Bashy - Sweet Boys Turned Sour (Official Video)

Photo credit: Dennis Morris

London rapper Bashy has today confirmed a return to music with the announcement of his sophomore studio album titled Being Poor is Expensive – out 12th July 2024. The first track to be released is ‘Sweet Boys Turned Sour’ - out now.
 
Being Poor is Expensive was produced by Toddla T and Bashy, with additional production by Benji B, PRGSHN, and Aaron Levy. Recorded at Steeze Factory, West London, with final studio sessions completed in late 2023, it is an 11-track tribute to coming of age in Bashy’s corner of the city, a breath-taking portrait of the roads, homes, trials and tribulations that shaped his generation. It is the sound of North West London, and a moving homage to the many migrations and journeys that came before him.
 
Bashy said - “This record is about standing in the truth; the beauty of it, the ugliness of it, the true cost of growing up poor and really coming from the ends. On this album, I wrestled with my demons, insecurities, flaws, traumas and the memories long-forgotten which revealed themselves during the writing process... A process during which I also realised that I had been a scared boy… naive, one choice away from death, jail, drama or a successful future, almost on a daily basis.”
 
First track ‘Sweet Boys Turned Sour’ features soulful melodies, pounding 808s and a Jamaican dancehall influenced sub-bass in a rich, intentionally layered track which vividly illustrates Bashy’s prowess as a wordsmith and storyteller, recounting his experiences and the reality of moving between life at home and the environment immediately outside his front door. The video was directed by George Power and shot last month around Combe House on the Brunel Estate, where Bashy lived during his formative years.
 
Sonically, Being Poor is Expensive pulls on a distinctly British-Caribbean soundscape which saw Bashy work with Toddla T to fold in genres, artists and songs which shaped him, with nods to icons such as Gabrielle and Spragga Benz; and samples that range from MJ Cole to Wookie, Dave and legendary British Reggae group Aswad, as well as North West London artists Gappy Ranks and Tubby T. The additional, specific sounds of London - which Bashy recorded himself during his journeys through the area – give the album an almost cinematic feel.
 
Coming 15 years after the release of first record Catch Me If You Can (2009), Being Poor is Expensive is an era-defining album that combines a rich cultural and musical heritage, reality and history into a bold, uncompromising record, a musically rich Black British origin story from one of the country’s most skilled and respected rappers.
 
Being Poor is Expensive will be available on Digisleeve CD with booklet, and Digital DSP. Pre order HERE.