Shaeem Santino Wright (born 12 July 1996) known as Lord Apex, is a British MC who grew up in White City, London, United Kingdom. His music crosses multiple styles of rap, including

UK hip-hop British hip hop, also known as UK hip hop or UK rap, is a genre of music, and a culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of R&B/Hip-Hop. Britis ...

, alternative hip hop, and lo-fi hip hop.

Style and projects

Apex's stage name was inspired by hip-hop producer

Madlib Otis Jackson Jr. (born October 24, 1973), known professionally as Madlib, is an American DJ, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper. He is widely known for his collaborations with MF DOOM (as Madvillain), J Dilla (as Jaylib), and F ...

's alter ego, Quasimoto aka Lord Quas. Apex frequently states that he doesn't like to be put into any one genre with his music. Journalists, and Apex himself, often reference lo-fi, 90s US hip hop acts like

J Dilla J, or j, is the tenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is ''jay'' (pronounced ), with a now-uncommon vari ...

and

MF Doom Daniel Dumile ( ; July 13, 1971October 31, 2020), best known by his stage name MF Doom or simply Doom (both stylized in all caps), was a British-American rapper and record producer. Noted for his intricate wordplay, signature metal mask, and ...

as influences. He often also talks about his love for

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

and

vintage clothing Vintage clothing is a generic term for garments originating from a previous era, as recent as the 1990s. The term can also be applied in reference to second hand retail outlets, e.g. i''n vintage clothing store''. While the concept originate ...

, both of which have inspired the visuals for his music and his general aesthetic. Since releasing his first track in 2014, Apex has seen over 7 million views on his

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

channel, with 50,000 subscribers as of February 2021. Apex also appeared on the popular German music YouTube channel COLORS, where he performed his track Vintage Garms. He has also featured in promotions, and released his own radio segment, for the US hip hop affiliated

workwear Workwear is clothing worn for work, especially work that involves manual labour. Often those employed within trade industries elect to be outfitted in workwear because it is built to provide durability and safety. The workwear clothing industry i ...

brand

Carhartt Carhartt, Inc. is an American apparel company founded in 1889, known for heavy-duty working clothes such as jackets, coats, overalls, coveralls, vests, shirts, jeans, dungarees, fire-resistant clothing and hunting apparel. Carhartt remains a fami ...

. In 2020 he released a studio album with New York-based producer V-Don called Supply and Demand. Reviewers noted Apex's "swaggering and ominous" vocal delivery and "off-kilter flow" throughout the Supply and Demand project. The album featured several other prominent American rappers, such as Murs of

Rhymesayers Entertainment Rhymesayers Entertainment (sometimes abbreviated RSE) is an American independent hip-hop record label based in Minneapolis. History Rhymesayers Entertainment was co-founded in 1995 by Sean Daley ( Slug), Anthony Davis ( Ant), Musab Saad ( Sab ...

and

CJ Fly Chaine St. Aubin Downer Jr. (born July 6, 1993), better known by his stage name CJ Fly, is an American rapper and producer from Brooklyn, New York City. He is a founding member and the oldest member of the hip-hop collective group Pro Era. Throu ...

of the

Pro Era Pro Era (short for The Progressive Era) is an American hip hop collective group from Brooklyn, New York. The group is a collective of rappers and record producers that includes East Coast rappers Joey Badass, CJ Fly, Kirk Knight, Nyck Caution, ...

collective. Another feature on the record was from New York's Westside Gunn, formerly of

Shady Records Shady Records is an American record label founded by rapper Eminem and his manager Paul Rosenberg, after the highly successful release of Eminem's '' The Slim Shady LP'' (1999). Shady has seen negative times when being part of the unsuccessful ...

, on the deluxe version track London Fog. As well as his collaboration with Carhartt, he was also part of a promotional campaign for musical equipment maker Novation Digital Music Systems, featuring a live performance of his track Miyagi Blueprint using their Launchpad X. In 2020 Lord Apex was nominated for a

UK Music Video Award The UK Music Video Awards is an annual celebration of creativity, technical excellence and innovation in music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for ...

in the Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video Newcomer category, for his video with Kam-Bu entitled Different. In January 2021, he featured on Complex's 21 UK Rappers to Watch in 2021 list, in which they said he is "perfectly positioned to rise to the top."

Touring career

* Black on Both Sides 20th Anniversary Tour w/ Yasiin Bey (April 2020)

Discography

Albums/Mixtapes

* ''Virtual Dojo 1996'' (2014) * ''Hyōkō Meisō (elevation/meditation)'' (2015) * ''HMEM2'' (2016) * ''Smoke Sessions, Volume One'' (2016) * ''Interplanetary Funk'' (2017) * ''Smoke Sessions, Vol. 2'' (2019) * ''HIGHSOLATION'' (2020) * ''Supply & Demand'' (with V Don) (2020) * ''Smoke Sessions 3'' (2021) * ''Off the Strength'' (2022)

EPs

* ''Gxlden Era'' (as Tino Apex) (2013) * ''C.R.A.T.E. Diggin (as Tino Apex) (2013) * ''Sounds of the Blade'' (with Tunami) (2015) * ''Live from Los Santos'' (with N2Deep) (2015) * ''Vinyl Dust'' (2016) * ''Lord Vibes'' (with Lo Vibe) (2016) * ''Bamboo Forest'' (with Walterwarm) (2016) * ''Cosmos/Genesis'' (2016) * ''Stuck in Motion'' (with Finn Foxell and Flowzart) (2018) * ''S.O.I.L'' (with The Kount) (2018) * ''Darkskies'' (with Bushi Vibes) (2020)

References

{{Reflist English male rappers Living people 1996 births