PROPH: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

South Lon­don has a rich tra­di­tion of pro­du­cing some of the most primer eng­lish voices in Hip Hop which is due in part to the val­ues and eth­os the birth­place of grime music embod­ies, grit, determ­in­a­tion, and resilience.

All of that is per­fectly encap­su­lated in the dynam­ic tal­ent that is Proph. Com­ing out of the Thor­ton Heath sec­tion bor­ough, Proph found him­self in music at age 13 and began to form­ally study and write vari­ous mater­i­al which also included find­ing his voice through rap.

He is a self made and self pro­duced artist whose ver­sat­il­ity makes him unique among a crowded field of mod­ern day rap­pers where unique­ness is hard to come by. His whole body of work is a reflec­tion of his inde­pend­ent spir­it and show­cases him as a whole per­son who isnt the least bit shy to express his emo­tions in a vari­ety of capacities.

His break­through came this year with the release of his single “High Horse” which garnered over 100,000 streams across all stream­ing plat­forms. He fol­lowed that up with oth­er hits such as “One Mic Free­style” and “L4V” which was a col­lab­or­a­tion with Jo Joey that demon­strate his wide range as well as an artist who is truly ambi­tious and will do what it takes to make his voice heard.

Who else can say that they put out three hit singles con­sec­ut­ively in one year? Even with music being more access­ible than ever, it is still a heck of a feat.

Now, Proph is look­ing to repeat him­self again with his new single “The Storm”.

He wrote it based on the end­less sagas our world is engulfed in and how much these exist­en­tial crises take a toll on him.

“It reflects how I was feel­ing in my jour­ney and I need to con­vey the way I am feel­ing in music,” he said.”

“I always draw from my exper­i­ences in life and I make it poetic.”

This single is just the latest example of Proph doing what the best of the best do which is to look inward and put the feel­ings that can’t be expressed in words but can be per­fectly con­veyed lyrically.

The best of the best being the Nina Simones, Bob Mar­leys, Jay-Zs, and the DMXs to name a few across all genres.

For Proph, his music is his life blood.

“Ever since I star­ted writ­ing music, it made me resi­li­ent and over­come all the things in my life” he said.

“I just keep going.”

“The Storm” also cre­ates space that has long been denied or watered down in hip hop which is to give men a space to be vulnerable.

Often in the hyper­mas­cu­line world of Hip Hop, there has been little room or little to no val­id­a­tion for men to talk about being hurt or sad but Proph is defy­ing that con­ven­tion and part of a great­er see change tak­ing place in Hip Hop where male artists are dis­play­ing more open­ness about per­son­al mat­ters as opposed to the typ­ic­al party anthem.

But for Proph, it is much more simple.

“I am just being myself” he said.

“I just want my music to speak for itself and I am gonna tell my story and hope people can connect.”

Now that’s an artist.

Proph has many tal­ents and is going many places and if there is any way to sum up his style it could be that he is the calm before the storm.

The fol­low­ing two tabs change con­tent below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Zachary Draves

I am a viol­ence pre­ven­tion edu­cat­or, act­iv­ist, journ­al­ist, aspir­ing film­maker, adjunct pro­fess­or of social justice and civic engage­ment at Domin­ic­an Uni­ver­sity in River Forest, Illinois. I am based in Chica­go, Illinois.

Latest posts by Zachary Draves (see all)

• MEGAN THEE STAL­LION RECEIVES MUCH NEEDED SUP­PORT FROM THE SOUTH­ERN BLACK GIRLS & WOMEN’S CON­SOR­TI­UM — Novem­ber 20, 2022
• HIP-HOP TAKES A STAND AGAINST THE OVER­TURN­ING OF ROE V WADE — July 13, 2022
• REMEM­BER­ING LISA LEFT EYE LOPES 20 YEARS LATER — April 25, 2022