Lethal Bizzle claims social media has been a ‘game changer’ for his career: ‘It’s cut out the middle man’

Lethal Bizzle has said social media has been a “game changer” for his career as he no longer has to conform to industry norms.

The London-born artist, real name Maxwell Ansah, saw his hit POW banned from venues and commercial radio stations in 2004 over controversial lyrics.

He told A list: “The power of social media has got rid of the middle man. It’s like if you don’t want to play us [on the radio] it doesn’t matter we’re still going to chart.

“Before you had to conform to make music, but now social media gives you that platform to let you speak direct to your fans. For me it’s been a game changer.

"I started studying it a few years ago because I didn’t want to conform to the industry or the radio.”

He said he also uses it to gauge fan reactions and dropped his most recent single Flex months earlier than planned as fans were “hungry” for the track after he tweeted a teaser clip.

"I made it in March and I wasn’t going to drop it so soon,” he said. “But I was in the studio and I showed them a clip and my social media went mental.

"I had other artists calling me and they were saying ‘bro you need to drop that now’. I had to get it mixed and mastered because they were hungry for it so I dropped it.”

He encouraged young artists to use social media “100 percent” as it exposes them to fan bases worldwide.

“Radio is slipping down,” he said. “People want to consume music now through playlists. They make their own little albums. Streaming is worldwide so you can reach a wider audience. There are so many different avenues. I’ve discovered so many songs through memes.”

Bizzle has teamed up with mysnapp – a new app for fans to shop fashion from music videos.

He designed two t-shirts for the launch which feature in the video for his single Flex. The rapper, who owns online fashion retailer Stay Dench, said he is keen to showcase his designs on the catwalk.

He said: “It will be in the pipeline. I went to my first fashion week show [this year] and I got really inspired and I was speaking to my management about doing something like that. Even if the line doesn’t get released it’s a good showcase of the brand.”