Meet Sidders, a super talented 24-year-old rapper from North West London who's making waves in the UK rap scene. Blending his talents as a singer, songwriter, and rapper, Sidders crafts a unique sound that pushes the boundaries of free-form hip hop.
Drawing inspiration from his diverse influences and city upbringing, he creates music that resonates effortlessly with listeners.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Sidders and delve into his musical journey, and explore the story behind this rising star!
Who is Sidders?
Sidders myself as an artist? Big question. I think “Sidders” is fun and playful, if he was a colour he would be a warm orange.
As an artist I like spreading positivity and joy. I love making music that I listen to myself and that hopefully is an extension of me.
I’m an artist from Northwest London, very influenced by growing up in a big city, kind of uniquely cultivated in my own experience but something hopefully that people can lean on and, I don't know, see a bit of themselves in. I like to think I take joy from little things and don't take everything too seriously.
What did you do to get to your first 1,000 monthly listeners/ when did people really start listening to you?
I think my first 1,000 monthly listeners came from when I first started releasing music on SoundCloud. Originally, I started putting out beats then as a form of development, I started making music on the beats and it would get like a couple hundred plays but nothing crazy. Then I started putting my voice on it and it gained a little bit more traction. I dropped a track called “Kyoshi Drifting” and it got like 70K listens on SoundCloud. I guess that was my first 1,000 monthly listeners.
But I really noticed the traction when I did collabs like on SoundCloud. I did a collaboration with a few friends of mine, Karl Blarks, this guy called Kay The Infinite, and Natty Wylah.
So I think to get your first 1,000, you just need to put your music out there, experiment and find your sound I guess.
You position yourself very well on social media, how do you do that?
Social media is a difficult one because I feel like it takes a long time to build the confidence to be able to post or have an organic representation of yourself.
In the beginning I found it very hard to promote on social media or even post on social media at all because all I wanted to do was be in the studio and make music.
Even now I feel like I could be doing so much better, but I think being comfortable comes from practicing, putting stuff out there and realising that it's not that deep.
What do you think sets you apart from other artists in your space?
I think inherent in every artist will be some type of naivety that “what we make is different to what everyone else makes”. But I think what sets me apart is a mixture of everything that I've listened to growing up.
I have the UK hip-hop influence but the singing and ballads are to do with all of the indie music and R&B that I used to listen to with my mum when I was growing up.
I think that is the beautiful thing about art, is that it's never the same, it's always going to be different. So I think what sets me apart is...playful originality.
So your track “Breathe” got over 2M streams, are there any key strategies that you did to achieve this?
The funny thing about “Breathe" is that it wasn't even the headline, it wasn't even the main song on the EP that I wanted to push. I pushed “Amaroon”, and a couple of other tracks on the EP.
With “Breathe” I pitched it well to Spotify and luckily it got a couple of playlists and then through that it was just a snowball effect.
I'd say in terms of specific tactics to make it succeed, there wasn't really, it just kind of connected with people and they liked it.
What is the biggest challenge that you're facing in your career?
I think the challenge as a creative is keeping up with how to market yourself and the best ways of putting your music out there.
At the end of the day you could have the best music but if it sits on your laptop it doesn't do anything.
So it's keeping up with the best ways of putting stuff out and connecting with people on socials and hopefully reaching people who haven't heard your music already.
What's the one thing that you think other artists should know?
I think there's a lot of people who think that they know how the industry works and think they know what they should do. They follow a template of “what you need to do to get a successful song”. I would say, stick to your guns. If you like the music that you make, put it out there and push it with everything that you have. No one's opinion is any better than yours so believe in yourself you'll do it.
Do you have any shows or new releases coming up that we should know about?
We're planning a launch party for the latest project early October, which will be a listening party/ a launch/ headline show.
This project is called “After Hours” and it's basically a follow-up of everything that I've been working on in the last year! The next single is called “Hero's Disease” and that'll be coming out in August.
Keep an eye on his socials and be the first to listen to his latest track this August! You can find Sidders on IG here.
Do you have music you're releasing, a fanbase you're building and want to reach new ears and eyes with marketing and promo that slaps? Try out the un:hurd music app or contact the team!
Written by Emily Heffernan
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