Scottish hip-hop mainstay Billy Got Waves has announced the release of a forthcoming three-part album: Rocket Boy. The announcement comes as Billy prepares to drop the first incendiary single to be taken from the project, titled Poison out 21st January. In it, Billy delves into the substances he once used as coping mechanisms in a raw and honest exploration of self.

Hailing from Edinburgh, Billy started making music when he was as young as 12 years old and in 2018 he secured himself as one of the most innovative artists working within the country’s flourishing rap scene with the debut mixtape Kill Billy. After a three year hiatus, Billy is making a momentous return to the scene with Rocket Boy Act 1: a four-track snapshot of one of the darkest parts of Billy’s life.

Speaking on the forthcoming release, Billy said: “I had a lot of pain, sadness and social anxiety and the only cure from this was to escape from reality. The fallout from all of this was that, like poison, it began slowly killing me, while I lost my sanity in equal measure. This is the first chapter of Rocket Boy.”

Poison is the first single to be released from the Rocket Boy project, and the third track from Act 1. Produced by Glasgow’s S-Type (LuckyMe) and Nottingham’s beatmaker Baygee, the track is a woozy, hypnotic escape in itself and a stark reflection on the period of Billy’s life that inspired the single. Hard drums are contrasted with a futuristic melody that heightens to build a frantic energy, mirroring Billy’s own struggle with social anxiety that, in the age of social media, has become increasingly apparent.

Words by Jenn Nimmo-Smith