BackRoad Gee: Meet the MC | Watch

Backroad Gee, the London-based UK rap artist best known for his hit, 'Party Popper', is next in the opening season of our new series, Meet The MC.

Backroad Gee has the kind of voice that makes you stop what you’re doing and listen. The East London-born artist has spun himself a formidable reputation through his blistering blend of grime, dancehall and drill, with tracks like ‘Party Popper’ and Pa Salieu collaboration ‘My Family’ gaining cult street anthem status. If there’d been live shows in 2020, you can guarantee BackRoad Gee would have enjoyed reload after reload.

It takes talent to flourish during a global health crisis, and BackRoad Gee’s unorthodox flow is the key ingredient in his success: at times it sounds like he’s rapping exclusively in ad-libs, using plosive sounds like gunshots. His verse on the remix of Gully’s ‘Ying Dat’ is one example of this, a series of rapid-fire vocal utterances.

Rather than fixate on elaborate wordplay like some of his peers, BackRoad Gee’s charm is in his energy and unpredictability. He’ll pepper his lyrics with the native tongue of his Congolese parents, Lingala, or drop in some words from French and Arabic, languages he’s studied on YouTube. These linguistic switch-ups mean that — to the casual listener — at times he sounds almost possessed on the mic.

In this episode of Meet the MC, we join Backroad Gee in the studio, and he takes us to the location of the video for 'Party Popper'.

You can watch the first episode, with D Double E, here, and subscribe to Subscribe to DJ Mag TV here.