You shouldn’t judge an artist by their stage name. British rapper Oscar #Worldpeace (surname unknown) may sound like the leader of an ill-fated Twitter campaign, but it’s clear that the Tottenham-born rapper is also a formidable talent.
Growing up in the same north London area as grime stars JME and Skepta, #Worldpeace was surrounded by the frenetic lyricism of that burgeoning scene, as well as his Ghanaian and Jamaican grandparents’ reggae records. Subsequently, his approach to music has been DIY: he got behind the mic in his cousin’s home studio and self-released his assured debut, Recluse, last year. Its engrossing blend of gritty production and nonchalant lyrical delivery caught the ears of his current mentor, Mike Skinner of the Streets, who has since released and remixed #Worldpeace’s tracks No Change and Right Now.
The rapper has said that his writing style is based on “what I’m going through, or what is going on today”. His latest EP, IC3 – the British police code for “black male” – addresses everything from police profiling to religious iconography. On I SEE he raps, “please don’t shoot/they running from police” over a plaintive piano, while the reggae-influenced No White God, which starts and ends with the sample of a woman saying: “being black is a responsibility”. Oscar #Worldpeace shoulders this responsibility with incisive music that delves beneath mere appearances into the knotty complexity of lived experience.
• Oscar #Worldpeace plays Lovebox festival, Gunnersbury Park, London W3, 13-14 July
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