Artist Spotlight: V.I.C

From early on in our conversation, it was clear to me that V.I.C is going to be huge. His numbers are prodigious, his technical ability is exceptional, his charm bountiful, and his image undeniably marketable.

Repelling convention, the rapper refuses to be pinned down by labels and stylistic expectation. Very much a new-age artist having first gained a fan base through TikTok, V.I.C combines the influence of popular movements like drill and grime with his own unique style to create a commercially viable and seamlessly dynamic sound. His penultimate release, ‘A Teen’, sent his name into the stratosphere, accumulating over 5 million streams, whilst his latest release ‘Summer’ is the perfect concoction of sharp flows, colourful production and intelligent writing.  

I caught up with the exciting rapper to discuss the impact of social media on new artists, his upcoming releases, and dismissing industry labels.

How has the pandemic treated you?  

I’d say the pandemic has been quite a big thing for me. Getting out, getting exposure. 

As a newcomer in the age of the pandemic and an ever evolving industry climate, how has it been? 

I don’t feel like I’m in the industry yet. When people say the music industry, I don’t really want to be in the industry like that, I’m just making music that I like that people happen to like. In the industry you are comparing yourself to everyone else and that can cause problems. I’m just trying to make music that makes me happy and other people happy. 

Does the idea of being in an industry boxes you?

Yeah, especially when you’re not doing the sound that is big, I don’t really do grime/drill so if I’m in the industry then I’m the odd person out. 

Who is influencing you musically?

At the moment… there’s a standard answer which is J Cole, but at this moment there’s 2 albums - Dave’s new album and Songer’s new album. 

Yes! Songer is sick!

Punchlines after punchlines. Shout out to Songer. 

As a DIY artist, social media has to play a large part in your marketing and depiction of your image. How do you find advertising yourself through social media and when did you begin to see success from it?

Getting on TikTok is one of the hardest things I did because I don’t consider myself bait like that. Even posting videos took a while. I was at uni and I didn’t want to go the financial route so beggars can’t be choosers. At this age, getting your music out there in the UK is very hard if you don’t have social media like that. It basically levels the playing field. 

Is it a necessary evil?

Yeah definitely, up until the point where I can say that I don’t need it to market myself, when I have people rating my music so much that if I say I have it out they’ll go and listen. Social media is just what I’m using to get myself out there. 

Do you think it’s the future of music marketing for yourself? 

Yeah man, I want to reach as many people as possible with the message that I’m bringing. I just want as many people to listen to it as possible. I can see how much of an impact social media has on that. If I dropped using it I’d just be an enemy of my own progress. Until it sparks it’s own train then I have to. 

What would you say to a new artist trying to get themselves out there on social media and gain recognition?

100% consistency. Up until TikTok, I was putting videos out every week for like 3 years and had like 200 followers. Sooner or later something breaks through. If they see the effort you are putting in people always come around, so if you spend the time worrying what other people are saying, then you are basically just limiting your own progress. 

What was the moment that you thought - damn, this could actually work?

I knew the exact point bro. I was doing freestyles but people didn’t really know I had music, I’d grown a bit of a fan base but my streams were still doing the normal thing. I was marketing ‘A Teen’ out to TikTok and I basically just made 5/6 videos and marketed it to try get it on FIFA. The first day it video had like 250,000 views and the streams just jumped. They just kept rising and rising and I got on the viral charts in the UK, Norway and Ireland. I journaled the whole thing, it’s crazy. 

I did see the FIFA thing, is it going to be on there?

At this moment, it’s up to EA. I gotta wait for the announcement because if I know, I’m going to tell everybody. They are going to announce the tracklist sometime this month.

Fingers crossed. As someone who doesn’t follow the trend of the UK rap scene, what is your opinion on the drill scene?

It’s hard. I bang Millionz like crazy. What I do is find songs on the charts and create freestyles to them. The most recent song I did was to a drill beat. I still respect the culture, it’s just not the sound that I rate for myself. I’ll pay homage to it and show that I can rap on it but a lot of my music is just hip hop rather than drill. 

Your sound is quite chilled, quite often using acoustic guitar samples. Is that you trying to catch a sound or more a representation of you as a person?

I really don’t know which sound is me yet. I have so much unreleased music. My release strategy is I put it out on TikTok and see if there’s an audience for it. The chilled ones seem to have more of an audience, but I’ve made multiple drill/grime tracks that haven’t banged in the same way. Until I have an audience who will listen no matter what I put out then I’m just feeling out different sounds. 

In terms of genre, do you see it as upholding the relevance that it once did to artists?

I feel like it used to, but nowadays everyone is breaking out. As the world is becoming more open, everyone is opening up and trying different things because there’s an audience for everything these days, look at mumble rap. Everyone is doing their own thing. Yeah genre is a thing, but I feel like it’s come to a point where it’s about your sound rather than your genre. 

Where do you see the UK rap movement heading? Do you see drill staying around? 

I feel like it’ll have a life. There’s still grime now and it still has its own thing. I feel like it’s a timeline and different things pop up at different times. Maybe it’ll progress. 

The streaming numbers for ‘A Teen’ are absolutely insane. How do you feel about it and do you think it’s just the start? 

If people rate ‘A Teen’ then the stuff I have coming is even crazier. A Teen is a very sentimental song, it documents the journey from me as a kid who couldn’t make any music. The reason I’m so gassed that it was that song that blew up is it really allowed me to show the progress from the start. It’s just a step into the industry - my EP is called ‘Bedroom Chronicles’ about a kid making rap in his bedroom trying to gain recognition and it’s going through the emotions of it. 

When is the EP going to drop?

End of this year or start of next year. 

Are you far along in the recording/mixing process? 

Yeah it’s all finished… actually I keep adding new songs to it. It’s supposed to be like 7 but I’ve written like 13 for it. There’s a song called ‘Maybe’ that people keep asking for but I keep changing it and changing it and it’s still to drop. It’s going to be the next one to drop though. 

When is that one coming?

Probably next month. If we get on FIFA that’ll change things because we’ll have to market ‘A Teen’. 

Talk me through the themes and ideas behind ‘Summer’ 

It was the first time I got into a studio session, it was with Fanatics and we came across the beat and it felt like everybody was vibing. I went into a separate room, thinking about what I could write about. It was near the end of lockdown, and I was thinking I need to go on holiday, go away. It’s just vibes and summer. 

Have you done any shows? 

I haven’t no, but I’m opening up for an artist soon that I have to keep on the DL. I just signed to a live agent and when the EP comes out we’ll probably do a tour. 

Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

I’m all about the process. Right now, I’m focusing on the artistry. We’ll see how it goes, I just want to take it as big as possible - worldwide. I want to be the artist that brings the UK back on the scene, be one of the big guns. I want to be on that route, big moves. 5 years better than I am now.