Industry Spotlight: Joey Clipstar
Pioneer is an increasingly elusive word. I’ve been guilty of misusing it myself; describing anybody who does the slightest thing differently to others as a game changer, someone who merely disrupts the ebbs and flow of artistic constitutionalism. The word, at its most fundamental, defines a person who explores, who seeks answers, and who emits significant change. A person who doesn’t just edit the manuscript, but rewrites, reshapes and reinvents it. Joey Clipstar is a pioneer.
Building and cementing a brand within a brand, Joey took his own outlet in Hardest Bars, which began as a chart show, and grew it into a label, community, and one of the most popular freestyle series on one of the most successful Rap channels in the country, Link Up TV. Authentic to the core, the ethos of Clipstar is deeply rooted in two main areas - discovering and helping. Joey isn’t trying to bag the biggest artist, he’s not trying to get the most views, or the most personal recognition. He wants to help the next generation of talent get the plaudits that they deserve. What better way to do so than a freestyle series?
The HB Freestyle series has featured many of the superlative rappers in the country, ranging from V9 to Bandokay, Kojey Radical to Giggs. The intention is to find the talent before it’s blown, and to give said artist that final push into wider acclaim. Having recently returned for its fourth series, the series is continuously evolving and expanding, with a gamut of talent added to its eclectic roster. With a wider yet more focused eye than ever, Joey delves into UK Drill, Real Rap, Grime, Alternative Rap and, perhaps most significantly, European Rap.
During our zoom call, I settled on a feeling of refreshment, of vitalisation, of belief in the industry; to find such a pinnacle clog in the UK rap network to be so grounded and pleasant allowed an old cynical soul like myself to rest a little easier. This is a man who is an ambassador for UK Rap, who seeks talent, finds it, consumes it and nurtures it.
I had the pleasure of connecting with Joey to talk all things Hardest Bars, the origins of his journey with Link Up TV, the nuances of discovering talent, and why Underground Rap deserves more attention.
What are you listening to?
Kenzo, a rapper from Manchester, is someone I like a lot right now. I’m a Nines-stan, I listen to his whole catalogue, he’s my go to. My Spotify playlist is always on shuffle and ranges from American to UK to Pop to Rock.
What was the origins of your journey with Link Up TV?
In 2011 I started Hardest Bars which back then which just a chart show from me and my friend where we’d count down the top five tracks of the week and used to point out the best bars in them. We did that for a year, it was around the time of the riots. All of my friends went to jail so I was by myself and felt like I needed to do something. At that time, the only chart show like that was Trevor Nelson’s ‘The Lick’ so I wanted a young, new fresh one. In November 2012, Link Up got in contact with me and they wanted to bring it onto their platform. In January, we brought it onto Link Up and they just upped the whole production value of the show and helped us get a lot more guests on. Over the years, me and Rashid naturally got closer and I started to go to shoots, meetings and watch edits etc. I was really seeing how the game works from a channel’s perspective. I moulded myself into this go to person at Link Up, and everyone started to shout me. There’s no name for it. There’s no one who can do what I do. Throughout that time, I was still doing the Hardest Bars show, until 2018 when I felt like I wanted to switch the model because it wasn’t as effective as it was when I started it. My mum was the one who said I should do a freestyle show and now we’re on Series 4.
How did you get into curating and discovering new artists?
I’m a person who was always popular in school, so when I came in I was seeing a lot of what was happening. Link Up was a predominately North West London based channel. I’m from South so I turned into the guy who started getting those guys in there, and luckily for me it paid off. I brought through the likes of Cadet, pushing people through. I was never contemplating what was popping at the time, I was always looking for the next big thing. Link Up has always had a good reputation of trying to champion the next artist coming through. I’ve always been in that mindset of helping them, so when they get big we’ve been there from the start.
Who is next up now?
Anyone who is on HB freestyle is someone who has a sound that is going to go far. There’s an artist called 32’M who’s got a lot of stuff coming. If you watch HB freestyles from the start, 60/70% of people on there are now making noise in the scene. They weren’t getting mad numbers before but I knew what they were going to do. That’s what HB freestyles are for, for people on the brink of blowing that I can give that extra push. It’s not for getting the biggest rappers, it’s for the ones that have the potential to go.
What do you think about the direction that UK Drill is heading?
