Brandon Veron Nembhard (@brandonnembhard) is a 26-year-old rapper from the UK. He’s well known for his originality and style of rapping on vibey beats, always with good energy and a smile on his face. He gives a really visual cinematic image to his audience, mixed with a great fashion sense. We’ve been following him since the beginning of his career, and we were able to chat with him in a quaint cafe in South Bank, London.
Text & photos by Claudia Segura @claudiamsegura
When and how did it all start? Since I was a kid, I was involved in music, but I started taking it seriously 2 years ago, using it as a release. When I was a kid, I had behaviour problems, started with the clarinet, and saw that music helped me calm down. I also did some talent shows in Jamaica and New York. I got the confidence to start singing from my mum. She has always been a passionate singer, and I took from her this confidence to sing and do my thing.
When did you come to live in London? I was born here and at 10-11 moved to Jamaica until 18, then lived in New York for a couple of years, and then moved back here. I came back with my family first and then just stayed by myself in London.
Did you want to be a rapper when you were a kid? My uncle put me into rap, hip hop culture, graffiti, New York new era… I was writing poetry at the time, but my uncle showed me the fundamentals of rapping, to throw bars and lines “shoutout to my uncle”. I didn’t always want to be a rapper, but it was always a cool idea to me.
Biggest inspiration in the music industry? Earl Sweatshirt, André 3000, and Skepta
Any artist that you admire? Strandz and Celeste
Dream collab with a singer or rapper? Kendrick, one of the Marley’s probably Skip, Skepta or Jeremy definitely
If you weren’t doing music, what do you think you would be doing? Anthropology if it wasn’t something creative, the history of the Caribbean for sure, it’s a really interesting subject for me, having been able to see it from my own eyes. But if it was a creative thing, it would be cinema.
Do you think that TikTok made you blow up? It’s coming to a question of was it TikTok or Instagram really, TikTok is great, but engagement comes true on Instagram. TikTok kick-started things and got people interested, and then it drove people to Instagram. It got active on there, Instagram maintained it, but yeah, either two.
Any dream to achieve? I would love to create spaces for people that don’t have resources to achieve their dreams, in Jamaica or here in London. Jamaica taught me that you can have all the talent and creativity in the world, but if you don’t have the resources or opportunity, there’s not much you can do.
And seeing it from a London perspective, when you grow up surrounded by opportunities, you kind of overlook it in a way because you take it for granted because you don’t know the lack of it. When you think about the rest of the world and why everyone wants to come here or the US, it might not even necessarily be because the standard of living here is significantly higher, even though that’s often a fact, but it’s more also the fact that if you have the drive to do something, you could get something done here. And as opposed to in other countries, even if you do have the drive and ability, it’s incredibly difficult.
The world, and even more if you don’t have the resources, is ruled by connections and opportunities. Getting back to talking about TikTok and Instagram, these platforms have broken that barrier that regardless of where you are, you can make something happen. So yeah, I would love to create spaces for people to be able to do that and have opportunities, creating a company or a non-profit or even a place like owning a building and hosting something, all that in general.
Best piece of advice that you ever received? My dad always told me this when I grew up, and it’s a weird one to me because I didn’t directly listen to that: “Do what you need to do before you do what you want to do”. That makes sense to me now, but I always rejected it. Like I hear that, but I haven’t really done it that way, but it does make so much sense for me.
Craziest experience in your career? I don’t have any crazy ones yet; it’s only been 2 years, but I would say that people are nicer than what you think they are. In UK rap it can sometimes feel like “if you’re not in the group, we don’t care about you”, that’s what we all think at first place when you’re starting, but I changed my opinion now because I met a few people, Nemz for example, has been one of them, and many people have shown me that that’s not necessarily true. People are nicer than what you sometimes think they are in this industry. Of course, we have a lot of different people and ways, but it changed my mind seeing really nice and supportive people inside the industry that do like what you do, and don’t have a problem saying it. “You can be successful and still be a kind person” like people have adopted that you don’t have to be like that if you’re successful. Like what does it mean to be famous? It all falls apart at some point if you’re not a decent person.
QUICK QUESTIONS: Fav movie: 7, Interstellar, The Departed, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and TV show the first 3 seasons of Lost Fav music style: Reggae Song on repeat right now: Tame Impala: The Less I Know the Better A song you don’t get tired of ever since years: Can I Kick It (A Tribe Called Quest) Fav clothing brand: Needles (Japanese) and UK Stone Island, I like when they do experiments with it, not the default If you could bring back to life any artist, who would it be? Big L (around his time though)
The 15th of august Brandon released his new track and visuals ‘CEILING’:
A track that gives power to self-awareness and authenticity, talking about decisions, paths and potential outcomes of different choices. This single follows the announcement of his forthcoming EP: If not now, when? Set for release October 10th