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Rapper and musician Berwyn is once again on the Mercury Prize shortlist, this time for his debut album, Who Am I. It’s a remarkable work, where his powerful, socially astute lyrics simmer in a concoction of R&B, hip-hop, steel pan and Latin guitar. There’s even a nod to Irish drinking songs.
Born Berwyn Du Bois in Diego Martin, a town west of Trinidad and Tobago’s capital, Port of Spain, he migrated to Romford, England, aged nine. He’s had a right to remain in Britain since 2021, for which he had to write a letter reasoning why he should be permitted to stay, which influenced the alternative version we hear on the album, “Dear Immigration”.
“You give me a stomachache,” he raps, “You made me feel like a fugitive and a runaway/ I hate you for putting my mother away in Holloway/ You made me look in the mirror in horror/ You took away my tomorrows/ You made me despise the person standing in front of me.”
Berwyn was first shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2021, for his mixtape Demotape/Vega. He was notably eligible due to a change made after a campaign by Japanese-British artist Rina Sawayama, who objected to the rule that said nominees must have been resident in the UK or Ireland for more than five years.
Read our Q&A with him below:
I’m a busy mind, so I probably stopped thinking about the Mercury Prize two days after the shortlist was announced. I’m definitely disappointed it’s not a live ceremony. I don’t have any edge, otherwise! I checked the bookies and I’m like, second to least favourite. But I’m still excited and grateful.
My approach to the album was very calculated and meticulous. I sat down, wrote some words on a whiteboard and went from there. One of the most important [elements] on it is liberation and freedom, whether that’s pursuing it or achieving it. They’re notches in the spine of the album, and I wanted to tell a story in an abstract way, being liberal in my choices in genre, in lyrics, everything. Faith comes into quite a lot. For me it’s the most important thing in the world. If Apple sells technology, I sell faith. It’s in my storytelling, it’s the human experience, an instinctive reaction we have to the world around us.
“I Am Black” came to me while I was in the shower. I started singing what was in my head, got out and opened up my laptop. The first half was written then and there, and then the second took another nine months.
My immigration experience definitely still affects me – it’s going to take years of therapy to get through that. I think about the way it’s affected my peers. It’s stuck with me. It’s one of the most important stories on the album – there’s also a character on there, “the fugitive”, so I tried to express the fugitive mentality that lingers through life and alters or dictates the way you see things. I understand what it means to be absolutely restricted and deprived of your freedom, your humanity.
I feel like hip-hop used to be this really liberal space where you’d fight against the establishment. But hip-hop has left its golden era of liberalism, so I’m using my own narrative to try to reinstate that, and I hope that people who are trans, or migrants, or women, might find things to relate to, while I tell my own story.
There’s a lot of individualism and opportunism in the music industry. I’m so happy for [former Mercury Prize-shortlisted artist] Raye, for what she’s achieved. She’s waving the flag right now, her story is one of ‘don’t give up’, and she’s so talented – she’s facilitated a space where she can shine, and boy, she’s shining. She is testament to hope, belief, faith, true artistry, story-telling, and standing for something bigger than yourself.
Immigrants are the go-to scapegoat for everything that’s wrong in the UK. If the economy improved I’m sure we’d see a decrease in scaremongering [from politicians and the media]. This sounds weird, but I was almost relieved when the UK riots happened. People suspend their belief of racism in the UK, otherwise, they act like it doesn’t exist, or they doubt it. It’s somewhere between doubt and denial. So the riots reminded us that [racism] is still very much here.
I’m a junkie for politics, I’d like to be [a politician] one day. I can’t see myself dancing on a stage over the age of 35, that’s strange. I was going to do psychology at university – I actually snuck into lectures for two weeks, and I’d sit in the library and write everything down from psychology books. I had to turn down a lot of opportunities because of my immigration status at the time – an unconditional university offer, an audition for The Lion King in the West End…
I’m looking to get into my next project. I was speaking with Fred Again [who produced the song ‘Neighbours’] about some ideas, getting into a studio and just playing music, seeing what happens, so I’m looking at ways to facilitate that.
‘Who Am I’ is out now. The Mercury Prize 2024 winner will be announced tonight in a special broadcast on BBC Four
