JD’S IN THE DUFFLE BAG PODCAST | AITCH: “I’VE FIGURED OUT WHERE MY LANE IS AND WHAT I NEED TO DO”

Aitch — real name Har­ris­on Arm­strong — was a guest on this week’s In the Duffle Bag pod­cast, as the show by lead­ing sports fash­ion retail­er JD made its return.

The rap­per appeared on the very first epis­ode of In The Duffle Bag back in Octo­ber last year.

Twelve months on, the Man­cuni­an musi­cian from Moston exuded a more relaxed and exper­i­enced vibe than the fresh-faced kid we’ve seen in the past.

In con­ver­sa­tion with Chuck­ie again, the 20-year-old spoke about how he has built on his ini­tial suc­cess by fig­ur­ing out where his “lane” is in the industry, he said: “I feel like when it comes to music, when it comes to work, I don’t feel like I’m in the fig­ur­ing out stage.

“I’m not going to say I’ve figured out the game, no one has figured out the game.

“I figured out where my lane is and what I need to do and I’m still learn­ing things in the booth.

“The music side of things isn’t a worry or noth­ing (sic) like that.

“When it comes to nor­mal life, that isn’t either, it’s more just a case like I’m grow­ing up, some­times I for­get how young I am.

“I also think I’ve grown up quite fast, I feel like I am a bit older in my head than I actu­ally am.”

Music artists who go on to estab­lish them­selves inev­it­ably arrive at a cross­roads where they either stick to their guns or veer their sound in anoth­er dir­ec­tion — this is no dif­fer­ent for Aitch — who admits after he released his third EP Polar­is earli­er this year, he “can’t please every­one” with his music: “It’s mad for any rap­per, for any artist, you can’t please every­one, you can’t make every­one happy, because there was a big per­cent­age of my fan base say­ing ‘he just keeps rap­ping about the same thing from day one’ it’s always this, it’s always that.

“What do I do if I start rap­ping about this, you’re all going to call me a liar.

“It all comes back to the thing of there is no right or wrong way to do this thing, you can stand there and be like ‘my fans like me for me so I’m stay­ing me’, but the fans also like whatever’s hot.”

“It is a bit harder for the street rap­pers because you come out, you chat about the streets, the real­ness, all the man on the street.

“It’s good and you keep the streets happy, from the artist’s point of view them man (sic) are think­ing ‘this is nice and the streets need me but I’m not allowed in this ven­ue I’m not allowed in there’, you’re get­ting offered money, you’re about to come off the road but the label are say­ing ‘you need to do this’.

“These men (sic) are think­ing ‘so what am I going to do please all these people in the streets who I don’t even know?’.

“You don’t want to let the streets down or the man­dem or the estate, you don’t want to let your­self down.”

Apple Pod­casts Link: In the Duffle Bag

JD’s blog — blog.jdsports.co.uk/in-the-duffle-bag-s3-ep1-with-aitch/

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds

Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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