FEATURE:
Spotlight
Travy
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OVER the next month or so…
I am going to increase the number of Spotlight features I publish. That is because I have been a bit lax over the past month or two. For this feature, I am focusing on someone who is pushing Irish Rap forward. One of the country’s most exciting talents. Travy is someone you should know about. Before getting to some more in-depth interviews, I want to take from a January interview from THE FACE:
“I like peace. London’s just hectic full stop”, says Travy, reclining on a couch in an oversized hoodie.
The rapper is enduring a trip to the English capital to do a bunch of interviews, but feels much more at home in Ireland. Born in Nigeria, at the age of six Travy moved to Tallaght, an outer suburb of Dublin, where he was sent to boarding school by his mum: “I remember bringing J‑rice [jollof] to school. That was my first introduction to putting Irish people on to African culture,” he says. “They would try it and I’d just see them running up and down like what is this? This is so crazy! That was one of the first times I thought, maybe I should show my culture more, who knows? They might really fuck with it.”
After dropping out of college in Dublin, Travy pursued acting, modelling and music. Teaming up with his best friend and fellow rapper Elzz in 2022, the pair founded Gliders, a Dublin-based clothing brand, event series and cultural collective. Travy and Elzz have since dropped two hard-hitting collaborative albums, Full Circle (2023) and Doghouse (2024), which reached No.2 and No.1 in the Irish charts respectively. But when Travy went to collect his plaque from the record label’s office, he was underwhelmed: “They’re not having meetings to [expand] new areas,” he says. “There’s like one person in these offices. Seeing that made me realise that I have to build my own industry”.
Travy attributes his confidence to his mum, a chef and business owner who was the first to introduce African cuisine to the shelves of Irish supermarket SuperValu in the form of ready meals and snacks. “My mum’s kind of like the way I am with music – she’s full of belief and nothing can stop her. I’ve seen where it takes her and it’s rubbed off.”
Most recently, Travy’s been working on his upcoming solo mixtape Spooky, a more personal record exploring his experiences as an immigrant in Ireland. “People were hearing the music in places like New York and seeing that [though I spoke English] I was coming from a completely different perspective.” The tape is dropping on the 10th January. Don’t sleep on it”.
I am moving onto a deep interview from CLASH. Without doubt one of the breakthrough artists of this year, I am excited to see where he heads next. If this an artist new to you then make sure you explore his work. I predict the next few years are going to see him grown and conquer the world. It is fascinating reading what Trav had to say about Ireland and how that shaped his career. What the challenges were for him living in Ireland coming onto the scene:
“There’s a dark force sweeping through Dublin. It’s scary. It’s ominous. It’s breakthrough Irish rapper Travy, who jumps feet first into 2025 with his debut solo project, ‘SPOOKY’. Irish rap has undergone a seismic evolution over the years, carving its own singular regional identity. What was once a fledgling scene, often battling misconceptions and a niche audience, has matured into a genre-bending movement. At the forefront of this charge, is man of the people, Travy, backed by his collective, Gliders.
I first became aware of Travy when I ventured to Brighton on a solo trip. I perched up in the nearest fish & chips scrolling through my phone, when a video for Travy and Elzzz’s 2024 hit ‘Blockbuster’ arrived in my DMs. Lifted from their collaborative project, the slick edit correlated with Travy’s charged, staccato verse; the song was bold and punchy, the video striking.
‘SPOOKY’ affirms Travy’s status as one of the most exciting musicians to come out of Ireland in recent years. Having previewed his tape ahead of release, CLASH caught up with the buzzy rapper to talk Dublin rap, the familial inspiration behind his alias and fostering community with his multi-purpose collective.
Who is Travy?
A Nigerian artist raised in Ireland. A very ambitious kid trying to take over the world, using my voice to inspire the ones that don’t really have a voice. That’s me in a nutshell.
What inspired you to pursue a career in music, and how did growing up in Ireland shape your artistic journey?
My friends and the people around me inspired me. Back in the COVID period, we used to freestyle because we obviously didn’t have much to do, so we’d be freestyling every day, rapping over beats. Every time I’d rap, they’d look at me and be like “Yo you actually have a voice for this, there’s something there.” What really pushed me over the edge was my videographer. He got his camera and said, “I want you to rap and I’m going to record you.” Then we recorded my first song. Looking back, the song wasn’t that crazy but the vibe was there. We posted it and actually got a decent amount of engagement. Since then, I haven’t looked back.
I started paying attention to you after watching the video to ‘Blockbuster’, and what was refreshing to see, is that you proactively engage with your audience, rather than react, which is how we got talking all that time ago.
You’re a person first, right? Someone texted me the other day saying, “the stuff that you’re putting out is so insane and yet you’re still so reachable. You’re replying to DMs, you’re actually engaging with the people.” This is how I started. I never took it seriously.
Your music blends UK drill, US rap and Nigerian highlife. How do you balance these genres and cultural signifiers in your sound?
