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By Haidar Elias

Born Derek Desafo, this gifted 23-year-old hip hop artist hails from North London. Although not signed to any major record label, Sway can already boast a handful of achievements such as touring with Dizzee Rascal, performing at this year’s Urban Music Festival as well as doing shows overseas, most notably in New York. Other than that, he has been getting huge support from top radio stations such as BBC 1Xtra and other media outlets such as Channel U. His two videos, ‘Flo Fashion’ and ‘Up Your Speed’, are on heavy rotation and if those credentials aren’t enough, Sway recently collected a MOBO for Best Hip Hop Act at this year’s awards ceremony. Already a veteran in the UK hip-hop scene there is no doubt Sway has also stamped a mark in the urban music scene and if the record labels don’t know it, the streets already do.

Even though Sway started producing music at 15, it didn’t take long for him to pick up a mic and start rapping. He was part of a collective called One and went from freestyling in school as a joke to battling in cyphers held in Camden Town. Talking about the experience, Sway reminisces: “Back then, battling was a stepping stone for me; I lost some, I won some, but the ones I lost I didn’t really lose, ‘cos I still got something out of it, but looking back at it was something of a lost cause. My career really started taking off when I stopped battling and started making songs.” So which rappers he had battled with? “Doc Brown, Reveal, Chester P; they’re the ones that are out now on the scene,” he replied. This led me to ask that if given the chance to battle again, who would he most like to take on? “Chester P, he humiliated me when I was 16; it was my first ever battle and I got to the final and he destroyed me, he had no mercy. But after the battle, his brother Farma G from Taskforce was so impressed that he invited me to record a song with them, so that was the first song I ever recorded.”

Sway is not your average run-of-the-mill MC. The rapper/producer is nothing like any of the hip hop or grime artists that are currently on road today. His quirky and comedic style brings a breathe of fresh air to a genre that is often too crowded by the usual thug clichés. His play with words is original and imaginative, while at the same time accessible as Sway explains. “I try to be lyrical, that’s my style, but the stigma with lyrical emcees is that they’re usually boring and they don’t really appeal to the man dem, you know? But I think with me, I strike a balance; I’m a bit of both.” With the release of his mixtapes, ‘This Is My Promo Vol.1 & 2’ planned for an October release in all major record stores and his full length album dropping early next year, Sway talked about some of the concepts behind his songs. “The tracks are varied; I got songs about abortion, about wanting to beat my girlfriend, about credit (‘Flo Fashion’) and about what generally goes on in my ends, so it’s different.”

Coming up in the scene from beginning wasn’t easy, and since Sway never had any support from a major label, he and a cousin created an independent label called Dcypha Productions, along with another label called Alliance, which shared the same vision they merged together to create their own label on which to release material. “Basically when Dcypha/Alliance merged together, we shot a video for ‘Flo Fashion’ and got lots of hype from it; but at the same time because we didn’t have any associates in the music industry, we couldn’t really take it any further. I mean, with the mixtapes, we was just selling them on road, we didn’t have any access towards any major distribution,” Sway clarified. However, luck was at hand in the form of Dan Greenpeace from Allcity Records. “Dan reached out to us and wanted to get involved,” he continued. “He felt what we were doing and wanted to help us with marketing and distribution but in terms of the music, we’re releasing from Dcypha/Alliance Productions.”

With gun crime in London on the rise, various campaigns have been launched to combat it. Sway voiced his views on the whole topic. “Personally, I think that the message that the Metropolitan Police is trying to show is that if you know someone’s got a gun, you should snitch on them! In my opinion, that’s not going to help, ‘cos if you snitch and they find out, then that’s another gun crime. Snitching is not going to help. It’s probably the worst thing to do on road, you get me?” Point taken, nevertheless Sway continues passionately. “What the police need to do is find out where all these guns are coming from; if you can stop the source, then all these youths wouldn’t have access to it. But at the end of the day it’s an awkward situation, I mean if someone runs up on you with a gun, what are you going to do? You’re thinking maybe I should get a gun so this thing doesn’t happen again and then it just starts getting deeper and deeper from there. Before you know it, everyone on road has got one, just to protect themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I acknowledge the police are trying to bring gun crime down, but snitching isn’t the way!” Even though it seems that there is no clear solution to this problem, Sway is very clear about his own view.

For a music artist, there’s nothing more satisfying than being recognised by their peers and music execs for all the hard work they put in their craft and at this year’s MOBO Awards, Sway was up for two nominations. This led to him winning the category for Best Hip Hop Act later on that night. Speaking about the nominations before the award ceremony, Sway told The Situation how he felt. “I feel good about it man. I mean, given the current state of affairs, I wasn’t signed to a label, they wouldn’t sign me, but I believe I proved a point that you don’t need a major, you don’t need record execs telling you how to do your music and to promote you. As long as you have the buzz on the streets and your name in people’s mouths, the recognition is inevitable. I mean I feel as if I’ve achieved something big, like the artist triumphed against the record labels and the only thing that would make it an even bigger achievement is that if I went up there and got an award.”

The award was definitely well deserved and with his single ‘Up Your Speed’ already released, Sway can be assured that the record execs that passed on signing Sway will distinctly feel gutted.