Interview: Temz
Active since 2016, Leeds emcee Temz had already made a name for himself before capturing our attention with the release of his latest single, Scores featuring Brixton rapper, Cristale. Temz received a great reception for his Zino Season EP last Summer, now it is 2021 and he has raised the levels higher. Currently sat on a string of solo singles, collaborations and with a couple of projects in the works as well, we reached out to Temz for exclusive insights into his Scores single and more music that he has in store.
Coming up in Leeds, up North it is difficult to make noise and also get heard. So when Temz started spitting alongside his school friends, he didn’t plan to take it too seriously. But he enjoyed freestyling and uploaded his earliest bars on his friends homegrown YouTube channel, FirstMediaTV. “Then obviously from young,” continued Temz, “I've always kind of been a poet and done music low-key. When we released something, it got a big reaction for up here, I think it got like 30K views in the first week or something, that's how we started off.”
Receiving praise across the UK, Temz continued spitting and uploaded music online - mostly freestyle singles, until he released his Zino Season EP in June 2020. Despite the project’s success, Temz feels as though he is still in the process of finding the best sound to be known for, so he is holding off on putting out another project too soon. “I am only just emerging on the scene now,” explained Temz. “So I feel like I am going through a transition period. It wouldn't really make sense to drop a project yet, so we're just testing the waters, hitting them with the singles and seeing where it takes us.”
Since dropping his first single of 2021, Scores alongside Cristale on March 11th, Temz has had more viral recognition as the single gained 50K views within a week. After initially receiving the beat from a producer called Sensei, Temz decided to ask another emcee to spit back to back with him over it. “I felt like I needed to go off the back of someone,” said Temz. “Like how they used to do it in the Grime clashes back in the day.” Judging the chemistry between both emcees on the track, listeners would be forgiven for believing they maybe knew each other a long time. In fact, they had only met once when they recorded the Scores single. “I must have been on Twitter one night and I came across this girl,” continued Temz, revealing how he met Cristale. “She was dropping freestyles and stuff, I just felt like she was gritty, even though she was a female she was really spitting - so I thought you know what, let me try something different init.”
After speaking on social media for a time, Temz flew down to London to book a studio and work with her. “Literally just off the vibes in the studio we just started spitting,” recalled Temz. “Then literally, it was like back to back - I was going, then she was going, then whilst the mood was still there, we just laid it down.” Having recorded multiple more singles during that session, fans can expect more collaborations between Temz and Cristale coming in the future. “I also have got a big tune coming out with a guy called SR,” revealed Temz. “He recently done Welcome To Brixton. I got a lot of family in London, so they just plug me in with people when they can.”
With a strong Northern accent, Temz is sure to stand out when more Southern fans hear his upcoming releases. “Facts,” laughed Temz, “It is my unique selling point.” Ultimately though, Temz believes that his unique bars and flows will separate him from the rest. “The literal way I thought of going about it was going hard with raw bars,” stated Temz. “Fortunately I am harder than most other people, but sadly we are not really in the era anymore where music does 100% of the work.” With this in mind, Temz is putting much more thought into his future releases. “When I'm planning music videos I'm like, how could this video stand out from the next man's video?” continued Temz. “Even what we are doing with the promotional campaigns and stuff, we are putting a lot more consideration into that, to make sure that when we bring the records out, that they do as good as they can.”
Our final question for Temz: which other artists from Leeds deserve a shout out? “There’s a lot of us up here man,” replied Temz. “My boy Graft recently just won the Rap Game UK, he is from Leeds - that is my guy still, he is helping to raise the flag for us. We've got my guys, Bandokizzy, he does the whole Canadian wave music which is popping right now. He is probably the best at that who I have heard from the UK. I've got my boy who does vocals, Danny, he is super cool. There is a lot of talent up here, really. We just shine the light, you get me? Hopefully I have played my part, in people realising.”
Temz, thank you for your time.
Words by Evo
Photography by camera.papi