Michee Artist talks going viral, football freestyles and his new single 'Mary & Jane'

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This time around, we caught up with rising star Michee Artist to find out about his new single Mary Jane and more...

How does it feel to be back releasing new music again?

I’m excited, it feels good. I’ve had time to work on my direction, my freestyles and most importantly finding my sound and developing a really good relationship with my producer RzBeats, which I think is noticeable in the music. It’s been crazy, but I’m happy to be getting back to it!

‘Mary & Jane’ is a Garage infused track and feels fun and light-hearted - can we expect more of this style music from you?

100% - not just strictly Garage though. I’ve definitely found my sound in terms of tempo and vibe and I think ‘Mary & Jane’ was the just the first sign of that. If you take in the tune as a whole, the instrumentation, the lyrical content, the vibe, it doesn’t really sound like anything that’s out there at the moment.

What was the inspiration for the track?

Growing up in London, my childhood was filled with massive Garage anthems that were the soundtracks to my days out. From ‘Flowers’ (Sweet Female Attitude) to ‘Imagine’ (Shola Ama) to ‘Fill Me In' (Craig David), all the way through to "new-school” Garage bangers like 'Love me Not’ (Skepta), 'Good Hearts' (Ghetts) and 'Pain' (PinkPantheress), the inspiration genre-wise was broad. However, if you rode around with me for a day, you’d see that I listen to different genres of music and can catch a vibe to anything; as long as it’s good music.

You seem to have great chemistry with producer RzBeats, are you looking to collaborate more with him or release a project in the near future?

I’ve known Rz for years, which makes it that much weirder that we never got to lock in like that. When me and him got in the studio this time around it was mad, we just hit a zone and the chemistry allowed us to knock this record out. Not just ‘Mary & Jane’ either, but other tunes as well. So I can say when we do release a project, it’ll be one that’s natural, organic and means something.

Can we expect a video?

You can definitely expect a video! I think it’s really good to capture the essence of the song with a video which brings the vibe to life and I believe that’s been done with this record; so I’m looking forward to releasing this.

Your social media following has grown quite significantly and you’ve become known more notably for some of your freestyles on Instagram - how did this start?

I’ve always free-styled with my boys or in my own time, especially from when I started music. I figured it’d be a good way to gain people’s attention on socials with topical, relevant freestyles because they don’t require as much effort as clicking links or having to come off your Twitter or Instagram. I’ve stayed consistent when it comes to dropping these and have built a name for myself within the UK scene for them, too.

Talk to us about your relationship with football and how you incorporate this into both your personal brand and your music?

I’ve always had a love and interest in football, but the relation to music stems from my Instagram freestyles where I’ve rapped about Spurs’ current affairs and football topics in general. These have gone viral on many occasions, so from that I’ve built relationships with various brands and used those to leverage music away from football to collaborate and further what I’ve got going on.

How would you describe your journey as a music artist so far?

I’m blessed. I think it’s easy as upcoming artists to focus on what we haven’t achieved, as opposed to what we have achieved; even if it’s just the small wins. For example, there’s a lot of things I still want to achieve, but I’ve come a long way from where I was 2 years ago and I’m only just getting started.

Do you have any advice for any aspiring artists who are thinking about starting to make music?

Only that if you’re starting music, then just make sure you love the music first and foremost above all else.

Be sure to follow Michee on Instagram and Twitter and stream 'Mary & Jane' here.