Name: SD Muni

Where He’s From: Hackney, East London

Genre: UK drill/UK rap

File Next To: Fizzler, OFB, Teeway, Loski

When He Started: “‘The Start’ was one of my first songs, and that was a year ago. That’s mad, still; it’s only been a year! There was one with my mates and one by myself, and they’re both still up there on my SoundCloud—they were the first songs I did.”

Sounds Like: “I like to separate myself from other rappers... I know that wordplay is something that a lot of other rappers can’t do in the same way.”

First Music That Inspired Him: “It was an artist based in Hackney called Kilo Keemzo. He was the only artist who was rapping in my area. I don’t know if you’ve heard of [Kilo’s 2015 cut] ‘Healthy’? It was when he dropped that and a couple of other songs that I got into music.”

The words “meteoric rise” are often thrown about recklessly in the music industry, but with SD Muni, it’s tough to describe his arrival any other way. Two years ago he uploaded “What’s Good” to his SoundCloud page, tackling a moody, piano-centred drill beat with a confidence beyond his years. At first glance, lines like “when I grind, I’ma keep it consistent”might have seemed like idle boasting, but given everything that came after, these turned out to be mission statements. Much of Muni’s success can be traced back to “What’s Good”. In fact, it was the track’s preview that landed him a deal with WEAREBLK, the label co-run by AbdiTV and IMJUSTBAIT mastermind Antz. Soon after, they began plotting Muni’s rise—kicking off with “The Start” in May last year—and within months, he was a hot property, with every major platform hitting him up for a freestyle.

What makes SD Muni such an exciting prospect is that he’s the complete package. As young as 14 years old, he was putting pen to paper, tirelessly sharpening his pen game before even recording a single bar—and it shows. His style is intricate, almost stream-of-consciousness, with lines often running over and into each other to create gems like, “This one with authority got deep wounds/Never had an a Polo G/I ain’t into some brands but I feel her.” In fact, the entirety of “No Cap” is a masterclass in contorting song structure and doubled-up rhyme schemes.

His other key asset is that he’s trying to bring something else to the table. Drill can often be a bleak affair, but Muni wants to do things a little differently. “Every drill rapper sounds the same,” he tells TRENCH. “There’s nothing special with it. I’m just trying to do something more positive.” Case in point: his most recent freestyle, “Slide”, uses a drill instrumental produced by Ransom and Elvis that was built around a sample of Gotye’s 2011 earworm, “Somebody That I Used To Love”. As sample-based drill continues to thrive, SD Muni’s turning the selection process into an art form. 2022 is his for the taking.