“Been in the scene for less than a year/And I’ve gone clear/I want thirty bags for a feature/Standard procedure/Don’t be a puppy,” Pozer spits with raw intensity in the opening bars of his latest single, “Puppies”. “You liked that, yeah?” he asks, smirking. “It felt right to say.”
In front of me in Balham Soho House in late August, the rapper’s demeanour is far from the outsized personality that he possesses on his tracks. He’s reserved – almost shy – with a preference for speaking in short, direct sentences. He seems more comfortable listening than talking, allowing others to dominate the conversation while he carefully observes.
His confidence in his voice is unmistakable, bolstered by the fact that he became the first UK rapper to have his first two singles chart simultaneously in the UK charts — no small feat for an artist still in the infancy of his career. But “Puppies”, for Pozer, is more than just another song. It’s a statement of intent. “I’ve worked very hard to be here,” he says of his rise. “Everything else before was an introduction.”
Growing up in an estate in Croydon, south London, as the eldest of 11 siblings — he has ten younger sisters — Pozer slipped easily into the role of older brother. “I was very responsible,” he says. “I wouldn’t call it a burden. Pressure makes diamonds, and even before the rap, I was under pressure.”
Pozer’s first foray into music came from informal cyphers with friends. “We’d just spit bars on the way to places, but no one was recording anything,” he says. “I didn’t do open mics, and I didn’t go to many concerts.” When most of his peers were out partying or hitting the club, Pozer stayed home. “My parents always wanted to know where I was, so I kept it low-key,” he says. “When I should have been out partying, I was working, writing. My music is my life.”
“I was working and this man recognised me from TikTok. I couldn’t get my head around it.”
Pozer observed the stark wealth disparity that existed in London, and how “the fine line between having and not having” influenced everything around him; that divide would go on to drive him to keep his head down and write about his experiences and his life. “Life moves fast,” he says. “Either you’ve got money, or you don’t, but you learn from the struggles: I wrote about my day-to-day, about the experiences I’ve been through.”
A series of freestyles in 2018 on TikTok found Pozer a bit of a following. There were early comparisons to UK heavyweights like Fredo, Nines and Skrapz. With gritty beats and raw lyricism, his sound echoed the sounds of Chicago drill pioneers like Chief Keef, Lil Reese and Young Chop. But it was the breakout hit “Kitchen Stove”, released this past February, that truly established Pozer’s place in the UK rap scene, peaking at No 22 on the singles chart. Two months later, he followed it up with “Malicious Intentions”, a sharp, sleek track that landed at No 41.
These two songs touch on the quintessential Pozer style: music that blends the kinetic energy of Jersey club with the realism of UK drill, creating a sound that’s tense and visceral, and which prioritises ceiling-threatening basslines. “I can just hear it – the pocket. I’ve always had that ability. Play anything, even Rick James, and I’ll find the pocket to rap over it,” he says. “Writing has always come naturally to me. Music was always loved in my family, but no one took it seriously. I did.”
True to that bravura, Pozer’s flow feels effortless, but it communicates vivid depictions of the life he’s left behind: “I sauced my first blade at nine / At the age of 12, slap bine, 15, beat a court case,” he raps on “Kitchen Stove”.
After the success of his first two singles – as well as a warm response to their follow-up, “I’m Tryna”, the veil between fame and obscurity started to wear thin. Suddenly, Pozer was leading a double life: working at a paint store while also seeing a new path unfold before him. “It was crazy, you know,” he says. “One day, I was at the store and this grown man recognised me, and said, ‘I see you on TikTok.’ I couldn’t get my head around it because a lot was happening very quickly.”
He’s now found himself in increasingly rarefied spaces: earlier this year, Pozer was in Paris for fashion week, hanging out with AJ Tracey, a longtime inspiration. “When I first heard him, I was like, ‘Oh, he’s hard’,” Tracey says. “Reminds me of me a lot: deep voice, that cadence and flow, clarity where you can hear every word. It sounds like proper British music.”
When Tracey and Pozer met, Tracey gave him a piece of advice: to take care of his newfound wealth by learning financial literacy skills. “I’m not trying to big bro him,” Tracey says via phone interview. “He’s his own man, but I just thought it would be helpful if I say to him, ‘Yo, look, there are a couple of the things that you need to be working on to make sure that all this success that you’re due to have, God willing, the funds are channelled into the right places.’
“It’s very important that I pass that on to people who are going through the same kinds of motions,” he continues. “When I was younger and I was coming up, no one did that for me, bro. It’s about paying it forward.”
For Pozer, who spent his first paycheck from music on “rent, buying out JD and Foot Locker”, it was wise counsel. “Rap doesn’t last forever,” says Tracey. “So you need to make sure that you know on the flip side you’re good, otherwise you don’t want it to be for nothing.”
Even as Pozer’s star has risen, he’s stayed committed to perfecting his craft. Every detail, whether in his music or his visuals, is meticulously planned. “I know who I am and what I’m trying to get across. I set the foundation, and my team and I build from there. We’re perfectionists, always pushing ourselves to raise the bar,” he says. “Whether it’s a Jersey beat or something different, it has to be at 110%.”
“You can see both worlds at once,” he says, “and if you’re paying attention, you figure out what’s right for you. I saw both sides—working a nine-to-five, getting a job, sitting there, doing it. But I also saw the other path, and that didn’t work for me either. So, I carved out my own lane.”
Credits
Text: Dhruva Balram
Photography: Nelta Kasparian
Fashion: Louis Prier Tisdall
Grooming: Tariq Howes
