On the final day of Reading Festival, our Managing Director, Jake Longhurst, caught up with Nottingham-based rapper M’Way for a chat ahead of his set at the festival; what he has coming up in the future, Nottingham itself, and a couple extra questions too!
With a new single prepped for release every month until the end of the year, M’Way has not set himself up for a relaxed end to 2022. Sat around basking in the afternoon sun of the south of England, M’Way was still wearing a hoodie and cap, repping his style even behind the scenes. Asking him first about what we had to look forward to at the festival itself, he replied a little slyly, speaking about the possibility of premiering a new song during his set, and how he was looking forward to seeing a bit of a crowd. He was playing at 6:00 on the BBC 1Xtra Stage, so a fairly high slot, which for a relatively up-and-coming performer was an amazing feat.
Chatting more about his upcoming work, he detailed a couple of the songs he has to release, and also the fact that he’s shooting a video for the new single Provide It very soon, which is one to keep an eye out for! He mentioned that whilst in future he does have plans for his own shows, both around Nottingham and a full-on tour, they are taking a backseat whilst he works on new music and gets it released, so to experience M’Way live again you’ll have to wait a little while yet! His primary goal is to get as much of a listener base as possible ahead of any shows, to allow for the crowds to build and everyone to get the lyrics down, so go get streaming and be at the front for his gigs when they do come.
As he is a Nottingham-based rapper, naturally we had to ask a few questions about how he sees the city and its effect on him, so I started by asking about the influence he thinks Nottingham has had on his sound as a rapper in today’s scene. His accent, to him, really marks him out as different in the scene, as so many rappers are either American, or from Manchester or London. Therefore, to have a stronger Midlands accent in the genre that he sits in is a unique characteristic. He also mixes the styles of different locations, with his beats being a blend of London and Chicago styles, so in the drill heavy scene that he inhabits his trap beats are quietly making themselves known, and his slight inflexion towards mumble rap gives him even more breadth and scope to be different and present his music in a manner that hasn’t been done yet.
Contrary to what you’d expect, though he has grown up in the city, he hasn’t really been clubbing much in Notts, and in fact, clubbing isn’t his scene much. Although, when asked about his favourite club night his response was almost instantly INK. He also said that one day, if he got to the right size for it, he would absolutely love to be able to play at Rock City and take the stage of the most famous venue in the Midlands to make a proper hometown gig. He spoke about just how much he loves to represent Nottingham whenever he is onstage, and his passion for the city, which shines through whenever he talks about it.
Asking about the local scene, we asked him who his favourite Nottingham-based artist is at the moment, and he gave a couple of different answers, his main choices being StayWidIt and Tee Geee, as his ones to check. Afterwards, we asked him two very important questions, which you can find in these two articles here: Reading Festival Curates a Supergroup and Reading Festival: What Biscuit Are You?
Jake Longhurst
Edited by: Roxann Yus
Cover image courtesy of M'Way via Facebook.
In-article image courtesy of Ben McQuaide.
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