Word of Mouth: Success Takes A Shot At Veeze 

Word of Mouth is a new rap music column by Grant Brydon, CLASH Editor-at-Large and author of ‘Life Lessons from Hip-Hop’. It coincides with our playlist of the same name which you can listen to on Spotify and Apple Music. 

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In the absence of nine-to-fivers, London’s Bank is eerily peaceful on a Saturday morning. Glass skyscrapers burst out of baroque architecture, amplifying the sun for a few joggers and a handful of tourists. In the marble lobby of a five star hotel, members of Veeze’s touring party are beginning to congregate. They’re making the most of their morning, with a trip to see the guards’ bearskin hats at Buckingham Palace. 

As soon as Veeze shows up, he takes a seat, scrolls his phone and then looks up ready for his interview like an NBA player at a pre-game press conference. “I’ve already saved hip-hop,” he states, in response to a question about living up to high expectations. “Saving hip-hop only lasts so long to the fans. It runs out like, ‘Damn, where is the rest of that goddamn hip-hop saviour at?’ This shit getting low.” The Detroit hip-hop scene has been buzzing for half a decade to those paying attention; its idiosyncratic characters and local legends have created a rich mythology and unique – often imitated – sound. With last year’s debut album ‘Ganger’, Veeze’s established himself as the scene’s breakout star.

Having only been an active participant for half a decade, Veeze has studied rap for much longer. He knows that what it takes to keep on winning is the ability to keep on growing. “You gotta pay attention to the whole landscape of the game. Take notes and try to keep up. Kinda like the stock market,” he says. “We’ll never know [what’s next] but we’ll try our best.” He’s driven by a need to expand and grow artistically, rather than chasing trends or idols. “I could say, ‘I wanna be the next Tupac.’ But I don’t even know Tupac. So that’s why I’m like, my work and me, we’ll see where I go.” 

While he has all of the accolades needed to fill out a press release – including co-signs from Jay-Z to J. Cole, Lil Yachty to Lil Uzi Vert, Travis Scott to Travis Barker – the most impressive part of Veeze’s rise is his cult-like fanbase: a devout following who’ve elevated him to the status of a people’s champ via unreleased leaks on YouTube. “The funny part is that they think they know better than me, with the leaks,” Veeze says, shaking his head. “But they ain’t smarter than me! I know what songs to put out. They’re overdoing it. They gotta stop sometime… They need to sit back and let us create like we been doing.” All of the music that’s leaked, Veeze says, is of his own doing. He notes the line between making a hype fifteen-second clip, and a song that is going to hold a listener’s interest. “When people have the famous TikTok song, you only heard fifteen seconds, when you hear the 16th second you’ll be like, ‘I’ve never heard this song! I’ve just heard TikTok’s being made to it!’”

This trip marks Veeze’s second time in London, after joining fellow Detroit rapper Babyface Ray on tour last year, but tonight is his first headline show in the city and he’s immersing himself in the tourist experience. He went shopping at Selfridges where he bumped into childhood favourite Adam Sandler (“We just took a picture with him. LOL’d a little bit. He was pretty cool.”) Took a trip upstairs on a double-decker bus (“I wanted to see what it was like.”) And this afternoon he’s planning to visit Big Ben and the guards at Buckingham Palace (”Pretty normal, nothing out of the ordinary.”) Where things get a little more surreal, is when he gets to play a sold-out show. “It feels crazy,” he admits. “I think about it every time I’m on stage. I’m real far from home with the fans rocking out. But… I just gotta get used to it!”

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He points to the release of ‘Ganger’ as the point where life really changed. That was when he began to feel like an “actual celebrity” rather than a local rapper. “A lot of new people reach out to work with me, and even some people who reach out and tell me they’ve been watching me from the beginning – no matter who it is – it surprise you,” he explains. “You will never know who’s watching you until they show love. It’s cool though. It made me feel like I’m doing a good job.”

However, success in the public eye comes with its downside. Although Veeze remains in his own bubble of normality, people outside of that are starting to see him differently. “I be fiending to be a regular person still,” he says. “The fame is based on how other people treat me. It’s like when you become famous there’s a little island they put you on, what you can and can’t do.” There’s a loss of freedom and spontaneity. “I can’t have fun,” he sighs, sinking into his chair. “I can’t LOL and troll like I want to. I can’t joke about the things I used to joke about. People pull up old tweets. It’s making me be careful. It takes away my sense of humour.”

While Veeze is known to compare himself to Justin Timberlake on record, it feels contradictory that an artist known for off-kilter one-liners, who has built their notoriety off songs like ‘GOMD’ (“Get off my dick”), ‘Get Lucki’ (“Give me some head, get lucky”) and his latest single ‘Fucked A Fan‘, is expected to conduct himself like a Disney Channel star on social media. Veeze is well aware of the hypocrisy. “I don’t take it that serious what people say, I take it serious what people do,” he reflects. “But in the other world, of social media, they care more about what people say than what they do.”

The reality for Veeze is that there is a lot to lose. Having beaten the odds already and emerged as one of rap’s great hopes, one wrong move in this fickle landscape could have him wiped from memory. This is something that he is all too aware of. “The background I come from, you’ve gotta be real careful to take the career [seriously] and make the longevity,” he explains. “If I do something the wrong way, I could be right back.”

Veeze isn’t some culture warrior fighting political correctness, but an artist having to edit and censor himself in order to protect his future. He does his best to brush it off, but it naturally takes its toll. “I be heartbroken about that. Sometimes people take it like I’m a bad human,” he says. “I be wanting to talk to them, ‘I ain’t no bad human.’ But I be like, I can’t talk to this person on Twitter, fuck what they think. But I care about what they think though. I just got trained to say fuck what they think. And now I keep saying it.” He’s learned to allow others to deal with their own projections: “I let people think what they want to think, and I don’t correct it. Because it’s what they wanted to think,” he continues. “Like when you knew Santa Claus wasn’t real, you just wanted to think he was real. Then you found out the truth. I can’t control what I want them to think. That’s just how it is.”

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Instead, Veeze is motivated by continuing to evolve creatively. “I still want to get better. I still want to do new things and try new things. I feel like I’m just getting started, so I can’t say what makes good Veeze music,” he explains. “Whatever makes good Veeze music I’m trying to get to great Veeze music.” He believes that the key to achieving greatness lies in practice, noting the work ethic he’s witnessed firsthand from some of the most successful artists in the world, including Lil Baby and Lil Yachty. “These dudes got enough money to slack, but they still go to the studio everyday, all night, and work,” he says. “That’s the type of push I be inspired by.” He recalls being told by Future to go to the studio everyday. “It was pivotal to hear the GOAT say, ‘Y’all ain’t practising enough,’” he admits. “We practise more. We still don’t go everyday. I’ma try to go everyday, but I’ve been busy.”

Success for Veeze is already proving to have its baggage. “See this motherfucker right here?” he asks, rolling back his sleeve to show off his watch. “I’m having a hard time holding this motherfucker on my sleeve!!” He laughs before switching to a more serious tone, quoting Armand Assante’s character in ‘American Gangster’: “If success took a shot at you, what you gonna do? You gonna become unsuccessful?” Veeze shrugs. “Can’t do that, so I gotta take the good with the bad.”

Related: Anycia Wants You To Feel Good

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