Ahead of their sold-out Birmingham show at the O2 Institute in March, Burn FM’s Char Stape caught up with five out of the six members of NSG. Although busy planning global domination and upcoming trips to Mars, the entertaining group made time to discuss their successful dance craze and play the ‘Options Game’. Having known each other since secondary school, their tight bond is immediately evident as they laugh and joke with one another throughout. NSG are a breath of fresh air, their sound is unique and their charisma is attractive, whilst also remaining surprisingly humble. Follow their advice on breaking the music industry and you too could be ‘rockstarin’ with Post Malone one day.
I’m here today on behalf of Burn FM, my Uni radio station, and the SRA. Are all six of you there right now?
Yeah, well five out of six at the moment. We’re good to go though.
Calm. That’s quite a rare number for a group so I was wondering how you balance the work?
We make it happen. We vibe with each other and just make sure the end result is of top quality.
And you’ve known each other since secondary school, right?
Yeah literally, grown up together in the same area. Five out of six went to the same school. Yeah, it’s vibes.
So you must be quite close then?
Yeah, we have chemistry one-hundred.
Is there a responsible member of your group?
Yeah, the one speaking, Abz…that’s the responsible one.
I actually saw Abz on your Instagram live the other day.
Ah you tuned in, did you enjoy it?
Yeah I tuned in, it was entertaining.
Yeah man, vibes. Which one did you see, the one I was ranting?
(Laughing) Yeah.
Yeah come on. They need to put respect on our name, do you understand?
Yeah. Your most recent release is Options, which has been really successful so congratulations for that.
Thank you, thank you.
I really like it, I think it’s a sick song. It seems since then your exposure has massively increased so I was wondering if it was your intention to start the dance trend that I see everywhere on social media at the moment?
Yeah it was definitely our intention to start the dance trend. It started literally from us recording the song here, then Jae5 made a beat and literally we were dancing in the studio.
The dance came with it straight away then?
Yeah literally. We were like we need to get this whole vibe out to the real world and they can also feel the vibe that we had. Even when you hear the song, I feel like everybody who didn’t do a dance, when you hear the song you just wanna dance, it makes you wanna move. It’s that kick at the start that’s just amazing and it makes you wanna move and dance. (Singing).
I tried it as well but I’m rubbish at dancing.
You gotta keep trying man. Reach out to us on the gram.
Will it get a repost?
Yeah man of course. Do it, get that out there. Show the world that everyone can dance.
I’ll get my Uni mates on it as well.
(Laughing) Sick.
I was thinking that because of your song Options, we could play a little game relating to it. It’s a bit like ‘Would You Rather,’ but basically, I’m just going to ask you a question and you have to choose Option A or Option B.
Fair enough, that sounds sick.
There’s actually 5 questions I think so you could do one each or something? Okay, first one. I saw you on Chicken Shop Date on Youtube, so the question is: Who would you rather take on a date, Option A: Amelia Dimz or Option B: Amelia Monet?
MJ’s gonna answer this one…Umm Amelia A…Which one’s Option A?
Option A is Amelia Dimz, Chicken Shop girl. Is that your choice?
Yeah.
So you like a girl with a bit of personality and banter?
Yeah, that’s it.
On this date, where would you take Amelia, Option A: would you go to a chicken shop or Option B: would you go somewhere like Gauchos?
Gauchos…
Alright then, next question. Which overseas star would you rather do a collab with, Option A: Sean Paul or Option B: Post Malone?
Dope’s gonna answer…Post Malone.
You met him at Wireless didn’t you?
Yeah we did, he was cool. He was right by us, same backstage, caravan was right next to us. We were rockstarin’ together. Yeah he said ‘guys you’re the rockstars man’.
Are you big fans of him then?
Yeah 100%. The guy is talented.
And you rate Sean Paul as well?
HIGHLY.
Apart from them, do you have any other collabs for the future?
For the future? Rihanna. Abz would love to work with Rihanna.
She’s not doing music at the moment is she? You’ll have to get her back in the game.
Trust me, we’re gonna get her back in the game. We’ve already messaged her.
Alright, next one. Out of your two songs with Geko, which do you prefer, Option A: 6:30 or Option B: Yo Darlin’?
OGD is answering. Yo Darlin’
Did you have more of a contribution in that one?
It’s sick. Yeah, it’s the contribution.
C: And I saw that they both went silver recently!
Yeah, big up all the supporters, everyone. Love.
That’s really sick. Are you really starting to see the rewards for your work then?
Yeah 100%. It’s why we’ve been doing this stuff.
