New Music Friday: HYPHYN

We are back again with our latest #NewMusicFriday feature! This week we managed to catch up with the talented Sheffield rapper HYPHYN who just dropped a sick 6 track E.P. called “Off-Peak”

We linked up with HYPHYN and discussed his new E.P., his creative process and his biggest music inspirations… 👀

1. Who are you?

I’m HYPHYN, I’m 19, I’m from Sheffield and I’m a rapper and spoken word artist who’s been making music and performing for the past 3 years. I’ve been officially releasing music for about a year and a half.

2. Tell us about your next single release?

My new project is called “Off-Peak” and the premise of the E.P. is that it was made predominantly on trains because I was travelling a lot for work in the time of making the E.P. In the time that you’re on a train I felt like time sort of stops and there’s this weird in-between time where you’re not where your started, you’re not where you’re going. In that time a lot of people spend time on their phones or looking out the window and I used that time just to think about things and think about music. This E.P. was originally meant to be an album that I had about 15 songs recorded for but in the end I cut it down to 6 tracks and made it a short E.P. then I’m going to continue on to the album.

3. Your storytelling is impressive where is your inspiration coming from?

I guess it just comes from a place of always loving music. My step-dads a DJ and he’s put me on to some of my favourite artists like MF DOOM, Q-Tip and J Dilla, being in that environment growing up and watching my step-dad DJ, I’ve always been surrounded by good music and good storytellers. Other artists, like The Streets as well, who my dad put me on to, and more recent influence like Slowthai and Tyler the Creator have been constant influences that have helped me with my writing process and storytelling ability.

4. How did the pandemic influence your creative process?

As stupid as it sounds, the pandemic was pretty sick for me. As a creative it helped me to just block out any distractions away from music. My first E.P. was actually made in lockdown and the whole project was called “Quarantine”. In that time, I was just able to wake up and make music and that was how I spent my time in lockdown so lockdown was pretty sick for me creatively.

5. What’s next to come for HYPHN?

As I said earlier, this E.P. is a taster for the album which will be on the way very soon, I just need to keep on making music, refining it until it’s at a point where it’s ready to drop. So yeah album coming soon with lots of singles beforehand and more music videos to come as well.