Ten tracks that show the evolution of Big Zuu’s music

Remember Remember

 Big Zuu released his self-titled “Big Zuu” EP in 2017 and the record sounded fully formed. Arriving with six grime smashers and not a filler track in sight, the EP continued the intense shelling and technicality Zuu had built over the past few years while introducing a melodic side to his work, one which he would continue to build upon in the future. The addition of the voice as an instrument to ‘Remember Remember’ is much like the intangible science of a reload. It’s hard to explicitly express, but it sounds right. Every element – from the way the voice sounds to the way it meshes with the instrumental – comes together to create something special. It may be the brevity of Zuu’s words, as he talks about his council-estate upbringing or importance of family, both blood-related and chosen.

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Swag On Riddims

‘Swag On Riddims’ is a track taken from Zuu’s “Hold Dat” EP. Released in 2018, it featured more brain-busting grime and some genre-blending forays over the short four-track run time. ‘Swag On Riddims’ is produced by UK super-producer Nyge, a connection built through AJ Tracey and the MTP crew that the two artists are part of. Zuu has grime running through his veins and he’s someone that pushes the genre relentlessly. Despite this, he does make tracks that venture into the realm of UK Rap, and this one is one of his best. What’s key to making tracks like ‘Swag On Riddims’ so good is that, whatever tempo or mood of the beat, Zuu sticks to his tried and tested lyrical style, showing that artists don’t have to deviate from their core style when they want to dabble in something a little different to the norm.

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B.I.G

“Content With Content” is Big Zuu’s first full-length project, a mixtape released in 2018. By this time, Zuu had fully settled into the half rapping and half-singing style he’d been building in the previous years. The argument could be made that ‘I Know’ should be on the list, as it featured Craig David, surely the biggest collaboration Zuu has done in terms of raw star power. But ‘B.I.G’ is a stronger track, featuring a huge chorus that felt primed to hit the festivals and shows that summer.

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Fall Off (ft JME)

When a grime emcee from the modern era makes a track with one of the scene’s originators, it’s an undoubted milestone and mark of respect. Before ‘Fall Off’, Zuu had worked with the likes of P Money and appeared on radio sets with a few influential emcees, but a feature with JME has to be one of the highest marks of credibility an artist can achieve in the genre. At the time of writing, ‘Fall Off’ has over four million streams on Spotify, making it one of Zuu’s most popular tracks.

In some ways, Zuu is the JME of his generation. The two artists are both extremely committed to the ideals they express through their music. For JME it’s a sense of individuality and a life spent against the grain; for Zuu it’s the use of his own experiences to detail the inequalities in society and passing on the knowledge he has learnt to his fans. The two are firmly devoted to pushing grime music, unconcerned with pivoting to whatever trend is dominating the charts. While Zuu has experimented with sounds beyond the grime scene, the various radio shows he has presented over the years have been a place for him to play music and host sets with not only his peers but the grime scene in the U.K and beyond.

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The Struggle

Released in 2019 and taken from the “We Will Walk” EP, ‘The Struggle’ is a breathtaking lyrical marathon, where Zuu takes the current government to account and puts various societal ills to right. Like a surgeon in the operating theatre, he cuts into the fabric of the government, criticising them over Brexit and asking why their perception of young people from a certain class is rooted in one-dimensional stereotypes.

‘The Struggle’ is a natural extension of the subject matter he discussed on his SBTV freestyle and ‘Kaleidoscope’. He imagines a different world for himself, his peers and the people that listen to his music, by discussing how it doesn’t matter if you don’t fit into rigid stereotypes and that you can go beyond the constraints that society places on you through class or colour, using self-developed talents to create a better life for yourself and the people around you. It’s a one-two punch: he critiques the government and then shows his audience how they can beat the people that fail to acknowledge their right to live in society.