Gwamz Is Done Playing It Safe with 'Life of The Party' EP

If you heard South West London’s Gwamz 'French Tips' at a day party this summer, you probably caught the look. The one that says, who is this? then another one when Efosa's verse kicks in. It's the kind of song that makes you check your Shazam like it’s a reflex. But the real move wasn’t the single. It’s what is to follow.

For the last few years, Gwamz has been edging toward this moment. Close followers would’ve clocked the shift. There were flashes - early tracks where his cadence bent toward amapiano drums, or the confidence he carried on grimey basslines without ever fully diving into grime. But Life of The Party is the first time he sounds fully dialled in. The textures are brighter, the direction clearer. He’s not dabbling anymore he’s decided. And what he’s decided is that this scene needs a different kind of loud.

Gwamz has never claimed to be underground, but he’s also not reaching for formula. If anything, this new EP sits in that slippery middle lane: not boxed by a single sound, but anchored in a voice that knows exactly what it wants to say. What one notices with his music is that not every track is out to please. Some of them sting. The clever part in that is that we tend to remember the sting more than the pleasing moments - pain sits with us.

'HOT GURLZ' kicks the door open, all bounce and bravado, setting the tempo before the project really starts to unfold. 'VIBRATE' takes things up again, but in a smarter way - BXKS slides in with a verse that doesn’t just match the energy, it flips it. The chemistry isn’t accidental. These are two artists playing at the edge of what the UK scene is letting itself sound like, and they’re making it look easy. It’s not.

Then there’s 'YAGI,' give us whats left after you remove the high hats - what’s left is space. He knows the contrast is doing the work for him. It’s a track that quietly challenges the idea that this project is just here to make you move. It’s also here to make you clock the silence after the song ends.

Amapiano’s fingerprints are all over Life of The Party, although it isn’t a genre exercise - it’s instinctive. The beats slide, shimmer, stutter. There’s polish, but no one’s trying to impress you.. Gwamz sounds most comfortable when the production sits just a little off-centre - or so is my observation.

Part of what makes this project feel sharp is how it never gets too comfortable. One minute you’re coasting through a hook, the next you’re catching a line that cuts a little deeper. Gwamz doesn’t make a point of being ‘vulnerable,’ but it’s there - in phrasing, in space, in restraint.

And then there’s the fact that people are watching. Skeete brought him on tour. DJ Semtex and Ellie Prohan spun the singles. All suggesting an industry attention that’s rare at this stage. Especially for an artist doing something that doesn’t sit neatly on a playlist algorithm.

It feels and sounds like Gwamz is testing what he can get away with. The Ghanaian rhythms, the South London phrasing, the confidence to let a beat ride a little too long before jumping in - all of it feels like a dare. Not to the listener, but to the space he’s operating in. Can it stretch to make room for this? Maybe that was his thought process during the recording?

I also feel like there’s a version of this project that could’ve been safer. That one might’ve streamed better, landed more syncs, chased TikTok. Gwamz didn’t make that one. He made the one he had to make now. Which means the next one could go anywhere.

That’s the real question this EP leaves you with: what happens when you stop trying to get in the room and start designing the party yourself?