Where Are They Now: G FrSH [@Gfrsh]

You have to respect G FrSH, and looking at his career it’s good to see him winning.

G FrSH is one of the most important figures in the UK’s music scene, but he’s not always one that gets the credit. His career has been varied, and his popularity has had its ups and downs the same as any other artist. What makes G FrSH special though is his ability to adapt and be innovative whilst remaining relevant.

G FrSH started his career as a rapper and released some of his earliest work as a member of the FrSH collective. Back in 2007, the collective released their Oh Sh*t project, and that same year G dropped his first solo body of work Mr Bigwillyflysh*t. Even all those years ago G‘s presence was known as he can boast bringing in the likes of Stylo G, Blade Brown and Mike GLC on his first solo body of work.

But it wasn’t until a little later on with his breakout project Legoman – Where’s My Brick that people really started paying him attention. The project boasted three singles that gained quite a lot of traction: ‘Urgh’, ‘Black Batman’, and ‘Afar’. It also boasted another impressive line up of features calling in Wretch 32, Scorcher, and most importantly to this story Tinie Tempah. The Tinie collab is so important because it came in 2010 which was the year Tinie went number 1 with his single ‘Pass Out’ as well as dropping his debut album Dis-Covery. So G was working with Tinie in the run up to what became one of, if not the most, dominant runs in music from someone to come from the Grime era.

At the same time as G was getting traction, he was selling merchandise to go along with the music. He had a clothing line heavily tying into the FrSH collective. This was a big move and one that was slightly ahead of its time, at least for his fanbase. This fashion element played a part in the roll out of his Alfie project which got T-Shirts and Jumpers to go along with it. With that one, the quality went up, but in the years between then and now the website that stocked all FrSH clothing has closed down.

Musically G went in a different direction to the scene. Despite the success of Legoman he didn’t rest on his laurels and worked on pushing the boat out musically. He followed up Legoman with a shorter release Purgatory which still stands out as sounding like nothing else that’s been produced in the UK scene. That didn’t do as well, with fans not seeming to appreciate the change in sound. G then came back in 2013 with Legoman 2 and gave fans the sound they wanted. Again he brought in the hottest talent at the time with names like Cashh (Cashtastic), Krept & Konan, and a whole host more including some returners like Blade Brown and Lefty London.

Then a year later he dropped Alfie. Alfie was a conceptual project based around the themes of the film of the same name. It is also undoubtedly G FrSH‘s best project, and from start to finish it is a masterpiece. Like with Purgatory, however, he chose not to go with the most popular sounds of the time and instead carved his own little niche on the project. One of its singles ‘Sometimes’ got a great response and was released as a solo single with an additional Stormzy verse on it. Despite this being a huge success, it was even nominated for a GRM award, that was, unfortunately, his last project as an artist to date.

But that’s of course not the end of the story. The early collaboration with Tinie Tempah definitely paid off just not in the way expected. Rather than ending up a prominent artist on his Disturbing London label, G took up the role as an artist manager. He currently, and has for a while, been in charge of one of the hottest properties in the scene Yxng Bane and has taken him from strength to strength. Beyond joining the Disturbing London team, G FrSH has also had a hand in the culturally important Prince of Peckham pub so he may not be in the limelight like he once was but he’s definitely doing well.