Falliey - What You Know Prereview
Portsmouth-based UK rap emcee Falliey (pronounced fa•lee) releases What You Know tomorrow on Thursday, 17th December 2020. What You Know features Simba and Baby Panna, and marks the end of a successful first year in the rap game for Falliey who said of the track “It’s gritty, it’s dark, and that’s intended”. Read on as we speak with Falliey himself on the collaborative effort of the single, and where he thinks the Portsmouth rap scene is headed.
What You Know is a high-paced track with trap drums and vehement vocals that make for an intense pre-workout pump up tune. The hook shows the emerging Portsmouth scene's hustler mentality, questioning: What you know about putting in work? What you know about grinding, making diamonds yeah that’s straight out dirt // They talk about this, they talk about that but how come we see no work? Can’t talk about me I’m turnt.
On the opportunity in the city of Portsmouth, Falliey, who comes from South East London with plans to relocate to his student town, proclaims “It’s different...you don’t know unless you’re here. There’s so much talent, and there’s so much opportunity. Here, everybody wants to work together, everybody wants to do their thing.”
He continued: “Because the city’s young and the whole scene is young, it’s like yo, we can all do this together, we can all just come up as a big storm. Rather than just one person busting the door open and bringing like one or two people with them, we can all just bust the door open together - like other cities have done but, you know, a bit stronger.”
The Portsmouth University Digital Marketing student has always lived in a musical household, and - much like his affiliates - is proficient enough to create content across a range of mediums. Video editing, photo editing, producing, mixing and emceeing are a few of Falliey’s capabilities - a flexibility that’s allowed for some first-rate content to have come out of Portsmouth, as we’ve seen, that is increasingly engaging. Guildhall 60 Second Freestyle is the name of one of the arising series of Bullet ‘n’ The Gun, the nom de producteur of Falliey and manager Nimi Neutron in collaboration, which exhibits Portsmouth artists freestyling in front of the famed Portsmouth Guildhall building.
“Once you’ve seen the talent that is around here, it is crazy to turn away,” Falliey explained in an interview with SOuthside. “There’s something to be done here, and that’s why we went ahead with doing the Guildhall Freestyles; to bring exposure to other artists. That’s gonna be starting in the new year - we’ve already recorded a couple.
“Doing it on those steps is not just a coincidence. Everyone knows those steps, everyone’s walked by those steps. You walk by, you look up. It’s massive, it’s big, and that’s what we’re trying to say: we’re having a big moment here, come to the steps and let the city know what you have to say. It’s not just about me progressing or whatever, it’s about everyone.”
On the track set to release tomorrow, What You Know, where three emcees bounce off one another’s rhymes, Falliey said: “Simba’s got his own style, and it’s unique. It brings a certain type of seasoning to the track, definitely. Especially coming after my voice and jumping into his, it’s like oh, woah, like this is a bit of a rollercoaster going on here but I’m here for the ride, do you know what I mean. With the beat switch and Panna being the artist that he is, he can just attack anything...so with Panna coming in and switching up the wave, you just get gassed Panna’s coming in, like, what’s he gonna do? So yeah, it’s really cool.”
One standout bar in What You Know from Panna, the previous SOuthside guest writer, that rolls into Falliey taking over states:
Panna: Any time you see me know I’m far away from trouble but, If I got the duffle bag I’m not building muscle man
Falliey: And all I know is hustle man, I’m tryna stack the cash until it’s snapping all my rubber bands
“If there’s anyone for us to compete with, it’s Southampton”
What You Know demonstrates a profound collaborative effort, and Falliey expresses his determination for the scene down in the PO. “In a scene like Portsmouth, I feel like collaboration is better than competition”, he details. “I feel like competition right now is not gonna get us anywhere; everyone needs to be working together and going ahead.
“I feel like if there’s anyone for us to compete with, it’s Southampton. You feel me?” He explains through laughter: “We got rivals over there, we don’t need to rival each other, you know what I mean? It’s just about coming up together right now, and in the future who knows what happens.”
Falliey’s ambitious and passionate single drops tomorrow, Thursday the 17th of December. Stay tuned to SOuthside on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for regular updates on hip hop across the South Coast - including Falliey, Simba and Baby Panna - as well as for the link to the anticipated What You Know tomorrow afternoon.