MM Exclusive Interview: Ceebo

Ceebo is one of the brightest lights in a UK underground scene that continues to rise in influence and recognition. Last year’s project, LAMBETHNOTLA, was demonstrative of the south London artist’s storytelling ability and socially conscious lyricism, featuring on MM’s One’s to Watch list and Projects of the Year list in the process.

This momentum has shown no signs of slowing down, with elite singles I Had a Line, Jook, and Pentecost of Living all arriving in 2025, as well as stellar features with Jordy and Afrosurrealist amongst others. I sat down earlier this year with Ceebo to discuss the importance of Lambeth in his art, the changing states of the UK underground, and his new project, Blair Babies.

There has been an obvious influence from growing up in Lambeth in your music. Can you tell me how that shines through?

Obviously I’ve been exposed to a melting pot of different music and cultures which have fed into my music. There was music that I grew up listening to and then there were things I was exposed to later on. Music from Jamaica, Somalia, Ethiopia, and obviously hip-hop as well. It’s all shaped the way I see music. 

Being in Lambeth specifically as well, it’s been such a hotspot for rap in south London. Whether it was drill, whether it was road rap, that all influenced me majorly in how I approach making a song. It changed the way I see music in terms of the things I prioritise. I’d be a completely different artist, or maybe not even an artist at all if I didn’t grow up in Lambeth.

On those influences of drill and road rap, where would you say your biggest musical inspirations come from?

I mean, when I was young, I really was not on this rap thing. I was in the house listening to Congolese gospel.  That was like the first, I don’t know, 10 years of my life. The only rappers I was cool with at that time were like 50 Cent and Kanye West, then in terms of my music and its initial influences you have people like Kendrick Lamar. From south west you have people like Loski and 410. I was 13 when that was happening so it was a big influence on me, particularly.

All of that kind of plays into the themes of your second project, LAMBETHNOTLA. What’s the meaning behind that title?

The title comes from a lyric from a song called Diamonds from Sierra Leone on my first project, Bluquet. I say something to the effect of ‘Lambeth not LA, we got push bikes and volvos, we aint got low-lows’. Essentially I feel like people in the music industry and people in general can centre on the Black American experience and aim to mimic and imitate it. That’s just not something I’ll do or have an interest in doing. It doesn’t really reflect my reality. 

The media we consume and the music we take in from America obviously has some overlap but there are profound differences based on the fact that we come from different social contexts. I’d rather reflect things that are true to me and for me, I don’t see America as the peak. I don’t think it should be the goal for Black British artists to try and ‘break’ America. I’d much rather tell my specific truths and appeal to those people that understand my specific truths.

That definitely shines through in terms of the geographical references on tracks like ‘ICARUS WAS A YOUT FROM BRIXTON’ and ‘TO LIVE AND DIE IN LAMBETH’, as well as the Wretch and Avelino sample on ‘DRY CRY’. What do you think resonates with people from that release?

I think perspective.  My greatest strength is storytelling, and I’m able to articulate a lot of the truths and feelings that come from having lived in the type of area that I lived in, as far as being working class, being a child of an immigrant, being somewhere that’s had a storied history of gang violence. I’m trying to navigate all of that as a young man and a child.

I think honestly, the warmth that’s on the tape as far as sonics and lyrical focus is something that’s refreshing to a lot of people. It’s something that’s not really present in the underground or even the mainstream of the UK. There’s not really a perspective that says even though I’m Black, I’m fond of these places. In spite of everything that being from here has put me through, this is my home regardless. Most of the time when people talk about their area, rappers specifically, it’s with a level of disdain. While I understand the sentiment that drives someone to that conclusion, I see it from the perspective that this is my whole journey. This is the only place I’ve ever lived, and it’s shaped me fully as a person.

The singles you’ve dropped this year, I Had A Line and Jook, it feels like your sound has shifted slightly. Would you agree with that?

Absolutely. I’d say previously there was more focus on the acoustic, live music driven by instruments. Now we’re taking a turn to I guess the more contemporary. That’s been an intentional choice based on the project I have coming up.

In terms of sonics for you personally, do you have a type of sound that you prefer making or do you like to pick and choose?

For me, I try not to get too attached to sounds. For whatever I need to communicate, whether that’s concepts and ideas or the feeling I want the audience to feel, I will pick the sound that best conveys that. I’m not an artist that’s gonna stick to one sound. I think I just have the inclination to explore more.

