From a pivotal and pioneering figure in the rise of grime to a viral Tik Tok sensation, Rinsa Malone has had a hell of a journey.

Renowned with London heads for his involvement in early years grime, Rinsa has re-emerged a different animal. The man behind the internet-breaking short video of #oneeyeopenwhenimsleeping, which amassed an insane 104M views on Tik Tok, the rapper has capitalised on his viral success to drop an official single entitled One Eye Open. Paired with savvy visuals set in central London, the offering is only the start of what is to come from the trending rapper.

I sat down with Rinsa to discuss the journey to becoming a viral sensation, the story behind his trending Tik Tok and what’s to come from him.

Who’s been influencing you lately?

I’ve been influencing myself really and my label WEAREBLK have been influencing me to be more professional with my music, which I appreciate. My cousin Ms Dynamite has influenced me along the way also and continues to today.

I know it’s been an interesting ride, talk me through your musical journey so far?

Started writing bars at 11 and developed from there really. In 2015 I started to take music more seriously and started performing more at every opportunity and it paid off as I went viral.

What do you aim to get out of your music career?

To be financially stable and to increase my passion for music.

You’ve got a really unique and compelling sound, how would you personally define it?

My sound is unexpected coming from myself so I would class it as unexpected.

How can you think you can stand out in such an over saturated scene?

My sound naturally stands out as we’ve establish, I’m not your usual artist or proposition shown through hitting these numbers online.

You’ve effectively broken the internet with your viral tiktok #oneeyeopenwhenimsleeping. Where did the ideas stem from?

It came from me not getting a lot of sleep and working too hard without getting enough rest.

Why and how do you think it has blown up so much and become so popular?

It’s become popular because the one eye thing is relatable and everyone is watching out for themselves in life. Keep your eye open init!

How does it feel to gain fame via social media? Would you prefer for it to have been more organic?

I think in this day and age the only way to really gain popularity is through social media but this has happened for me by going out and performing organically face to face with people.

How do you plan on capitalising on this acclaim to push forward in the music industry?

I’m going to be using my new platform to perform more to bigger crowds and to help push some of my people through, if I can, at the same time.

At what point did you decide to make ‘One Eye Open’ a full track, and what was the recording process?

I know Antz from imjustbait from like 5 years ago so we just went studio and made it happen.

Talk me through the visuals for One Eye Open?

I left it to the label really but they wanted to keep it quite organic so I went back to where I did the original video and also went to Oxford and lots of people got involved which was calm.

What’s to come from you?

Watch this space I'm hopefully going to be performing the song at various events and who know maybe even a remix later down the line who knows!?

Artist Spotlight: Rinsa Malone