Listen to the full podcast below.
When it comes to rap duos, Young T & Bugsey are up there with the best of the new school UK movement. The Nottingham pair have enjoyed a steady climb from from their youtube following to nationwide mainstream following.
I have been following the boys since one of their first releases ‘Glistening‘ and when listening back you can hear the early vision for their music. Heavy hip-hop beats with beats with the smooth midlands flows Young T & Bugsey emerged at when the London underground scene dominated a lot of the hype.
Nevertheless this didn’t stop the pair being noticed up and down the country, including some big names from the music scene. The man of the moment Stormzy even appeared in their next release, making the trip up North for the ‘No Mickey Mouse Ting‘ music video.
In the following years to come Young T & Bugsey began to make more relationships with other emerging artists from the UK underground scene. In another hard hitting riddim they dropped at the time what was their biggest hit. ‘Gangland‘ featuring Belly Squad was everywhere. The clubs, the radio, playlists and of course all of social media. The next couple of releases between 2017 and early 2018 solidified the early sound they carved out with tracks like ‘4×4‘ and ‘Greenlight‘.
In a move that nobody could have written, Young T & Bugsey linked up with another of the hottest duos from the UK. Taking a more wavy approach to the sound ‘Favourite Girl‘ featuring D Block Europe (Young Adz, Dirtbike LB) again built on the on the movement they had created.
After a brief break the pair returned with a massive feature, a track that is potentially their most successful to date. In our conversation we spoke about how ‘Ay Caramba‘ came together including the music video featuring UK rapper Fredo. The song still gets rotated today, a year after its release.
From late 2018, after the the success of Ay Caramba, Young T & Bugsey began to develop their sound again. Afro-Swing dominated most of 2018 with harder hitting UK Rap starting to come through. The Nottingham duo managed to strike a balance between the wavy and hip hop sounds they based their music own. The videos also went up a gear with each visual looking extremely clean. ‘En Route‘ and ‘Living Gravy‘ illustrated the growth and the development of the boys.
Ending 2018 with headline shows in both London and Nottingham Young T & Bugsey closed a chapter of a very successful start to their mainstream career. They had become mini fashion icons, featured on many TV shows and were still developing their unique sound. After a few more months away from the music I spoke to the guys ahead of the release of their latest single. Going back to the heavy bass and kicks, Young T & Bugsey linked up with producer IO to give us the fresh feeling track ‘Again‘.
Listen to the full podcast below.
