The Trinidad-born, Romford-raised artist’s debut album documents the complicated process of rising above trauma and darkness with unapologetic love “U napologetic love”: that’s what got Berwyn through his darkest times. Growing up in the UK as an undocumented immigrant was a complex and traumatic experience for the Trinidad-born, Romford-raised singer, rapper, producer, and instrumentalist. To this day, there’s anger coursing through his veins for the architects of Britain’s hostile environment policy, for the racists and bigots who targeted him when he was a kid.
All that suffering could have crushed the firmest of spirits, but Berwyn Du Bois managed to keep going. Berwyn on The Cover of NME. Credit: Tamiym for NME “There’s something about what I’ve experienced through love, both romantically and otherwise, that has empowered me in this fuckery,” he says.
“In [the song] ‘Neighbours’, when I say ‘ Fuck the neighbours, turn the music up ’, I’m blocking out the noise and experiencing my experience to the fullest through the lens of love. I’m experiencing that liberation and carelessness you only get from love.” When NME meets Berwyn on a drizzly summer morning in north London, that energy is clear to see.
He lifts the mood when he walks into the room, smiling broadly and joking that he’d rather be in the studio. An unsurprising sentiment for this serious grafter. Following the release of his Mercury Prize -nominated debut mixtape ‘Demotap.
