks hasn’t wanted to do half-heartedly. “I’ve been prepping for the show my whole life, practising in my bedroom, rapping to myself. But now that I’m doing it for people, it’ll feel very different. It’s the next level up!” Without revealing much, he says there will be a few surprises, including unreleased music, a set design and some other easter eggs he’s less keen to share. More than anything, he’s just excited to connect with his fans in the flesh. “It’s mad for someone to actually want to buy a ticket to come and see me. I’ll forever be grateful for that. I want to see what they’re saying and what their lives are about.”

Connecting with people on a deeper level, travelling the world, meeting new artists and making authentic music are SamRecks’ metrics for success. Don’t believe us? Then take in the opening line on BALANCE: “Today is the 27^th of November 2022 and I realised that money doesn’t mean anything, it’s the moments you create with money that mean everything.” He’s well aware of the materialistic niceties that come with being a rapper, but it’s clear that he places more value on the experiences his occupation brings than anything else. “I just want my music to be appreciated around the world, whether that means blowing up or being known for my music in every country,” he says. “I want to go around the world, work with different artists and take this to a new level where it’s recognised everywhere. I want the music to inspire other people like me and have fun while doing it. You only get one life, so I want to live it to the fullest”.