With over 21 thousand followers on his Instagram, Croydon rapper Flintz is one to be keeping an eye on! We caught up with the rising star talking all things from freestyles to flying cars. Check out our interview with him below!
SDS: How have you been and how has lockdown been treating you?
Flintz: Lockdowns been alright you know, at the start it was a bit challenging because you're indoors 24/7 and you can't do anything, like stuff you used to do you can't do anymore so I've taken myself back to college. I used to work and I run my own little side freelance business, so I was quite busy but then because this thing happened, things started to slow down and stuff like that - It's a bit mad.
SDS: For those who might not know too much about you, tell us who is Flintz and whereabouts are you from?
Flintz: I'm from Croydon, grew up in Croydon it's like home. For those that don't know me, I'm 20 years old and I've been making music for about three years. The name Flintz, here's the little back story, it basically represents creation. With flint and stone together they create fire and without the Flint you can't create the fire. The one thing I'm always saying is I'm always spitting fire, I spit heat, so it basically means I create fire, that's where it comes from. Instead of stopping at Flint I like the z at the end, it just flows better so you get Flintz.
(Rap) It's just a way for me to express myself and when I started, I didn't realise it was gonna take off so much as it is now. It's a way to get out how I'm feeling, so if I'm feeling a certain type of emotion I like to express it on the track, even if I’ve written half of it down and then go back to it another time when I'm feeling that same sort of feeling. I feel like that's where my best songs come from.
SDS: What was it that got you into music? Who was it that inspired you and what day was it when you knew you wanted to be a rapper?
Flintz: I used to listen to a lot of music growing up, that's just the thing I would turn to when I was stressed or anything. In high school people would see me and I'd always have earphones in listening to music. It's a thing where, I personally find it hard to express myself, I find it hard to express how I'm feeling to somebody with words like it won't come out. I know what I want to say in my head but what I want to say to somebody like how I'm feeling or something it just can't come out and that's when I turned to music and started writing. It just came out and like I said before that's where I get my best songs from because it just comes from the heart, some of the songs I have you can hear the pain, you hear the emotion. (Rap) came from that.
SDS: Talk us through your latest single 'Underrated'.
Flintz: So my latest single 'Underrated', that was a mad one I'm not gonna lie! Basically, I feel like I'm quite underrated as an artist, so I came with this tune and I just came in hard. It was basically to make people aware that right I still got it, I've been doing it for three years and I'm still growing, so don't sleep for me because when it's time to take off it's going to be a different game. A lot of people also told me “rah Flintz you're underrated you know, you should blow!” One guy by the name Namesbliss said “you should be up there with the people (artists) that people are talking about nowadays like Aitch, Russ, Digga D!” So I was like yo I gotta come hard, I gotta show people right you lot say I'm underrated, I think I'm underrated so imma tell you why I need to be rated and why I need to be up there, so I came hard on that track.
SDS: We've seen that you like to drop freestyles online, which three that you've done so far would you say have been your favourite?
Flintz: My favourite one so far of all time is “Hold Up”, the beat got to me and I just started writing and writing. When I put that out, I put it out with energy and it was mad! That was my favourite one, I got so many comments saying your bro this is the best freestyle you've done. My second one would be my Black Lives Matter, that freestyle wasn't supposed to be a Black Lives Matter freestyle, I was actually planning to do another freestyle that same day because I was in between the two. I was sitting with my brother just chilling and writing a freestyle and asking him what he thinks, he goes “it's cold” and then I sat there and I said to him do you think I should do one about Black Lives Matter because this is what's going on. So I started writing and thought rah this actually slaps, I need to put it out there to make people aware because I've experienced racism before on the public transport. When I put it out there it was crazy, the response I got, when I say my phone was going off for a good three days, messages, tags, photos, then it hit half a million views and that's my biggest achievement. Half a million views, that's crazy to me! Finally, my third one I took it down but it was basically like a deep one about just me and stuff I've gone through and how it's made me the person I am today.
SDS: Who would your dream collaboration be with?
Flintz: I would go for Meek Mill, that's my dream collaboration. People that know me personally know that Meek Mill is my favourite artist, since I started listening to music he was the first ever person I listened to. The one album that stuck out for me was Dream Chasers Three, and to collab with him would be....oh I ain't got no words for that, if I was able to collab with him I'd be feeling different types of emotions because he's wavey, he's wavey!
SDS: If you could invent, or reinvent something, what would it be and why?
Flintz: People might think I'm weird for this one but I would reinvent cars and hear me out haha because when you're stuck in traffic and you can't move nowhere, you just can't get nowhere. Sometimes I'd be chillin in the car with my dad, we'd be like why don't you just have a button that just takes you to where you wanna go. So I would reinvent cars for that literally or have rocket boosters in them or something where you could just fly above cars. You put in the key pad where you want to go and you just teleport there like that would be sick! Hahaha.
SDS: What is next for you? What more should we expect to see from you for the rest of the year?
Flintz: I've got a lot to come, I'm not even at my peak - I'm still warming up! I've got a lot more freestyles, a lot more songs, a lot more music videos coming. When Corona's done I'm going to be out here in shows! I'm telling everyone right now that I'm warming up, I'm only just getting started. I've got so much more to give, tunes wise, performance wise. I'm still growing as an artist, there's a lot to expect for me by the end of the year.
SDS: Can you sum up croyden in three words?
Flintz: Eventful, Diverse and talented as well.
Check out the music video to 'Underrated' HERE!