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Get To Know: Fizzler

Get acquainted with the 19-year-old MC taking UK drill by storm

At just 19-years-old, Fizzler is a precocious emerging talent. He began releasing singles on YouTube two years ago, not long after finishing school, and has since dropped viral freestyles via Fumez The Engineer and ProdByWalkz, and collaborated with the likes of Offica and TeeZandos. He’s earned a reputation for impudent wordplay thanks to popping singles ‘Minimum Wage’ and ‘Aha ‘Mhmm’. 

On his debut release ‘Words’, Fizzler encapsulated his ambivalence towards conflict with other kids in his area by delivering a trademark punchline: “I don’t know why I’m beefing these paigons, they ain’t on shit, like constipation”. He says he alternates between writing bars down and improvising in the booth. “Sometimes I can literally do it off my head,” he tells DJ Mag. “It just depends where I am and how the vibe is. It’s just taking in everyday things and trying to relate it to my life — that’s how I do the wordplay thing.”

Among those who noticed Fizzler early on was YouTuber ProdByWalkz, who invited the Charlton rapper onto his channel for the first episode of his ‘Who’s Got Bars?’ series. In the subsequent freestyle, Fizzler referenced the mainstream’s growing interest in his music. “Now the labels are calling, they want me on tracks like athletes,” he rapped. Despite the attention, he has so far remained independent, releasing through his own label Wet-It Entertainment and surrounding himself with a tight team that includes his dad. 

Though they’re both supportive now, Fizzler’s parents were sceptical when he first started making drill. It’s become a wildly popular but sometimes controversial art form, often vilified by the police and tabloid media. “You just gotta sit down and explain things to them,” he says of his mum and dad. “It got to a point where they understood: ‘This is how he can get beyond all of that in the ends’.” Whether the vivid stories depicted in his lyrics are based on fact or fiction, he comes across as a new kind of drill rapper, focused on music rather than beef.

This year, pioneering UK drill producer Carns Hill featured Fizzler on two tracks on his mixtape ‘Founding Father’, placing him alongside legendary drillers like LD of 67. Over Hill’s dark, stirring production, Fizzler raps as compellingly as anyone else on the tape, distilling the complex psychological challenges of his life with bars that hit deep while also making you laugh. 

Rapping with maturity well beyond his years, Fizzler already occupies a uniquely important plae in the UK drill scene. He promises a solo mixtape soon.

Read our recent feature on the rise of Irish drill here

Sam Davies is a freelance writer. You can follow him on Twitter @samdavies313