Name: N3

Where He’s From: Luton

When He Started: “I wrote my first bar in around 2016 but didn’t take it seriously until 2019.”

Genre: Grime

File Next To: Logan_OLM, Kruz Leone, Teewhy

Sounds Like: “I would define my sound as highly energetic, yet lyrically impactful. While I have the catchy one-liners that can get a crowd going—‘Wollan!’, for example—I’m also able to get into a lyrical bag and equip punchlines, wordplay and unpredictable flows to my arsenal to engage my audience.”

First Music That Inspired Him: “I wouldn’t necessarily say there was a first song that made me want to make music; it was more of a mix of me listening to ‘90s hip-hop when I was younger, mainly the likes of Eminem and N.W.A, and being young watching Bars & Melody get the Golden Buzzer on Britain’s Got Talent in 2014. I know Bars & Melody is a weird shout, but it’s more of a thing where they were a young duo, not much older than myself at the time, on national TV rapping and singing and getting the Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell. It was inspiring at the time.”

Luton-born N3, aka BigManBars, has been tipped for greatness by seemingly the entire scene. He was a standout at TRENCH’s SXSW London takeover last year where DJ Mak 10 held him up as one of the leaders of Grime 3.0, and most recently, he hit the remix of Manga Saint Hilare’s viral smash, “In The Dance”, like a tornado. The grime bug got N3 early on. Channel AKA (fka Channel U; R.I.P.) caught him young and by his early teens, he was already recording music under the name N.E.T. He’s since graduated from the Music Performance & Production course at ELAM (East London Arts & Music) and at just 18, he’s a fully-formed MC with a thundering on-mic presence and a delivery that could level a building.

It should come as no surprise that he holds P Money up as a key influence, someone whose flawless clarity on the mic has set the standard for countless MCs who followed. “One main freestyle I always find myself revisiting from time to time is his JDZ Media Road Rage,” N3 tells TRENCH. “Within this freestyle, he was able to showcase his lyrical ability through clever schemes, strong punchlines and wordplay, whilst also having catchy and memorable bars throughout the freestyle.” N3’s latest track, “9MM”, carries the most direct ties to the OGz legend. They may be from opposite ends of (greater) London, but you can hear the lessons learned in N3’s rapid-fire bars and the power he throws behind every syllable.

It’s hard to process just how quickly N3 has progressed, from writing his first bars as a pre-teen to putting on his own headline show/listening party for his debut tape, 2000 Hours, in just five years. That’s impressive enough, but he had DJ Amber Rose, ZENG Sounds, Louis Chase, Eze, InfamousIzak, Manga Saint Hilare, Paul Stephan, Kruz Leone, Duppy, Logan, Jamakabi, Scorcher, Mimi Mxnroe and more all on the bill with him. Unfazed by that impressive feat, he’s not taking the foot off the gas and already looking ahead to his debut album and the possibility of a UK tour. And, he says, he hopes to pull that off in the next two years. A MOBO nomination for Best Grime Act? It could happen sooner than you or even he might think.