Interview: Lobé
Manchester based rapper and producer Lobé speaks in depth on his upbringing, hitting millions of streams, insights into his latest single Steph Curry, the direction he wishes to take in 2025 and more.
Born in Jamaica, Lobé lived in Cameroon before moving to London at age 5. When he turned 11, Lobé relocated to Manchester and has lived there ever since. “It is a little bit odd compared to other cities,” said Lobé. “Nothing out of the usual, it has got a good little underground scene up north.” From a young age, Lobé was passionate about expressing himself with music, thanks his older brother who was “the main catalyst in terms of influencing me,” reminisced Lobé. “We were living in London at the time, it was early 2000's so everyone and their Nan had a 16 bar - he was outside more with his boys rapping on the block and it was just one of them init, looking up to my older brother trying to replicate what he was doing.” Recording his first track aged 5, Grime music had a big impact on Lobé rapping but also heavily inspired his beat-making and production; in his own words, “That's the foundation of my whole thing,” said Lobé. He recalled taking his cousin’s iPod which had Wiley’s ‘Playtime Is Over’ album on, as well as his Mum’s webcam microphone in his first attempt at recording. “I remember listening to the album,” continued Lobé. “I loaded up Audacity and attempted to record a track - that was the first time I had any experience putting vocals on a beat.”
Fast forward to 2018, the year Lobé dropped his first single to reach a million streams; Skrrr - a single which resonated worldwide and solidified Lobés belief that he could truly make a career from music. “Skrrr was the song that put my name into the atmosphere,” said Lobé. “That's when I was like, 'Oh shit, I might be onto something.'” Since that release, Lobé has dropped multiple projects, including his first official mixtape Lucid Living, before transitioning with the Us Vs Them EP which featured his second song to “hit a mill,” the title track also called Us Vs Them. “That kind of shaped my sound from then onwards,” added Lobé. “I recently dropped L.I.E. - Love Isn't Enough a year and a bit ago I think.” A defining feature to these projects as well as them all being self-produced by Lobé himself is that they don’t contain many features, if any. “I am not too big on features to be honest, it is rare that man want to jump on a feature with me because it's long sometimes,” Lobé laughed. “But there is a lot of artists that I do fuck with nonetheless - Black Josh, Sleazy, Quade Poundsign, Haze Da Martian.”
When asked about his highlights over 2024, Lobé explained that he was less focussed on shows as he was still building up his audience first; once he reaches a point of feeling satisfied, he plans to set up a tour off his own back. “The highlight, it's…” Lobé paused, thoughtfully. “It’s making a song and then feeling satisfied as a creative, constantly chasing improvement. Last year was the first year where I looked back at the songs I dropped the year before and feeling like these are still hitting... So that is a satisfying feeling.”
Although Lobé gets a lot of love in Manchester, he admits he feels a bigger reception outside his city borders. Lobé feels this might be because although he has lived in Manchester for over half his life, he doesn’t rap in a ‘Manny’ accent, whereas London hears his music and it is “familiar to them,’ continued Lobé. “I was just saying this to Sleazy a few days ago when we got the tour bus down to London with Lola and then we went to Josh's show - as soon as I landed in Peckham and that, like, I'm walking around the street and man are showing me love - that happens in Manchester, but I don't think as much maybe because I live here, I don't really clock it too tough.”
Last month, Lobé stole the spotlight with the release of his single Steph Curry - an excursion away from his typical sound, but a hard-hitting single nonetheless with a headbanging instrumental underpinning the lyricism. “I'm very much a person that only makes music just for expression,” revealed Lobé. “So Steph Curry is really just me bigging myself up because... I have been on a mad run for the last year, I have got fans messaging me saying shit like 'Rah you never miss,' 'Bro is using Aimbot' and all these funny things. So I was just in the studio one day and came up with Steph Curry, because it's coming like I never miss right now.”
When asked if he had any more visuals lined up to drop, Lobé replied that although he has plans in the works alongside a videographer called Rob from RB Films, he doesn’t like dropping videos for the sake of it. “I like to put a lot of thought and effort behind it,” explained Lobé. “I would ideally want to do that knowing I have got an audience that are going to pay attention to it, rather than doing it in vain - like I said with the shows, I am trying to build that audience higher and build the hype up more around my name, where I can drop the video and do a decent amount of numbers on it.”
Still officially an independent artist, Lobé releases on his own platforms through an acronym called ‘2090’ which he explained was a “combination of 2000's and the 90's,” continued Lobé. “So the 90's being the past and the time I was born in and then the 2000's being the time I was raised in, then 2090 just being the future, so it is kind of a play on the past, present and future. Also, it is like a combination of the early 2000's culture, early 90's culture, how those combine to make the future.” The idea came to him when he was homeless as a teenager, living in a hostel “high out my nut, just sat thinking about stuff.” At the time he’d never imagined the support that 2090 would receive later in life, but he was always devoted to it since he and his friends had it tattooed on them in their teenage years. “Little bando tattoos and that,” laughed Lobé. “Then I made Skrrr where the hook is like, '2090 that's the gang,' then from there it just became a thing - I started seeing people in Australia getting tattoos of 2090 and people all around the world getting it tatted on them, so... It is more like a family I guess. Anyone you see me rocking with is 2090, whether they know it or not.”
As it stands, Lobé seeks to continue expanding his brand and has no plans to sign to a label anytime soon - “Not until I get the leverage to ask for a stupid number,” Lobé laughed again. When asked what else he has in store, Lobé replied “Truly I have got some crazy Summer tunes coming. I would say I am going back to my roots in some sense, coming into my Jamaican side and my Cameroonian, Nigerian side... Coming with the Afrobeats and Dancehall, still doing rapping and shit but just kind of showing my versatility. I have got one tune coming out soon called 'Millenial' that is just about bad b's that are millennials really - it's just a wavy one, it sounds hard. It came about from me just messing around and it ended up sounding good enough to release.” Lobé also revealed he had just opened a new studio in Manchester City centre; 2090 Studios. “So if anyone wants to come and get recorded by man, come through init,” added Lobé.
Lobé, thank you for your time.
Words by Evo
Photography by Dominika Orz