It’s been 15 years since Ashley Thomas – aka Bashy – etched his name into UK rap legacy with his debut album, Catch Me If You Can, and it’s fair to say a lot has changed for the 39-year-old since then. In the decade and a half since his musical breakout, he’s traversed into the acting sphere, garnishing acclaim for work in revered TV shows like The Night Of, THEM and Top Boy. He has become a staple of Black British culture and navigated his own legacy with aplomb.
This year saw Thomas return to the music space. It’s rare for an artist who has been away for such a prolonged period of time to make an impact that has the potential to shift the scene’s consensus, but Bashy’s music has a seminal quality to it. Distinguished and authentic in tone and essence, the rapper has managed to achieve what so many others have failed at. Following a smattering of hype-inducing singles of artistic excellence, he has now shared his highly-anticipated sophomore album, Being Poor is Expensive.
A criticism often laid at the feet of new wave UK rap heavyweights is that their albums are too long, lacking in cohesive structuring and thematic depth. That’s certainly not the case with Thomas’ new record though. Clocking in at under 40 minutes, the LP is concise, focused, with the wordsmith never outstaying his welcome. He’s refined in the message he wants to convey, anchored by the stories he wants to recite.
Bashy revisits a sonic relationship that relates back to his debut album in Toddla T, a collaborator on Catch Me If You Can and the man behind the buttons for much of this new LP. The two build a world that draws from and celebrates prominent British sounds from across the past 20 years, progressive and potent, a tapestry of eclecticism and intelligence that sharpens in each passing cadence and metaphor. It’s without a doubt, in terms of technique, meaning and motive, one of the most important UK rap albums of the year.
We had the opportunity to connect with Bashy, who reveals all on his journey towards this long-awaited return, reflects on the scene’s growth since its inaugural days, and delves deep into the process and significance of his flawless new album.
Listen to Being Poor is Expensive…
Read the exclusive interview…
Hey Bashy! Congratulations on your return, how does it feel to be back releasing music?
Hey, thank you! It feels good, daunting though. I feel like music will always be a part of my life in some form or other, it’s part of my core, I love it. It feels good to not be chasing anything either and I’m enjoying the process of just creating and being free from expectations, metrics, charts, views or whatever. I’m loving being able to just make my art how I want.
Why did now feel like the right moment to return?
Do you know what? I didn’t strategically pick the time like that, because my creativity doesn’t work that way, it organically came to this moment. I’m very specific and discerning in everything I do in life and that bleeds through into my creativity. I felt like I had something to talk about, my area, my experiences, my journey and it brought me to this time. Many peers and influential people have hit me personally to say it’s refreshing right now, I’m a big believer of everything on God and the universes timing.
How do you reflect on your early days and your impact of the UK rap scene?
I think writing this album helped me with that cos it’s intwined with growing up, going from a boy to a man and everything that comes with that in a big UK city without going into too much detail. I think ‘Being Poor is Expensive’ best articulates how I feel about that time in my life and my music journey. It feels good to be part of an early movement, knowing you were actually there, on Pirate Radio, Freeze FM, Deja Vu, Rinse FM, contributing to the culture in its infancy and now seeing what it has become. I look back on those early times as special, formative, educational on so many levels. I went all around the city and country, I got to meet and become cool with a lot of people who were starting out then and now they are some of the biggest and most respected creatives in the culture, so it’s sick to see that we’ve grown together and what we’ve gone on to achieve. I don’t really look at my impact like that, more my peers and friends tell me. I know what I’ve done but I try not to dwell to much on it and move forward.
What have you been up to in your time away from the release spotlight?
Ha! Living. Experiencing a full spectrum of life and creating in another space. I’m an actor, I’ve had a passion for acting since I was a young child, even before music, which some people may not be aware of. I was focused on that really, I needed to focus on the craft and discipline. I was doing some interesting British projects like the first season of Black Mirror, when it was on Channel 4, with Daniel Kaluuya, Rupert Everett and Jessica Brown Findlay. Then worked on My Brother The Devil, which if you watch now is crazy, there are so many talented actors in there before we got our bigger breaks, Letitia Wright, Damson Idris, Anthony Welsh, Malachi Kirby, Elarica, Arnold Oceng the list goes on, I could probably say more names. I then went on to do the first iteration of Top Boy on Channel 4. Then made a few indie films and lesser known projects. Musically I was in a difficult spot, I felt a bit lost creatively and I think the culture was in a difficult place too so I decided to press pause on music focus on film and television full time. I promised myself that when I turned 30 years old I’d go to America to explore it further and that’s what I did. Well at 29, I was cast in a series for HBO called The Night Of. While I was shooting in New York I utilised the time to meet acting agents and then signed with one of the biggest talent agencies in the US. I went to LA on my 30th birthday, literally on the day, and met my new team in Los Angeles. Slept on couches and floors whilst I was auditioning out there because I’d ran out of money, I wasn’t earning much from music cos I hadn’t been making any and like most careers acting doesn’t pay well early on and I was essentially starting from scratch on the other side of the pond but then I was cast in 24 and then things started to change. After that, I did a short film called Skin, that won an Academy Award. Then led a few more US TV series, then came back to the UK to do the Netflix version of Top Boy. I worked on a TV pilot that didn’t get picked up, NYPD Blue, but that turned out to be a blessing because then I was available to shoot a series called THEM for Amazon Prime, alongside Deborah Ayorinde which became critically acclaimed and we were both nominated for Independent Spirit Awards in the leading actor categories. I did a few more TV series at home and in the US, The Ipcress File, Black Cake, The Serpent Queen and then worked on Steven Knight’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations for BBC and was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for the performance. Wow, that’s a lot, I’ve never really said it all in one go, I’m missing tings but that’s the bulk of it.
