Peckham rapper PS Hitsquad has released his debut studio album, Life On Licence, the fullest statement yet from an artist whose career has swung between viral rap success and real hardship, Clash reported in a Next Wave profile. The record lands years after his 2022 sentencing on drug-related offences, a stretch inside that cost him the rollout of his earlier mixtape, Community Service.
PS Hitsquad traces his knack for words to a school poetry assignment: "I just remember the feeling of euphoria," he told Clash, recalling how he loved playing with words and double entendres and performing them for family long before he ever picked up a mic.
He first sharpened that style as part of Zone 2, the Peckham collective that also includes Kwengface, Trizzac, Karma, Snoop and LR, rapping across drill tracks like "Zone 2 Step," "Sticks and Stones" and "One Nizzy" before Fire In The Booth and Fumez The Engineer's Plugged In series carried his flow past the genre's usual audience. Prison, he has said, left him "looking in the mirror and seeing the good and bad sides" of his own life.
Life On Licence pushes past the drill scene that made his name, an arc PS Hitsquad calls his "post-drill" era. "I want to make good music rather than just jump on the same beat talking about the same, old stuff," he said, describing an album built around growth, diversity and versatility even as drill stays part of his foundation.
The album pulls in outside voices too, with production from Chicago drill figure DJ L alongside Jayco and Thankutimmy, stitching PS Hitsquad's South London delivery to a harder, transatlantic sound. He doesn't see himself staying a local name: "I don't want to restrict something like a dream. I want to take this thing global," he said.
Life On Licence is out now, one of the week's arrivals on the release calendar for UK hip-hop, with listeners watching whether more melodic, post-punk-inflected songs like recent single "Chasing My Grave" carry PS Hitsquad beyond the drill audience that first noticed him.
The facts
- Debut studio album titled "Life On Licence"
- Debut mixtape was Community Service, delayed by a 2022 prison sentence
- Album features US producers DJ L, Jayco and Thankutimmy
- Recorded early drill tracks with Peckham collective Zone 2 alongside Kwengface, Trizzac, Karma, Snoop and LR
- Recent single "Chasing My Grave" blends post-punk with melodic rap
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