Heatseeker: Scrufizzer
He’s been labelled as ’The one to watch in 2013’ by The Independent in the UK and crowned by critics as the new Dizzee Rascal. MC Romani Lorenzo, AKA Scrufizzer has had a huge 2013. After a string of successful mixtapes and featured spots on tracks by MJ Cole, Ed Sheeran, Angel Haze, Skream, Danny Brown and the most notable grime-pop crossover Dizzee Rascal, Scru was picked up by Stay Fizzy Records (under Ministry Of Sound) which saw him among the likes of DJ Fresh and Example for his debut single released in January this year. Around the same time he went on tour in the UK with none other than Kendrick Lamar in January and performed a string major festivals including FSTVL, Lovebox, Global Gathering, Reading and Leeds festivals.
Scrufizzer seamlessly combines the sounds of soul and jazz with the Grimey sounds of the UK underground and his intricate flows and passionate lyrics, combined with cutting-edge backing tracks, make for an unstoppable and very sellable combination. In May this year he signed with Black butter records (out through Polydor) who released his most recent single Kick It which debuted at #62 on the UK singles chart this week, and has amassed over 200,000 plays on YouTube. With a head-nod-inducing backbeat produced by UK Garage legend Zed Bias (See: how Disclosure got their sound), Kick it plays on the current Deep House craze existing comfortably in the same realm as current commercial dance crossover artists Flume, Disclosure, Rudimental and Ben Pearce. Check out the track here.
While he’s yet to break commercial radio in the UK, he’s already conquered the underground with love from BBC1’s taste maker Zane Lowe and influential dance station Rinse FM. Following in the footsteps of Grime heavyweights Dizzee Rascal and Wiley who have both enjoyed attention on our shores from independent and commercial stations. We’re not saying it’ll happen right away, but keep an eye out; we can see this track right at home on any of the Australian alternative stations and if he keeps his output high and consistent we may even see Scrufizzer make the jump to the commercials.