Name: Marnz Malone

Where He’s From: Birmingham

When He Started: “To be honest, I can’t remember a time thar I wasn’t making music.”

Genre: Road Rap

File Next To: Mowgs, KayMuni, DoRoad

Sounds Like: “Raw and real.”

First Music That Inspired Him: “It wasn’t actually music that made me want to do music; it was my friend, Minnie. He came to see me and he was freestyling, and that inspired me to write my first rap. I was about nine years old, and that’s where it all started, really.”

Growing up, music wasn’t really played in Marnz Malone’s family home as much, but car journeys with his mum were lessons in Carribbean musical lineage. From classic dancehall to dubstep and the echoes of toasters that can be heard Stateside, every journey was eye-opening. “I specifically remember there was a battle between Vybz Kartel and Mavado, which was prominent at the time,” Marnz tells TRENCH. “My mum also played a lot of dubstep and Busta Rhymes, and then, a little later in life, my cousins Rod and Bull introduced me to Lil Wayne.”

Although he’s currently behind bars, Marnz Malone is determined not to let the system get the better of him. With the help of his team on the outside, he’s been pouring his time into music. Since 2022, he’s maintained an admirable release schedule of one full-length per year—Trenchfoot, Muktab, Tina’s Boy, and this year’s SABR. Expressing the pain and tragedy of street life in rap is well-established, but with Marnz Malone, the storytelling is visceral.

It’s been evident throughout, too, as he grapples with life behind bars and the outside world moving without him, but it was probably most striking on “I Hate January” with KayMuni, a rhymer with his own experiences of incarceration to draw from him. Together, they tell the story of the shared trauma prisoners experience at the start of the year when their loneliness and mental health issues are at their most punishing. It’s a tough listen, and the video from director Adam John Watts makes for an even tougher watch, but it showed us just how effective Marnz’s storytelling can be and how keen he is to affect change.

This desire to turn things around and make a positive impact extends behind his music, too. When we asked him about the achievements he’s most proud of, he said that what was more important to him than the chart positions and cultural impact, was a new initiative he’s been working on with his team. “Being able to start the N.A.S (Nurturing Ambition & Success) Foundation, in memory of my two friends who were named Nas that passed away, has been a real proud moment,” he said. “It’s allowed me to give back in Birmingham, and globally, in their names and really bring some smiles to their mum’s faces.”

Driven by a need to change his environment and leave the world better than he found it has given Marnz Malone’s music a substance and integrity that can’t be imitated. If he can carry this positivity with him once he’s back outside, a long and prosperous career awaits.