In Ireland, we have a lot of influences from England and beyond. I grew up listening to Skepta and other UK stuff, like what the English people would grow up listening to. I also listened to a lot of American music, as we grew up watching American TV. Ireland is the only English-speaking country now in the EU since Brexit. When I started doing all this stuff, I blended all the influences together. Things would just happen. It was like “Let me add this sound from this American thing but then put it on to a drill beat, or grab this because I like the way he’s rapping on this.” I listened to a lot of music growing up. I listened to loads of 50 Cent.
Tell us about your new project ‘SPOOKY’. How would you describe it?
‘SPOOKY’ is “feel something” music. You’ve heard the sonics and it’s heavy hitting, whilst the bars are punching. It’s something people would want to listen to. It’s my first solo project, so it’s based on all the experiences that I’ve lived. Being from Dublin, it’s a good place to live and it’s a good place to raise kids. It’s very family-oriented but it’s also quite dark. There’s a lot of bad stuff happening. There’s a lot of oppression. Every time I meet people from London, the first thing they say to me is “I swear Ireland’s mad racist!”
I’ve had to go through so many different things that my peers in the UK just wouldn’t have had to face in England because there’s more integration, and Ireland is still predominantly white. We’re pushing and building culture whilst we’re creating it. Making ‘SPOOKY’ was like a therapy session – a massive therapy session. All the experiences, bad or good, I just wanted to cram it all into one project. If you want to feel something, feel alive, just put on ‘SPOOKY’.
Why did you call collective Gliders?
We used to say we’re going on a glide, if we were to go to a party or going to go do something. People would be like “Yo, those are the Gliders.” People gave us the name.
As a co-founder of Gliders, what role does collaboration play in your music and vision?
One voice can’t be the only voice. I feel like in Ireland, when people aren’t collaborating, things don’t really move as fast. When you collaborate, the scene forms. I think people are starting to see that. I’ve made songs with so many different people but at a time where collaboration just wasn’t a thing. People didn’t really clap, they just did their own thing.
I started to collaborate with people because I was trying to bring that out and that’s how Gliders was made. Everything happened organically. Me and Elzzz decided one day to make hats and put the word Gliders on them. They sold out in a day and we carried on the momentum. We found Sam Fallover (artwork and visuals) and brought him on board, and then one of our friends, TJ, but he’s moved on now. That whole period we were creating a brand. Again, collaboration is massive.
You’ve generated a lot of success with your collaborative work with Elzzz and Gliders. What are your plans to grow the movement?
We have ideas for the brand and one of those is that we’re doing a collaboration with Pellador, which is another Irish brand, on the clothes side of things. We’re trying to organise a Gliders fest where we’ll bring other artists on. Hopefully we can get that done within the year. In Ireland, they have funding initiatives to help run all those things. I’m working with some people within the council that are going to try and help.
With Gliders, we have a few things coming and then with me and Elzzz, we’re aiming to do another project – we have one in the pipeline. Once I’m done with ‘SPOOKY’, I’ll be looking to figure out what the next stage is, whether it’s another solo project or another collaborative one. It’s all about picking out which one to focus on.
You touched on it before. What are the main challenges emerging artists are facing in Ireland? And how do they overcome these challenges?
It’s very hard to take music seriously in Ireland because there’s literally no support. I get my support from the people around me. For new artists in Ireland, I give them any piece of knowledge that I have. Find someone that believes in you. That might be your close friend who does videos or does graphics, or does something creative with a camera or makes beats. Anyone can add to the musical journey. For instance, like Liam and Sam, we all came together very organically. Dublin rents are also peak; the housing crisis is a different situation altogether and it makes it very hard to sustain a music career. I don’t even know how I’ve done it. It’s only by God’s grace that I’m even here.
Do you hope your music impacts conversations about identity and more cultural integration in Ireland?
For sure. I posted a TikTok one time, and it started doing the rounds but then I saw it on Twitter. Someone screen grabbed it and they were cussing it out like “look what Ireland has turned into, a load of people from Africa doing dances in front of a memorial.” I didn’t even know whose memorial that was. I was just dancing and rapping my songs. The majority of Ireland is still in its early stages of culture, and we’re the ones bringing culture to it, if that makes sense? It’s still very difficult because they don’t necessarily want to take it in yet. I found out recently that Gliders was blacklisted. I was wondering why we weren’t getting any shows and some guy told us we ask for too much because we roll with an entourage. This is rap culture. I’m living in a place where they don’t understand it yet.
There’s no one that’s like me in these high places to tell them that this is how it is. My mum said to me the other day “You must keep going, you must keep shining. Kill them with success and that’s the only way.” My mum was the first Nigerian lady to bring Nigerian dishes into Irish supermarkets. She basically went through the same thing I had to go through. She just recently opened a restaurant, and will be interviewed by the BBC soon.
Growing up in Ireland, there was a lot of black people that had an identity crisis because they’re told you’re not from here. I’m Irish, though? I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve done the exact same thing you guys have. I’m on the same corner you guys are, so what’s the difference? Ireland has a mad suicide rate because a lot of people don’t know where they stand. They don’t know where their community is and it’s quite sad. The bigger we grow, the more of us there’ll be. How many generations of black people have been in the UK for time? They’ve grown up with grandparents that were born in the UK and in Ireland we are the first generation.
