Bless Beats
Labelled “grime’s hardest working producer” and having worked with the who’s who of the genre, Bless Beats has firmly established himself within the UK grime scene. The man behind Wiley’s ‘Wearin My Rolex’ is now about to take centre stage with single ‘The Rain’.
The first cut to be lifted from debut album ‘My Interpretation’, the track features vocals from the hotly-tipped Charlie Brown and lyrics from the don that is Wiley. The combination of the three is already proving successful, with early support from Radio 1’s Tim Westwood.
This is not a tale of overnight success – Bless Beats has been building his repertoire since the age of 14. “I started out making beats on Cubase and my Playstation,” he says. “I thought it was exciting but my music teacher at school didn’t know anything about the type of music I was making, so I just taught myself.”
Bless comes from the generation that untethered music-making from the traditional studio. It’s this ‘can do’ approach and creativity that has seen Bless work with the who’s who of the grime scene and contributed to the track that many say put his name on the map, ‘16 Bar Rally’. Bless lined up Wiley, Scorcher Jammer, Esco (RIP), Rage and God’s Gift – an incredibly powerful line-up, making for a beat everyone wanted to have a go at.
In 2007, Bless Beats focused his energies on his first mix-tape. “I finished working on ‘Hard Days Graft’ when Wiley needed a beat for his album,” he says. The end product was the phenomenon that was ‘Wearin My Rolex’, which peaked at No. 2 on the UK singles chart, topped the iTunes chart and was the most played track on Radio 1 for four consecutive weeks.
“‘Wearing My Rolex’ gave me a much better understanding of the music industry, and how everything was linked,” Bless says. “It also helped structure how I worked in the studio. From then on it was all about the business.”
Bless Beats secured a publishing deal with Sony ATV, set up his joint label ‘Blatant Swagger’ with partner in crime Mos Wanted Mega, and they also set up a separate production outfit Presidential Sounds.
Previously grime’s best kept secret, Bless Beats is now on his way to becoming the name on everyone’s lips.