In Conversation with SB
- Valentina Reynolds
- Jun 4
- 5 min read
Milton Keynes isn't a city that gets written about that often. It doesn't have the postcode mythology of South London or the grit-lit romance people project onto Manchester. It's roundabouts and retail parks and a lot of people quietly getting on with it. SB is one of them. Started rapping with his face covered and then one day just... took the mask off. 'Whipwork' dropped and suddenly there's a face to go with the voice. We sat down to find out why, whats next and to get to know who SB, the man behind the mask really is.
When you dropped 'Flyback' in 2021, you came in with this fully formed sound - hypnotic flutes, flows that switched up, the whole thing just worked. Had you been working toward that moment for ages, or was it more spontaneous?
So when I dropped Fly Back, I was working on my drill sound for quite a while. I had quite a few different songs that I was experimenting with, put different flows on. And yeah, Fly Back just seemed to work best at that moment in time.
The chorus, I actually adapted from a drum and bass hook that I'd ripped and I basically slowed it down a bit and put it onto a drill beat and it just seemed to work. I showed a few people the song and everyone seemed to be happy with it. So that's just the one we went with to kick start off the SB career.
The "pedal bikes to whips" narrative runs through everything you talk about. That's the whole story, right? But I'm curious where that starts for you personally. What was actually happening before Flyback that made you ready to come out with something like that?
So the pedal bike to whip narrative gives you a rough gauge of where I've started to where I've become. It's kind of giving you an understanding that, yeah, I was a young boy on my estate riding around on my bike, getting up to things, and how I've changed and evolved out of that person. And now I'm a man, and I'm doing other things. I'm trying to elevate my life. And yeah, kind of just gives you a rough understanding that I've grown from a boy to a man.
You've been masked up in pretty much every video since you started - Flyback, Bingo, P.B.K. Now you've ditched the mask completely. That's not a small move. What changed for you, and why was it the right time to show your face?
So I started my music journey as a masked rapper, and I thought at the time, because of the style I was pushing, it correlated to just everything that was going on. And I didn't really want to have my face out in the open just yet. I was still experimenting with music.
But now I've got this far into my career, and my style was kind of evolving and changing. And I've grown more as a person. I feel like it's time to just let people know who's the real SB. So yeah, I feel like it was time to take off the mask and try to put something new.
Whipwork is 200 BPM. Detroit influence. It's a totally different pace from what people know you for. Walk me through how that track came about and what made you want to go somewhere that aggressive and cinematic?
So Whipwork came about just by me experimenting in the studio with my producer. I already had a couple of songs that were on more of the Detroit style of beats and more on the real rap side of things, so we thought we'd just expand on that and create something that was a bit more captivating for the listeners and a bit more hard hitting.
So yeah, that's how Whipwork came about, and we just thought we would give it a go, give it a release. The feedback's been good. So yeah, I feel like we're gonna try and stick with the more Detroit style of beats from now on and move away from the drill.
You've got Benny The Butcher cosigning you, features in your videos, real US connections building. How did that happen? And how much are you actually thinking about the US market versus just focusing on what's happening in the UK?
So the Benny the Butcher co-sign came through my manager Varns. He was linked in with another rapper from the New York area called Rome Streets. He managed to get me on a couple of Rome Streets' shows, doing a supporting act for him, and then I think he got into contact with Benny the Butcher's management and managed to get me on a few of his shows as well. So yeah, big shout out to Varns for that.
From 'Flyback' to 'Whipwork' - that's like five years of releases, videos, momentum. But it's not just quantity. Your sound has evolved. What's changed in how you approach making music, and what are you actively trying to do differently now compared to 2021?
I wouldn't say much has changed in how I approach making music, just more the music itself has changed. I still do the exact same things to get in the right frame of mind or the right flow state to be able to make all these songs, but just the way the music sounds has now changed.
So from 2021 till now, I've been a bit inconsistent with my music. I've had a few things going on in my life, but from now, I'm trying to just be more consistent, more persistent, and yeah, just trying to push the music as far as I possibly can.
You work with Tremaine a lot on visuals, you've got producers like Stacks handling the beats. How much of your vision is coming from you versus trusting the people around you to know what you want? And do you ever disagree on direction?
I've worked with Tremaine since my first video, so our dynamic is pretty good. He's a good director as well, and we get on, and his visuals are absolutely out of this world. So yeah, it's been good working with someone like Tremaine. And Stacks (Stacksproducer) is my only producer.
He produces all my songs, any songs that you see released by me, yeah, Stacks has probably produced it. He is an absolute wizard on the laptop, and he's probably one of the best producers I've known. He can create all types of sounds and do all different types of things. And don't get it twisted, he's a good rapper as well. So that's a secret, nobody knows... yeah, thought I'd bait him out a little bit.
Whipwork feels like it's setting up something bigger. What's the actual plan? Are you working on a project, or are you just releasing singles and seeing where it goes? And what do you actually want the next year to look like?
The plan moving forward, I feel like I'm gonna use the rest of this year just to release some freestyles and more singles and get people to have a rough understanding of what I can actually do and how versatile I can actually be.
And then hopefully next year, we can push a mixtape or a few collabs, because I haven't collaborated with any artists yet. And yeah, we can see something bigger from SB. But for now, we're just gonna stick to the singles and the freestyles and just give the public a bit more of a better understanding of what SB can do.