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The biggest song of Songer's career is a freestyle over Britney Spears' 'Toxic', filmed for a YouTube channel when he was a teenager and then left sitting on the internet for six years while he got on with life. When he eventually put it out properly - on his own label, three days before Christmas, the traditional graveyard of all release schedules - it spent eight weeks in the Top 40 and became one of the biggest-selling UK rap singles of its year. He has spent the best part of a decade treating the 'done way' as if it were a set of polite but daft suggestions, and the results keep proving him right. His new album is called 'WHAT IF I SAY NO?', and the lovely thing is that he already knows the answer. He's been saying it since he was seventeen, and things keep coming up roses.
At the time of our 'chat', he's in Denmark, mid-festival-run, en route to a show and in excellent spirits, as well he might be. The album - his sixth full-length, released through Hard Reality, the label he co-founded as a teenager and has never seen a single reason to leave - has just landed at Number 2 on the Official Independent Albums Chart. The past year has brought another hundred million streams. November will see him embark on the biggest tour of his life, finishing at Brixton Academy, roughly twice the size of anywhere he's headlined before. It's going quite well, basically.
The record took over a year, and started with a plan best described as 'loose'. "Originally I just wanted to make as much music as I possibly could and push myself across all different genres," he says. "My mindset was one of fearlessly making what I want, being as honest as I could about every aspect of my life, and then piecing it all together came later in the process." The subject it settled on is control: who has it, who took it, and how you get it back. "Over time, I wasn't dealing with things in the most healthy way," he confides, "and it led me to kind of look in the mirror and think, do you know what, I'm gonna do what I want, when I want."
The obvious assumption is that making the album taught him all this. Wrong way round, he says. "If anything, I think it's the other way around; from learning how to approach my life with a clearer mind led me to a more fearless way of making an album. Trying new sounds, new topics and without a fear of consequence."
"Anything that sounds like words, you can discard; anything that sounds like you, can stay"
Songer has never hidden the state of his head. His previous records were called 'Lyrics for Sanity' and 'THE PRICE OF THERAPY'. Fair play to him, though; he'll freely explain that his perspective moves with the day. What he's built to cope with that is a filter that sorts the good lyrics from the bad. "You write down all of them, and you re-read or re-listen the next day and see which ones make you feel something," he says. "Anything that sounds like words, you can discard; anything that sounds like you, can stay."
What sounds like him turns out to be an awful lot. 'WHAT IF I SAY NO?' runs from golden-age hip-hop through UK rap towards the dancefloor, taking in songs called 'CYBER SEX', 'VICES V VERSES' and 'ORCHESTRA OF SILENCE' along the way, with great stretches built from the sounds he grew up on. "My music taste is so broad, and that stems from how I was raised. I'm lucky enough to do what I do for a living, so I want to achieve things I wanted to do as a kid, and that includes making songs across all genres, and just making my inner child happy that I got to do it."
"It's just taken a while for people within the world of music to realise that's what my point of difference is"
Success has opened the studio door more than a little, too. "I think I've become a bit less isolated when it comes to making music," he says. "I've learnt to love collaboration as much as I do sitting on my own and writing a song. Anything that feels new and different is what really excites me now." Even so, the album contains exactly one guest, KiLLOWEN, the west London storyteller who supported Songer's 2024 tour, shared last year's 'Motion Sickness', and turns up here on 'PLACES AND FACES'. "Despite being an incredibly talented artist, first and foremost, Killo is my friend," he explains. "We've been on tour together, spent countless time together, so the song was as organic as it gets. On albums, I've always preferred as little features as possible, but when it's somebody that you're close with, it's as personal as a solo track would be."
The record's accompanying notes carry his standing job description - "Not a rapper, not an MC, not a producer, not a singer, just someone who writes down stuff and puts it out to the world". Ask whether it took time to get comfortable defining himself on his own terms, and he bats the premise straight back. "I've always felt intensely comfortable with it," he says. "It's just taken a while for people within the world of music to realise that's what my point of difference is. An unwillingness to compromise on things that feel right to me."
Everywhere he's written about, he's Reading's own. The town's festival has watched him climb from ticket-buying punter to the 1Xtra Stage to last summer's Main Stage. He's happy with the billing, but with one correction. "I'm from Wokingham, which is just outside Reading, but Reading is almost the umbrella for everyone in the local area, across different towns under the same postcode. It's important because it's my identity; my friends, family and memories stem from what it's like to grow up in these towns."
"You've got one job, and that's to leave absolutely everything on the pitch"
Those towns also produced a Chelsea fan with the receipts to prove it - his early tracklists include songs actually titled 'Azpilicueta' and 'Fabregas Freestyle' - and the beautiful game has never. Asked for a favourite, he goes straight to 'WHAT'S THE PUNCHLINE', the new album's dedicated festival of them. "There's a lyric about being Nigel De Jong, because I was shabby (Xabi) with my feet up, referencing the Netherlands v Spain game," he says. "It's one of my favourite football bars I've ever written." For younger readers, during the 2010 World Cup final, Nigel de Jong planted his studs in Xabi Alonso's chest and somehow stayed on the pitch. The days before VAR embraced the chaos.
November sees Singer hit Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow, Dublin and Manchester before Brixton on the 28th. It's the biggest run he's ever booked, built on years of shows sold out through YouTube momentum and sheer word of mouth. "You're always learning on the job," he says, "but now I've experienced a massive variety of crowds, I've learnt that everything can go wrong, but it doesn't change the fact that you've got one job, and that's to leave absolutely everything on the pitch."
As for what comes after Brixton, he suddenly goes vague, which, for a man this direct, is suspicious enough to suggest it's something worth keeping both eyes on. "I've got some seriously special ideas for next year, but I don't want to say too much yet in case plans change. I've got something very cool in my mind about how I approach next year."
He signs off not with a plug, but a message. "Just for anyone that's reading this that's ever listened to one of my songs, a big thank you, and I really appreciate you."
Consider it mutual.
Songer's album 'WHAT IF I SAY NO?' is out now. He tours the UK and Ireland from 19th November, finishing at London's O2 Academy Brixton on 28th November.
Photography: Peter O Sullivan
Photography Assistant: @mmgoesgallivanting
In Collaboration With: Umbro