2025 has been a big year for the ‘UK underground’ which houses a lot of your contemporaries, including Jim Legxacy who co-produced your recent single Pentecost of Living. Do you as a collective feel like you’re blazing a trail for Black British music?

Yeah, I think all my contemporaries and peers are as far as my class goes. BBM is obviously the name of Jim’s project but he made it the name of his project because it’s a collective thing. It’s something that’s so much bigger than one person or even one collective. It’s a tapestry of things that go back years, far longer than we’ve been alive. 

I’m in that same vein in the same way that any artist who is getting play right now is, but it’s bigger than me saying I’m one of the most important figures in Black British music. Even if the day comes where that’s widely regarded to be the case, it’s always going to be a case of the collective. I wouldn’t be pushing my music in the direction I am if I wasn’t tuned to every nook and cranny of Black British music as it stands now, and that could only happen with the community oriented approach that I’ve taken to music.

I was reading your Substacks earlier and you had a really interesting perspective on the Wireless weekend. It was probably the weekend with the most eyeballs on the underground scene but there’s a clear dichotomy with the underground going mainstream. What does that mean for you?

The Wireless weekend meant that there were a lot of eyes on the scene that weren’t there before, and as I laid out in the article the logic of capitalism dictates that that’s a good thing. Growth is good, it means that the genre can grow and there’s multiple opportunities for each of the artists. There’s going to be a lot of artists that will have access to an audience that was previously untapped because of that and because of the discourse around the weekend. 

I suppose for me my reservations are that even though that’s the case, there are some at the top who are gonna be able to maneuver their ways, expand and solidify their careers, but the inherent structure of the industry as far as major labels, distros, are still hesitant to invest in Black British music. Anyone that streams well or gets buzz on TikTok means that that is a return on investment, so it kind of shifts the way we look at music. With that shift comes a changing of priorities and that dilutes what made the underground great in the first place. We move from the freedom of creative thinking to the limits of commercial thinking.

At the end of the day it’s just an inevitable part of the music industry because this is a business first and foremost. Because the actual structure of the industry hasn’t changed and it’s not going to change, this hype is just hype.

It’s cyclical right? Every genre from this scene starts underground, then hits the mainstream, and goes back round again. As you said earlier though your goal isn’t to be a transatlantic artist. As a ‘UK underground’ artist, what does success look like in your career?

I just want to get my career to a space where I have the ability to make the music I want. That’s to say I want to be able to play into my creative impulses completely and have a fan base that allows me to do that. I don’t really have any goals in terms of accolades or anything like that but this year has been the most promising one in terms of my career. If I stay on this path I’m gonna be an established artist. Even the milestones that I’ve achieved so far that I thought would matter to me – they don’t really. I guess success looks like making the music that’s important to me and taking care of my loved ones.

Your new project, Blair Babies, is dropping this week. How do you think being born into and growing up in Blair’s government has affected you and how has it inspired this release?

I was born in 2002 and the project reflects the canon of Black British music and the canon of history really. We’re just coming to be adults now. Everyone else born in his administration is a product of austerity, recession, and major social cuts. Everyone has been affected but especially those who grew up like I did as a child of an immigrant in an area with a prevalence for gang violence. 

There have been a lot of negative changes and as ‘Blair Babies’, we were also born right into the boom of social media. We are constantly fed a barrage of dopamine and we feed ourselves on escapism because life for us is bleak. The cost of living is soaring, wages are as stagnant as they’ve ever been and one in two Black British children are born into poverty. Our position isn’t getting better but we trick ourselves into believing like it is because of all the escapism we indulge in. 

This tape I suppose is a consistent push and pull with escapism and reality. I’m drawing back the curtain and showing that life is messy right now for all of us, not just me. I’m forcing people to sit with their feelings in the same way that I’ve had to sit with my feelings and process things in the making of this project.

Just finally, what would you like to get out of this project, and what are the next steps for you?

With this project, if things go the way I predict they will, it’s gonna put me in a different stratosphere. What started off as a pipe dream, as far as being a musician will be like a fully realized journey, and because of that I’ll have the license to do some of the things that I’ve been holding off on creatively. 

I want people to really sit with their feelings when they listen to it and inspire discourse. I want people to actually engage with what I’m saying and how I’m saying it. As an artist, it’s my responsibility to push the needle socially, but also as well to just raise the bar. I challenge my contemporaries to challenge themselves as artists. I feel like I’m getting to uncharted territory in my career so I can’t say what the future holds, but I know I’m ready for it all the same■

Ceebo’s new project, Blair Babies, is arriving on Thursday 13th November.