Artist Review: J.ibz

Ibrahim Ogunleye - more commonly known by his stage name J.ibz (pronounced 'jay-ibz) is a rapper and producer from Hackney. I remember this guy when he was just starting out with his rhymes, working on his production skills at Hoxton Hall music and production classes. A few years up and he's gathered a crew around him, and a portfolio of music videos, beats and tunes. (Instrumentals are up on SoundCloud).

Two of his videos up and running are 'Legacy' and a freestyle vid with the rapper Alzay. I like the simple piano motif in Legacy, and the young boy representing a young ibz. Shots of him are against urban backdrops of graffiti and other youths on the street. His flow is clean and clear over the beat. He raps about his love for music and feelings of confusion at a crossroads in his life. For many of us musicians, a desire to leave behind a legacy is prolific. We all want our music, whatever the genre, to be heard and enjoyed. 'Music is my life I been through a lot of struggles.' Very relatable.

The freestyle is very classic grime/trap influenced. For rappers, freestyling is like instrumentalists jamming. It allows rappers to perfect getting into the flow of spitting out lyrics over a backing track. Rap means 'rhythm and poetry'; it's about speaking your mind in a way that fits the rhythm of the beat. Ibz resembles Tinie Tempah with his glasses in the freestyle. Image is important for all musical artists, and ibz definitely presents an image of an urban 'people's' person, who wants to present positive messages for youths and bring something fresh to the urban grime scene that bore out of inner city locations.

Watch Legacy here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsVwFuFePLU&app=desktop

Freestyle with Alzay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS_7BQjVpHs&app=desktop

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j.ibz_the_artist/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ibz_artist

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ibrahim-john-miller-ogunleye

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/J.ibztheartist/about/?ref=page_internal

Snapchat: j.ibztheartist