INTERVIEW | RAPPER IZ — A NEW ERA OF HIP-HOP NOSTALGIA

By Nadiya Shay • On Interviews

UK rap­per IZ is mak­ing waves with his debut mix­tape A Step Up, blend­ing nos­tal­gic 2000s hip-hop vibes with today’s music­al land­scape. Known for his feel-good anthems and infec­tious energy, IZ has built a steady fol­low­ing, gain­ing recog­ni­tion for hits like Big Dreams and Not A Datty. Now, with A Step Up, IZ reflects on his music­al jour­ney, influ­ences, and the meth­od behind his mixtape’s nos­tal­gic yet fresh sound.

From the first listen, A Step Up trans­ports you to the 2000s era of hip-hop, a time when artists like 50 Cent dom­in­ated the air­waves. IZ’s track “Func­tion” dir­ectly chan­nels the icon­ic sound of “In Da Club,” but with a UK twist. For IZ, this approach was a delib­er­ate move to blend the famil­i­ar with his own sig­na­ture style.

“To be hon­est, it wasn’t that hard to put a spin on it,” IZ explains. “I approached mak­ing ‘Func­tion’ by put­ting a UK twist on a track I’d already released, ‘Not A Datty.’ I used that as a found­a­tion and built on it with my know­ledge of how to cre­ate a hip-hop banger.”

This nos­tal­gic approach is woven through­out A Step Up, with the mix­tape pulling inspir­a­tion from clas­sic dance films like Step Up and Honey. “Those films are etched into the hearts of many, no mat­ter the age or back­ground, because of their immacu­late vibes and unfor­get­table cho­reo­graph­ies,” IZ says. “The soundtracks to those films enhance the emo­tions you feel watch­ing them. I wanted my mix­tape to emu­late that same feel­ing, like you’re watch­ing a dance film.”

The release of Big Dreams was a turn­ing point for IZ, amass­ing over 2.5 mil­lion streams on Spo­ti­fy. But for IZ, the suc­cess of the track was more than just num­bers, it was a moment of clar­ity in his search for a con­sist­ent sound.

“‘Big Dreams’ was made as a test dummy for a new sound I was pur­su­ing,” IZ reveals. “It just happened that the first test dummy ended up being a crazy suc­cess. So from that, I thought it would be smart to cre­ate a whole mix­tape around that same vibe.”

With A Step Up, IZ takes the momentum of Big Dreams and elev­ates it, using the mix­tape as a vehicle to solid­i­fy his place in the UK music scene. “The mix­tape was made more meth­od­ic­ally than my pre­vi­ous work, which was often cre­ated on a whim or based on feel­ings,” he says. “By apply­ing more meth­ods to the mad­ness, I found a for­mula that worked for me.”

In today’s music industry, social media plays an undeni­able role in an artist’s suc­cess, and IZ is no stranger to this fact. Big Dreams inspired a vir­al dance trend, fur­ther amp­li­fy­ing its reach across plat­forms like Tik­Tok and Ins­tagram. IZ cred­its social media as a key factor in his growth, allow­ing him to con­nect with fans in ways that weren’t pos­sible before.

“Right now, social media is in the per­fect place for artists to find them­selves and their lanes without need­ing the tra­di­tion­al aven­ues of recog­ni­tion,” he says. “You just need a phone, a song, and relent­less pro­mo­tion, and some­thing will even­tu­ally click.”

IZ plans to lever­age the power of social media for his future releases, not­ing that adapt­ing to trends while main­tain­ing artist­ic integ­rity is cru­cial. “I believe adapt­ing to social media trends is a skill in itself, and it’s one I’ve adop­ted. I’ll keep using it because it’s got­ten me this far.”

With A Step Up, IZ’s ambi­tion is clear—he wants to chart in the Top 40, and even­tu­ally secure a No. 1 hit. The mix­tape, built around the suc­cess of “Big Dreams,” is his next step toward achiev­ing that goal.

“My next steps after the release are to keep pro­mot­ing the mix­tape con­sist­ently for a few months,” he shares. “I hope and pray that a few—or maybe all—of the songs have the same impact as ‘Big Dreams,’ or even better.”

For IZ, music is more than just a career; it’s a way to uplift and inspire oth­ers. His mix­tape focuses on feel-good vibes that make people want to dance, but it’s also about cre­at­ing music that brings joy to his listeners.

“I think it’s really import­ant to cre­ate music that uplifts people,” IZ says. “Nobody wants to feel down, and I believe music helps people escape neg­at­ive emo­tions. By keep­ing my music pos­it­ive and inspir­ing, I hope people con­tin­ue to listen to my music, wheth­er they want to build on their cur­rent hap­pi­ness or escape from negativity.”

As IZ con­tin­ues to carve out his place in the music industry, A Step Up rep­res­ents not just his per­son­al growth, but a blue­print for how he plans to dom­in­ate the UK music scene one feel-good, nos­tal­gic track at a time.

Listen to IZ’s new music HERE

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Nadiya Shay

Hip-Hop Journ­al­ist, full-time read­er and dreamer.

About Nadiya Shay

Hip-Hop Journalist, full-time reader and dreamer.