M1onTheBeat The Mixtape

Destiny meets raw street energy on *The Mixtape*, the first full-length project from North London hitmaker M1onthebeat. More than six years on from his 2017 breakthrough—cooking up sinister drill beats across OFB and Headie One’s early rise—the former Broadwater Farm resident, who found his alias via a combination of his name (Moses) and favourite number, taps an elite gallery of talents for this stunning mission statement on the future of British rap. “My job here is to help *everyone* in the UK,” M1onthebeat tells Apple Music, highlighting involvement for Essex spitter French The Kid and Huddersfield’s Booter Bee. “This is an accurate display of our music and our lifestyle, this is what’s actually happening in drill \[music\]. I had to reach further out.” When the producer’s iconic tag intro-ed Drake and Headie One’s “Only You Freestyle” in 2020, their landmark linkup not only propelled the UK’s strain of the Chicago-bred sound into the charts, but also inspired the lead sessions for this debut project. Here, M1 handily elevates the sound of a moody, restless generation of MCs—including Digga D, Cristale, Nemzzz, and SL—united under its capacity for hyperbolic lyricism and true expression. It’s a vital rebuff to fears the sound would eventually grow stale and formulaic. And these 15 tracks lay the canvas for the UK’s best to explore the depths of ambition (“Hustle Can’t Die”), fear, and loathing in London (“Tape”), with just enough experiment (as R&B-meets-drill on closer “Hear no Evil, See No Evil”). “I know who everyone in the country is listening to,” he adds. “So I had to make those calls—and bring that collective feel.”