While Stormzy continues to achieve international success through catchy, chart friendly version of grime and a recent grime “beef” with Wiley. People in the scene know he’s not South London’s only Grime icon, with the underground embracing Lewishams Novelist as the future of the genre.
Novelist first came to prominence with a series of freestyle videos and a 2015 collaboration with Mumdance, a project that showed a new vision for grime, one of experimentation, sparse, ambient production and the catchy, street life orientated lyrics old school fans love.
Nov’ showed a contentious side when in 2016 he joined the Labour party, and wrote an essay officially endorsing Jeremy Corbyn, in which he said ” Corbyn possesses a sense of decency that I rarely see in politicians. “
From there, Novelist went from success to success, his debut album in 2018 “Novelist Guy” showcased his production credentials, introducing a unique sound now distinctive of his music, with 808 style synthesised drums, ambient Lo-fi pad sounds and simple melodies.
Now, aged only 22, Novelist has released his latest single “Active”, a catchy, flow heavy grime banger that solidifies his commitment to pushing the boundaries of the genre. The track comes ahead of his forthcoming project “Inferno” out on January 20th.