Verbz

Verbz is a Croydon rapper and vocalist whose route into drum and bass began with the same friendships that underpin his hip-hop work. His partnership with Brighton producer Mr Slipz produced Lessons of Adolescence in 2017, followed by the High Focus album Radio Waves in 2020. Framed as a radio broadcast, with skits and phone-ins woven through the songs, that record gave his writing room to develop across a full-length project.

Mr Slipz also introduced him to Mindstate. Verbz subsequently appeared on Dogger and Mindstate’s Different Roads project for The North Quarter, where the producers gave him both a stripped-back introduction and a drum and bass track. It was an approach that let the words lead, carrying his rap background into a different rhythmic setting.

That relationship continued on Every Part Of Me, the Anile and Mindstate collaboration featuring XIVA. Mindstate recalled Verbz coming to the studio and writing his verse in around half an hour, an example of the easy working chemistry behind the record. Alongside those drum and bass connections, Verbz has continued building his own rap catalogue, including Sight Beyond Sight with Nelson Dialect and THE WAY FWD on High Focus.