In this feature we explore some of our favourite artists’ passions outside of their musical endeavours.

East London Grime original Ghetts dropped new album Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament via Caroline International on September 14th. To mark the release, he hosted the 'Ghettsibition' event at Kachette in Shoreditch - an exhibition showcasing bespoke art to match each album track, alongside memorabilia from throughout his career, plus a listening experience and Q&A. TMR went to check out the launch night.



There was clear and deliberate variety in the exhibition room - art by cartoonists, illustrators and photographers, including pieces from the likes of up-and-comers Jasmin Sehra, Reuben Dangoor and NEEKÖ - alongside Ghetts’ personal effects, clothing, and choice album track lyrics printed on the walls.

The evening was capped with a Who We Be Talks_ interview between Ghetts and DJ Semtex, a deep and detailed discussion, centered around the themes of the evolution of the lyrical content and musical workings behind Ghetts’ output for the album. Including how working with a bigger team of musical collaborators allowed him to deliver the intricacies of matching more complex instrumentation, with more diverse lyrical content (the level of detail even breaking down to finding a new mic to authentically capture the intensity of the bars).

From the certified banger of 'Preach', to 'Hand On The Bible' with choral background vocals, there is a strong and intentional build throughout Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament. The rhyme format this time around is simpler (certainly in comparison to the ‘original’ Ghetto Gospel, from 2007), but still yields a high energy performance. After all, being in the booth for Ghetts is “like a therapy session”, and the topics covered on the album and across the artwork are wide ranging and unashamedly complex - equality, diversity and marginalisation, crime, female empowerment, friendship, illness, love, life, death, and fatherhood. Topics relevant to everybody in the times we live in now. Ghetts still pointedly draws on personal experience, but at the same time creates something relatable for a huge audience, alongside the clearly developed musical backdrop.



Everything about 'Ghettsibition' expertly mirrors the track variety on the album. It definitely feels like this is a time of increased collaboration for Ghetts, within both the wider Grime scene and within his own output. TMR spoke to Ghetts about how this energy is replicated in the accompanying 'Ghettsibition' event, bringing the song concepts to life with visual representation.

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TMR: As DJ Semtex said, it feels like this album is both a genre-defining moment, and a moment of growth for you - a change in direction with less aggressive spits and more poignant subject matter. Why is it important for you to have a visual representation of the tracks for this particular release?

Ghetts: I feel like there’s storytelling throughout the whole album. I feel like it’s audio-visual, and when people listen to it they feel like there could be a video for every song; cos it’s so visual, it’s so specific, it’s so cinematic when you listen to it.

TMR: There's a mixture of photography and painting, portraits and graphic design, etc. in 'Ghettsibition', which matches the track variety on the album really well. Was this deliberate? How did you choose who to collab with on each picture?

Ghetts: It was very deliberate. I worked with the head of my creative team, Misha Meghna, and we sat down, we spoke, we went through different concepts along with Jo from The Confect, Miles from The Confect, Dorian... a lot of people were involved. We sat down and went through concept after concept after concept, every Monday night until we brought those concepts to life. So it went from knowing we wanted to do ‘pictures to represent certain songs’, like an ‘art meets art’ concept, to taking those pictures and putting together the 'Ghettsibition'. So everything [there] is very deliberate.



TMR: There are clear themes throughout the album, particularly of inclusivity and empowerment, and it feels like these have been strongly replicated in the art. Were the artists guided by you in this sense or did you leave it to them to pull their own inspiration from the tracks?

Ghetts: With of the concepts I already knew in my head, such as 'Next Of Kin', I already knew how I wanted that to look and feel; so I was very strong in terms of that, and then other concepts I let the artist have free rein.



TMR: Do you have a favourite art x track collab from the collection?

Ghetts: Yes - 'Black Rose'.

TMR: What do you hope people will take away from listening to the album and looking at the art together?

Ghetts: The substance - there’s so much you can talk about when you live a full life. I saw somebody say the weirdest thing about the album - it never really bothered me, I just thought it was quite weird - something about having too many different concepts or something. I was thinking “that’s how life is”, how can I not represent myself talking about a wide variety of things? My life is full of a wide variety of things. I can go from doing the school run to having a movie premiere in a night. That’s two ends of the spectrum - that movie premiere ain’t getting me out of doing the school run. I still gotta do that! So that’s how my music’s gonna sound. Two ends of the spectrum.

TMR: What's next for 'Ghettsibition'? Any plans to take it elsewhere?

Ghetts: ...to take the 'Ghettsibition' on the road. We definitely wanna go up North and see how people take to it up there!



Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament is out now on Caroline International. Look out for 'Ghettsibition' on the road.

-Julz Baldwin