I think it’s the same as Grime. It started off very underground and very niche, it had its fan base. Anything that is bubbling on the underground will eventually come above ground, it’s just natural. Right now, Drill is at a stage when it’s making history and it’s in the charts. Now there’s the TikTok Drill rappers and the bait old school samples too. I think it’s okay as long as there is a balance, which I think there is right now. People are moaning about one side but not realising that the other side still exists. There’s still that gutter Drill but people aren’t appreciating it as much as the popular Drill, because that gets marketed more because it’s more user friendly. It’s always what will be in your face, but if you’re a real fan of Drill then you’ll know where to find the authentic Drill.
I think fans get confused because they want the top artists to make the old Drill, but the old Drill isn’t going to keep them in position they are in now to make money and to tour. You can’t expect someone who is in the position to change their lives and their people’s lives to go back to old school things that are not going to get them the same success.
How do you go about deciding which artists to feature on Hardest Bars?
I’ve got a team. We don’t want people who are grassroots and fresh out their bedroom. We’re aiming for people who are consistently putting out music, that sound good and that have talent, but haven’t quite got that edge to crossover. On all the freestyles, it’s before they blow up because we want to be the ones who showcase how good they are. They need to be working, we can only help artists who are helping themselves, I can’t just find bedroom artists and make them a star. With my network around me, if you are pushing to a certain level I can come and push them to that next level so they can get the recognition that is deserved.
I really like the fact that it’s rooted in the artistic nuance and lyrical prowess. Why is that authenticity important to you?
There’s a lot of freestyle shows around right now. They all do different things. My thing is that if I’m doing one, it needs to have a USP. I’m sure they all have their own thing which they believe is their USP, but I always think that if I’m doing something that loads of people are doing, I need to do it for my own reasons and not just for the masses. Because my thing has always been helping the next generation, so I wanted to make sure that the freestyle show did that too.
One freestyle that really stood out to me was Kojey Radical. Is there room to push more alternative sounds on the platform?
Definitely. The Kojey one is one of my top three favourites ever. I’ve got another more alternative rapper on this series, Jords. These are rappers that are doing very well but I don’t think people take them in as much as they should. I feel like it’s on me to see things that I like and connect them with people and push them more. The more people that take heed of what they are doing, the more it helps. There’s so many people out here doing very good things, sometimes I feel like it’s on me to show people that it’s not all Drill or Rap. At the same time, people need to be working hard as well so it compliments each other. We need to work together.
Why do you think the more alternative artists don’t get the same level of acclaim or as big a fan base?
I think it does well but other genres do better. For instance, say Kojey drops a sick new track and Digga drops on the same day, kids will want to share Digga’s more because it’s more of what the popular kids in school are listening to. Unfortunately, he will talk about bad things that do actually happen, and the kids are interested and intrigued by it, whereas Kojey will spit something insightful and positive with great bars and flow, but it’s not cool to share that type of music for the kids. It’s a niche that is growing. It’s sort of like a guilty pleasure, people feel like they need to like what the masses like to fit in. I don’t know why aren’t they a proud fan like they are of the Drill guys. As time goes on, the sub-genres will get bigger because it’ll become more acceptable to like it out loud.
I love how you are bringing more foreign artists into the mix with the new series too! What was your thinking behind doing that?
At the end of season 3 we started to experiment. I’m always thinking about what I can do differently to other freestyle platforms. Sometimes I think we all get caught up in trying to get the same artists and it just gets boring for the consumers. I understand that people want to hear the indemand artist but if they are on every single freestyle platform doing the same thing, it just gets boring. At the end of S3, I was thinking about what I can do to keep things different and unique, so I tapped into some international artists. We did Skinny Flex’s last year and it did very well, so I saw that it was accepted and people like it. So this season I’m flooding it. We’ve dropped two international’s so far. Again, it’s just extending the help, I just want to be able to be the one to help people. Within my network, I feel like sometimes we underestimate how much we can do for others, just giving them the platform can help raise them to heights no one knows. Instead of just limiting it to the UK I wanted to go to Europe, and slowly we are going to branch out to further than Europe too, to Africa, the Caribbean, just everywhere really.
What’s your top three Hardest Bars freestyles ever?
Giggs, Kojey Radical and Lil Torments first part, just the vibe and the topic. But ask me next week and it’ll change, there’s too many.
What’s the next step of progression for Hardest Bars?
Obviously the freestyles are just one part of what we do. We are a label, every freestyle that drops is released on that. We’ve got our own singles dropping, we just dropped one - Big Jest - Rap & Drill (Fresh Home 2), that’s like a short film. We’ve got some shows coming too. We are operating as a normal label, there’s a lot of things apart from the freestyles that you won’t know about off the cusp but we are working. For me, it’s just different ways on how to help people, because that’s the thing that I love doing.