Get to know: Chinx (OS)

On the day of his debut mixtape ‘One Sided Story’, dropping and a scheduled pop-up appearance North-West London rapper Chinx finds time whilst enjoying this newly achieved milestone to talk about the project and talk about his journey.

Taking in the initial responses on the “big day”, Chinx remarks "I’m just trying to enjoy the moment for as long as I can”, revealing more as he talks about his own excitement for his project. “I’ve never done this before and it’s been a lot of hard work.”

Reflecting on making the mixtape he responds “ It was a headache you know. I’ve got support from the people around me but I’m a fully independent artist so everything we’re doing we’re doing ourselves.”

“So, it’s hard work man, I’ll be honest it’s a lot of grind but everyone around me wants it, desired and is determined to achieve the mission. It makes it easier to be around people on the same mission as you

‘One Sided Story’ consists of 17 diverse tracks that each provide a glance into who Chinx is, he experiments with Grime, Drill and rap instrumentals, as well as covering a wide range of subject matters in his music keeping his authenticity.

Asking about the curation of songs on the project and how he decided which songs made the cut he said “You know what yeah? I never actually planned to do a tape until late last year. I think about August or September I decided to give them a tape.”

“So from then I probably had about twenty songs and then I made another twelve songs. Out of the original twenty, some of them were already released. To narrow it down was a problem.”

‘One Sided Story’ acts like an insightful introduction to the young rapper and talking about what he wants people to take from the project he says “I wasn’t trying to set high expectations or achieve crazy targets this was more for my fans to know more about me.”

Showcasing his versatility on the tape he explores a different range of sounds and subject matters going from being active on the streets to reflecting on his experience in jail to Romanising girls whilst maintaining authenticity.

“ I just wanted to make a little something for everyone”, Chinx remarks before going on to say that each track is just a different version of the rapper.

"That’s really what I was aiming for. When you see me come in on drill, I come in very raw but I wanted people to see a different side to me.”

Sharing how he started making music in prison, Chinx explains “Two years into my sentence I was in Belmarsh and there was a guy called Mike from outside and he’d host a rap session every two weeks on Friday called freestyle Friday. People from different wings would all link up and spray bars.”

“At first, I wasn’t really comfortable rapping but I’ve always had a good ear for music. I used to listen to people at first, and when you go the freestyle Fridays you use to get a cd to go back to your cell full of instrumentals, I started rapping.”

“It was more for myself, to be honest, I never really thought about coming out and rapping. It was more to pass the time, and get things off of my chest until one day Mike drew me out. Luckily, I was ready that day and had bars from when I was writing in my cell.”

Gradually he began to rap more and more gaining confidence and having fun in the process. But it wasn’t until he was leaving prison that he started to consider a potential career in music.

Attempting to figure out what he wanted to do, when he started getting rapping in front of more people, Chinx said “I kept hearing your hard you should rap” and then the response from the Instagram freestyle solidified the belief.

Already experienced with the censorship of the police and the stifling of his self-expression, Chix has proven he has the drive to endure difficult moments. And with his debut mixtape ‘One Sided Story’ showcasing his undeniable talent, we cannot wait to see the rest of his rise unfold.

Listen to the full mixtape below