Taken from the Winter 2020 issue. Order your copy now.

“I’m all about solutions. I’m all about problem-solving,” boasts 27-year-old rapper M Huncho. “I’ve always been a guy that likes maths as well.” So early on in our call, he’s already decloaking the mystique that surrounds his artistic output. If you’re not already familiar with one of the UK’s fastest rising stars in recent years, Huncho always dons a mask — and not just the surgical kind they dole out in the queue for Whole Foods.

“Coming up, people always viewed it as ‘OK, this guy’s wearing a mask and he’s kind of big. So it’s like, is he gonna kill us?’ It’s always associated with something negative,” he explains of his now-legendary grey ski mask. In reality, he just values his privacy, even if it is part of the appeal. We’re currently chatting all things DNA, his latest mixtape (and second huge release of the year) that dropped just days before our Zoom call. Like when the New Order boys made that fateful pilgrimage to Ibiza for the Second Summer of Love, Huncho and his favoured collaborator, Nafe Smallz, took a similarly fruitful journey to Barcelona back in 2019. “For me, it was a thing where we went there and we just made great music, but we weren’t even done.”

After soaking up all the Spanish city had to offer, the pair returned to London shortly thereafter, putting a hold on things to immerse themselves in their respective solo projects while DNA stewed on the back burner. When they linked up a year later, it was like no time had passed at all, and the pair went on to make even more great music. Huncho looks back on the whole process with an undeniable fondness. “It was something magical,” he says. “Now that we’ve released it, the responses we’re getting are absolutely beautiful. A lot of people love it. I feel like we’ve delivered them a solid tape.”

The mixtape itself marks “Da New Age” of music, depicting the duo in cryogenic tanks as they’re preserved for future generations to appreciate their forward-thinking, boundary-breaking approach to rap. It even comes with its own comic book. He and Smallz both went crazy on the whole thing, he says, believing that every artist plays up to this idea of a character, whether you’re a superhero or a villain — himself included (hence the mask!)

It’s hard to believe that before 2017, the rapper had never even so much as seen the inside of the studio. Involved in what he calls “a very negative lifestyle,” Huncho was drawn to the musical fore by way of his pals, often tagging along to recording sessions for the company and camaraderie that comes with unleashing lyrical spitfire on the mic. Then came an evening where his friends bounced early, with plenty of time still left on the clock. “Here’s my chance,” Huncho thought as he took to the mic, armed only with a sound engineer and a couple of bars. He’s improved by leaps and bounds since, he assures me, and that October he released his debut EP, “Get Out”, starting the ‘trapwave’ he’s surfed ever since.

Huncho coined the term early on in his career to appropriately describe his sound, a unique combination of trap — a style of slow and punchy rap that originated in Atlanta — strung together by auto-tuned vocals and a series of mellifluous melodies wholly different from those emanating from UK rap genres such as grime or drill.

“I feel like trap is not only something that has to do with selling drugs or being in a negative environment, a trap is a trap for anything,” he explains. “You can have a 9-5 that’s a trap, you can be working as anything and you’re trapping. You’re making what you can out of it. It’s people that are talking about their struggles, mixed with the wave, which is something that’s melodic. There’s a lot of flows and a lot of cadences.”

Now that we’ve established his tumultuous ascent atop the UK rap monarchy, talk turns to the past year. 2020 has been an insanely busy period for the rapper, as well as an intense time of reflection that culminated in more than a few musical endeavours. Huncho, of course, came in heavy, kicking off the new decade with his second career-defining mixtape, Hun-cholini The 1st, back in January. But two months later, before he could even take it on the road, the world stopped completely. Lockdown had abruptly entered the chat.

When I ask if coronavirus had totally fucked things, what with the absence of live shows and a chance to pay proper homage to the toils of his labour, Huncho claims no harm, never one to care about numbers or rollout strategies. “I feel like music was needed in such a time, to be honest.” Within a matter of days, the UK became a pressure cooker of toilet roll-hoarding chaos, with many facing unemployment or having to deal with the loss of friends and loved ones. It was then the tape took on an entirely different meaning to an entire nation wholly unsure of its future.

“You get people coming up to you saying ‘Look, your music saved my life,’ or ‘I was going through a bad time, contemplating suicide, and it really helped me,’” Huncho says of the project’s subsequent impact. “Coronavirus never got in-between that because I feel like the bond that you have with your fans, and the music that you release, is very appealing for a lot of people.” It might be a cheeky question to end on immediately after dropping one of the year’s best releases, but what do we reckon the star sees on next year’s horizon? “I’m probably going to deliver one of the best albums that’s come out from this country — in regards to my sound, or in regards to any type of song, really,” the rapper says matter-of-factly. I believe him, too.

“I have self-belief in myself, so I’m going to make sure that I make that possible. I’ve got another eight years — because I’m a heavy-duty truck — so I’m gonna fucking kick it into fourth gear and see where it goes. But in the next year, I’m looking to just find some inner peace, go around the world, get inspired, and just build myself and come back as an even better superhero. No kryptonite can affect me.”