I think it’s sick that you’ve achieved it independently as well.
We’re pushing harder. Independently it feels better as well, you know that everything has been from hard work and just non-stop grinding.
Yeah definitely. Because you’re independent now, and you’ve been independent since you’ve started really, do you have any plans to sign to a label or do you reckon you could just stay independent?
You can’t say. It’s the unexpected, anything’s possible. We understand what a label can bring to us at the table and we understand what we can do for ourselves.
When there are six of you I’m sure that everyone’s ideas and everyone’s work put together must make such good music anyway.
Yeah.
Has everyone done a question because there’s 1 left? Which city would you rather perform in, Option A: Birmingham or Option B: London?
Ahhh this is a set up. Big up our Birmingham people, but come on it’s hometown man. Hometown all day.
Do you have any plans to come to Brum soon?
Yeah, on the 13th March, Birmingham, sold out. I would say buy a ticket but it’s sold out but see you in March at the O2 Institute.
O2 Institute on the 13th of March and it’s sold out, that’s wicked. Congratulations on that!
The support’s been crazy recently, bare love. Bare love to everyone.
So, you chose London. I assume you’ve performed in London quite a lot?
Yeah, not a lot, but we’ve performed in London a bit.
And didn’t you warm up for J Hus?
Yeah we did, that was last year.
I love J Hus. The vibes performing to a home crowd must’ve been sick as well.
Ahh it’s the best. When you’re performing where you’re from, London, sometimes you look in the crowd and see people that you grew up with, people that went to your college, your secondary school. It’s amazing, there’s always so much energy. They relate to you cos you were once in the crowd with them watching someone else perform. Sometimes you see the haters who thought you wouldn’t make it as well.
With six of you, it must be so lively on stage.
Have you seen an NSG show before?
No, I’ve never been. I want to come definitely!
Your concept of us will change forever.
I’ve been a big fan so I’d definitely like to come to a show.
We appreciate that. We should be able to sort you something out in London. Yeah, Charlotte tell us when and we’ll work something out in London…or even Birmingham.
Yeah, we’ll have to sort something out definitely.
Gang.
Are you able to talk about your plans for the future? Where do you see yourself? You’ve been going for about six years now so, in six years down the line, where would you like to be?
Global success.
Global domination?
All of that, literally that’s the long-term goal – to be the greatest boy band in the world. It’ll be wild. We’ll be the first group to perform on Mars.
(Laughing) Did you say first performing on Mars?
Yeah literally, we’re taking over everything.
I rate that.
If we take over Earth then we need a next place now. Look at it, it’s bigger than just the Earth. Obviously the world is there and then the whole solar system so we’re taking Mars and then probably go vibe on the Sun.
Yeah you may as well take over all the planets after that. You could even have Rihanna contacting you for a collab.
You know what I’m saying. Listen, you’re getting me.
Abz described your music as a unique sound, how else would the rest of you describe it?
Well me, Kruddz, I would describe it as so unique, like one in a million. You don’t really hear 6 guys vibe culturally and endorsing where they’re from. Vibing and syncing on the same song together, that’s one in a million, you hardly get that ever.
Yeah, I don’t really know of many other (rap) groups that have 6 people in it.
The chemistry’s there, the vibe is there…
It’s unique definitely.
Love for that. Bare love.
You say that you were the first people to blend African and dancehall and it didn’t work for you at first did it?
Nah it definitely worked but it didn’t work out for our audience.
Yeah you said that it wasn’t appreciated as much as it should’ve been?
Even though we say that, there were a lot of people supporting us as well. Every time there’s something new, you’ve got to argue with that graft, do you like this or do you not? It was new so some people were used to it and some people weren’t. It was actually a split argument, some people were like ‘I like this’ and some people were like ‘I don’t like this’.
So what advice would you have for someone that was starting out and maybe they weren’t being received as well as they wanted to be?
JUST DO IT! Literally, just do it. Anything new will always get that question mark around it, but after a while everyone adapts. Once you adapt to something it’s just about going to fall in love with it. Any idea that you’ve got, if you question it yourself…that means it’s new, it’s fresh so it’s just about brushing up the idea and perfecting it. Everything that is new is gonna be questioned.
It’s good to be individual and unique though right?
100%.
That’s pretty much all my questions, thanks for talking to me. I think you’ve got a lot more to show to everyone so good luck for the future.
Thank you so much for having us and listening to us.
Yeah cheers, and we’ll have to sort something out about one of your shows.
100%, Charlotte from Burn FM yeah? Gang gang, we got you.
Check out the interview here:
