Voice of London

Words: Isabella Dawe | Subbing: Lavinia Petrucci

We caught up with rapper and producer Harry Dirtface to talk about his upcoming release ‘The Joyride’

Harry Dirtface, formerly known as Dirty Harry, is a Nottingham-born hiphop artist with a unique and eccentric style. Tracks titled ‘Sloppy Toppy’ and ‘Leanwithmycrew’ paint him as a drug-taking, womanising, trap-inspired rebel. But his impressive self-made instrumentals and clear influences from genres including punk, rock and blues make him one to watch in 2018.

You recently started dropping tracks from your first project, The Joyride. What can you tell us about that?
The joyride is about me living life, taking some drugs here and there. There were some tracks that I had, I threw them together and got some nice art work drawn up.

What kind of music do you listen to?
I like some Portishead, Beck, Ab-Soul and the rest of TDE. I like some Erykah Badu, a few different things.

That’s quite varied, so you listen to lots of different genres?
Sort of, yeah. There’s this band called The Mile High Club – they got this crazy album, that sh*t just makes me feel good. I like to feel good when I listen to music

Do you think your music makes people feel good?
Uhhh, I’d like to think so. I’m still working on getting my vibe right, and I have made some depressing music lately. I’ve been experimenting with punk sh*t, music that makes you feel something.

I heard you recently started studying at university, tell us about that 
I’m studying Commercial Music – I wouldn’t consider myself a commercial artist but I’m just trying to study and further my craft a little more. I want to get my production up to a high, high standard. I’d like to be able to mix and master like a pro

So you’re into being independent as an artist?
I like to work on my own stuff, and I also really like to make music with my friends. I haven’t even really thought about labels either, it’s crossed my mind but I’m on some independent sh*t. I like to have creative control over my stuff and I don’t like to be told what kind of music to make. Sometimes I might want to make music about suicide, other days I might want to make a feel-good track. I like being able to do what the f*ck I want without being forced to make hits all the time. I don’t really see myself as a hit maker.

You also moved to London recently, what bought you here?
My girl *laughs*. Nah, university really. I just wanted to kind of get out of Nottingham and escape my comfort zone because I’ve been there for a long time. And even though I have settled down here now, I’m enjoying being in a new environment with new surroundings and new people.

What can you see yourself doing in the next five years?
I’d like to continue what I’m doing now – making music, smoking weed and preferably not working. I’d like to make a little money off the music, enough to eat. And then I can just live in the studio, that’ll be fun.

If you could work with one producer, who would it be?
Maybe Kanye. He’s just unpredictable, you never know what he’s going to do

The first six tracks of The Joyride are available on Soundcloud now, look out for the full project on Spotify and Apple Music sometime this month.