Izzie Gibbs

It’s a cliche, but life really is too short. Just ask Izzie Gibbs. Near the end of 2018, the hotly tipped Northampton MC lay in a hospital ward in Leeds, shooting pains in his temple, a drip in his stomach, his lungs on the verge of collapse. Surrounding him on the ward were elderly people “probably wondering what the fuck I was doing there,” he’s able to laugh now. At just 22 years old, Gibbs had suffered a heart attack that almost ended his life, and a flourishing career as one of British rap’s most incendiary new voices with it. Such a brush with death would stop most people in their tracks. Instead, it only sharpened Gibbs’ hunger to become a dominant new force in UK music. Within two months, ‘Lit’, a bruising new single full of pulsing grime rhythms and breathless scattergun flows from the rising star, was racking up streams and winning critical acclaim. “I could let it stop me. I could dwell on it and let it hold me back. Instead I keep moving and keep working for what I wanna achieve,” he insists, breaking into a grin. “I’m back and I’m killing this shit.” I went through times where I wanted to die and fought to get past that. I wanted to talk to someone but didn’t. The stress built up inside me and I want the younger generation to know from my music that someone else has been there and has felt that.” Nothing’s holding him back: Izzie Gibbs plans to be “back and killing this shit” for a long time to come.