To you, how are the disciplines of acting and artistry similar? How are they different?
To me with acting you’re getting the chance to play someone else’s life and story; experiencing what that feels like emotionally, intellectually and sometimes physically.. With music I feel like it’s more about life and perspective from your personal POV. I think the similarities lie in the creative nature of both, creating something from nothing, language and then there’s an intersection of where they cross sometimes for me personally.
How does it feel to have been such a key part of Top Boy and its legacy? How do you reflect on the show?
Love it. I’m a fan of the series too so to be a part of it means a lot to me. It’s culturally important and shows the wider world some aspects of the UK and London, so they have an understanding of us, our experiences, slang, fashion and culture. Getting to work with my friends is cool too, Ashley and Kane really embraced me and make sure I felt comfortable even at the table reads.
Congratulations on the new album! How are you feeling about the release?
All the feels, excited, nervous, scared but looking forward to people hearing it. I’ve grown so much, although my core is the same, I’m a different person, a different artist, this feels like a debut record to me or maybe a reset, a reintroduction.
What has the creative process of making the record been like?
Intense, in my mind I’ve been making this album 30+ years but intentionally making it for 4 years, and only finishing late last year. I’ve had full autonomy on this record, I’ve been able to craft something pure, raw, without compromise, without any expectations or pressure. I wasn’t making a record thinking of charts or sales and that’s the beauty of this LP, I just wanted to tell my story from West and North West London. I wanted to create a soundscape that was me and felt like me. It was straightforward. I had the best collaboration process with Toddla T, it would’ve been impossible to make this record without him. We matched each other’s intensity and were in the trenches together, we were in sync, any idea I had he understood it and executed it. I did a lot of writing without music and then we crafted around my ideas and things I wanted to sample. I learned a lot and really enjoyed the creation. We started everything from scratch. The way the record is mixed is intentional, bass heavy, bordering on distortion, unconventional. It’s meant to feel crunchy. It’s a short record, like my favourite records, 38mins, 11 tracks, Mixed by Adam Wren, in west London, old school, analogue vibes. Mastered by Joker, in a tower block, pirate radio and soundsystem culture running through its DNA. I’ve been hands on every step of the way, even producing on the music films that accompany each single release.
This album is 15 years after your first record Catch Me If You Can. How has your musical style and personal outlook changed in that period of time?
I’d say I’m more myself in general. My musical style now has more layers, more textures, more details, specificity, I have more dexterity in my delivery and I’m able to articulate myself and my vision with a focus and sharpness. I have more experience in life, and also working so much in film and TV, I think all of that has by osmosis seeped into my music and more ability now and more tools to work with. Previously, I was trying to play the music game because I was broke, I was trying to find a way out of the ends and I compromised my art which ultimately wasn’t good for me creatively or spiritually and didn’t feel good internally but it was a lesson and I’ve learned from it. I’m never compromising on my art or music again, I prefer not to do it before I did that.
What provided sonic influences for the record?
My life and the sonics I heard growing up. In my house I would hear lovers rock, reggae and dancehall as my mum and dad would be playing it. My older cousins were into Jungle, I was into UK garage, grime and Hip Hop. So I wanted to include all of those sounds included in the project because that is me. In US hip hop, my favourite artists when I was growing up would sample their parents’ soul, R&B and jazz records to create their music. I was inspired by that and wanted to do something similar just from my experience so I fused my parents music with my music to create something that sounds like my world. I wanted the album to sound and feel like West and North West London so all the interludes were recorded in the area.
What do you hope to portray across the album?
Life in zones. I really want people to hear it because I believe it’s a solid body of work and every line intentional, there is no waste or filler. I’d like people to listen to it and then read the lyrics. I hope my story and area shines through on this and people really get a sense of me and my community and the people lived or live here.
What’s to come from you, this year and beyond?
I have a Being Poor is Expensive headline show coming up like in Autumn this year and an exhibition we’re putting together. I also have a new Netflix series called The Choice coming out next year starring opposite Suranne Jones. And then after that I’ll take some for myself.