Stand to attention: hip-hop artist Shai Sevin is, at last, dropping his debut EP, Gimmi£ 5 Mins. The five-act release is, by far, his most innovative work to date, with each instrumental brimming with nowness, whilst also bowing to the ‘old skool’ foundations upon which Sevin has built his concrete jungle. From “Win Doe”, where he brings cuttingly sharp strings to the forefront of the beat, to the militaristic drum rolls of “Rap Royalty” and electro-infused “Clowns”, every track brings a different flavour. “I started to create some instrumentals and had them on repeat in my headphones whilst travelling from A-B through London. As I was thinking of concepts for each track, it felt like there was a natural thread for the EP, without even forcing it,” Shai Sevin shares. Each experiment was like the gasoline, and his truths about carving a path for himself in an unforgiving industry were the flames. Gimmi£ 5 Mins is the inferno we’ve been waiting for: an honest, unflinching portrayal of an artist finally taking the throne. Every conversation, every experience, was part of this portrait. “To me, there are no rules in music”, he says. “Well, if there are… I broke them.”

  Twitter: @iamshaisevin