Words by Kieonte Clarke
This week, we highlight the music of up-and-coming South London artist, Adz.
If there’s one word to best describe South London rapper Adz, it’s ‘potential’. Primarily known for his catchy street raps, he’s already shown a versatility beyond his years by switching up his rhythms from melodic verses similar to Lil Tjay and Lil Baby to slower, more traditional flows of the sort made famous by Dave.
Growing up in Croydon has greatly influenced Adz’s music, and it’s an obvious topic of conversation that works its way into many of his songs. The 17-year-old first started to garner attention in the summer of 2019, after dropping two freestyles on Instagram which gained almost 200,000 views combined. This was quite the feat, considering he hadn’t yet officially released a single song.
2020 saw him take his artistry a lot more seriously. In March, he released his first track, “Doubted”, on his own channel, in which he effortlessly floats over a lo-fi beat, delivering bars about street life before switching up his flow for a catchy chorus. Since then, he’s gone on to release two more solo songs, “Cold Events” and “Lurking”. In both, Adz melodically raps over trap beats to create tunes that we defy you to purge from your head after listening.
Last year also saw him release a freestyle on Mixtape Madness’ “Next Up” series, a platform which has helped many of the biggest up-and-comers in the current scene blow up, like OFB and Digga D. His “Next Up” track saw him switch it up once again, with the young artist this time spitting over a drill beat. He followed this up in November with features on Afro Swing artist Adejosh’s “Banditz”, and alternative Pop artist Cole LC’s “Westbrook” – two songs which, once again, continued to show his versatility.
Although it’s still early in his musical career – and by that we mean really early – Adz has already shown so much potential and talent at a frighteningly young age. With time and more releases ahead of him, we expect to see him cement his own sound and possibly become one of the biggest artists on the UK scene.
Listen to Adz on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
For more artists in out Discover Weekly series, click here.