With that said, how do you feel about leading the charge for the next generation of Irish artists?
I like these questions because they get me thinking. My dad was a General in Nigeria and my mum is an ambitious woman. I get my ambition from them but I’ve always wanted to inspire people. For example, there’s this kid named Baby July from Galway. He popped up on my TikTok one time. I liked his beat selections and the fact that he was doing it himself. I share his stuff every so often. I didn’t have that, so I want to be there for the ones that are coming up in the space”.
I am going to end with an interview from NME that was published earlier this month. Last year’s DOGHOUSE was an album that should have got Travy award-nominated and better represented. Perhaps not completely embraced and accepted in Ireland at the moment, I do hope that the culture changes pretty soon. In spite of the fact there are barriers put up, Travy has achieved so much and is inspiring so many people:
“The 26-year-old is at the forefront of a generation of Black Irish artists forging a new path within the country’s music scene, alongside the likes of Sello, Monjola, and long-time collaborator Elzzz. His first two projects, ‘Full Circle’ (2023) and ‘Doghouse’ (2024), both made with Elzzz, secured the Number Two and Number One spots on the Irish Album Charts respectively, and ‘Spooky’ (produced by Galway-born beatmaker Liam Harris) has further boosted that momentum.
‘Spooky’ was crafted over a two-month period spent renting a flat in Paris, striving for nonstop creativity and endeavour. “Me and Liam had this place in the second district in Paris, and sometimes we didn’t even have a penny bro, I was just chowing on these pasta boxes every day just to keep going!” Travy laughs. “But I knew what I was gonna get from the project, so it was just them graveyard shifts, really being in that creative flow… it was nice having that time and space to record at any given moment. I was thinking, ‘If I record in Paris, will the music sound different?’ But I still have the same vim, so it’s not just the cold weather that’s making me rap like this!”
Travy’s fresh, distinctly Irish rap sound stems from a wide array of sources. He tends to lean on dark, swelling instrumentals that blend the edginess of mid-2010s south London drill with a more upbeat, bouncing UK grime energy, his vocal cadences and calmly-delivered bars akin to Homerton’s Unknown T. A swish braggadocious quality nodding to booming New York drill runs through the project, too. Anchoring it all in his home city are little touches of Dublin slang like ‘FSSH’ (an expression harnessed on the mixtape’s eponymous lead single) and ominous choral samples that transport you to midnight mass in a cold, cavernous Catholic church (‘Meet Spooky’).
But creating this sense of identity hasn’t been easy; Travy has repeatedly spoken up about the lack of music infrastructure he’s had access to in Ireland, and the lack of successful role models to learn from. “What I’m facing, it’s completely different,” says Travy. “That’s why the music might have a bit more vim, because I’m up against more. Trying to push culture in a country that doesn’t care, it’s infuriating!
PHOTO CREDIT: Kyle Bolam
“There’s this festival in Dublin called Longitude which we performed at one time, but never again,” he continues. “This festival was once the Mecca of culture for everyone growing up, but now they’ve got 50 Cent and David Guetta headlining, and it’s so out of touch it’s ridiculous. It was so inspiring seeing people from Dublin tearing up that main stage, but I think the people running the entertainment business in Ireland don’t care enough to look within their own area. If they booked us for these tings, people would be pulling up.”
As a result, Travy has often looked to the UK for inspiration – and recently met legend Skepta at Paris Fashion Week. “He said to me, ‘The only reason I’m still here is because I kept going’. Everything he did in England is basically what we’re doing in Ireland now.”
Travy has often been compared to the Tottenham rapper thanks to the strides taken by his collective, Gliders: “Back home, people would compare Gliders to Boy Better Know or A$AP Mob.” Initially a spontaneous nickname for the group of friends Travy rolled around with in Dublin, Gliders eventually morphed into a collective throwing house parties in the capital. Over time, the group have blended musical releases with a hugely successful clothing line, growing a community of like-minded artists, videographers and illustrators.
The chief musicians are Travy, Elzzz, Harris, while Sam Fallover handles art and visuals for Gliders. Fallover played a key role in the conceptual development of ‘Spooky’, designing the album artwork and helping shape the devilish alter ego Travy embodies on the project.
“Spooky was a nickname my friends gave me growing up, ’cause I was kinda a mischievous kid,” Travy explains. “I knew I wanted to make this project explore who I am as a person, the Nigerian and Irish perspective… I want people to be like ‘This guy’s an alien!’ It’s getting to the stage where I’m starting to believe I’m an alien!”
Sadly, alienation is something Travy has consistently experienced in the Irish music scene. He was absent from the Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTE) Albums of the Year list, despite ‘Doghouse’ making history last year by becoming the first Irish rap project to reach Number One, a snub that understandably angered fans. “I posted about it because the younger generation needs to know what kinda forces we’re working against,” Travy says”.
An artist who should be in your sights, I would urge everyone to check out Travy. Even if you are not a fan of Rap or are not familiar with his sound, I would still encourage you to take a listen. A huge artist who is going to be a major name very soon, all eyes should be trained his way. He is one of the most important voices…
IN modern music.
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