"Billionz Affair": A Conversation with Equation Billionz

Interview by Imani Dominique Busby

Photography provided by Wanderstar Creative

We sat down with UK-based rapper, Equation Billionz for an insightful conversation where we learned the influence of his London roots, his artistic aspirations, and the pivotal impact of his viral song "Broken Hearted Crook - Remix".

Please tell us a bit about yourself and your introduction to making music?

My name is Equation Billionz. I'm from the UK, Kent, specifically. I'm 22 and I started making music around the age of 13. I've just been progressing since then, in different genres, Afrobeats, Rap, melodic stuff. So yeah, I'm here now. Still on my way, still on the journey.

How has being in the UK shaped your sound, if it has at all?

Well, specifically, London and Kent. Kent is just outside London, but it shaped my sound in a way where I've been able to be authentic and stay to myself. True to myself and the influences around me, the places I've grown up. I've used these three different influences to bring my style together as one and make it original.

Speaking of influences, which artists did you grow up listening to, and how have they influenced your music today?

I listened to a lot of Drake growing up. Also, a lot of soul music like Jill Scott, Donell Jones. I just dived into a lot of different artists – even maybe like Burna Boy and the Afrobeast scene. So it's a lot of different artists that I like and I just tried to infuse it in different ways when it was appropriate.

How do you balance your personal experiences with more universal themes in your lyrics or in general?

All my music, I always write for the experiences, especially that I've first gone through. I know that a lot of the time, other people may have gone through the same or similar situations. So it's always relatable in some way. And I try to make things relatable as possible so that people can resonate with me a lot more and understand me as a person as well. I know that because I make music, I'm still a human being and I still feel things and I still go through things that people go through as well. So I feel like that's what makes it special as well, because I'm able to connect with other people as well.

Speaking on connection, your song “Broken Hearted Crook-Remix” went viral. What was that experience like for you?

That was a turning point in my career, to be honest. It was my biggest song to date. We sampled XXXTENTACION’s Jocelyn Flores. That was an incredible moment. It started all the dreams that I had and shaped me into the artist I’m now.

What's your biggest challenge as an artist coming up in London?

I feel like it's the competition, but also dealing with people that don't really support you. They'd rather support other people. Maybe if you're progressing in a certain way, people feel like you're letting them down. Just “leaving them behind.” But it's more about sometimes you have to separate to elevate. So I just feel like it's just getting to the next stage and progressing without feeling guilty. It's a bit of a challenge sometimes. But in terms of musically, I feel like it's always finding new things to talk about. And it will bring about things in a different way of keeping things exciting, making your music exciting. That can be a challenge sometimes, but that's the joy. And so yeah, I'd say that.

In terms of keeping your music exciting, is there anything that you're working on now or any themes that you're exploring in the projects that you're working on?

Yeah. I have a lot of music just sitting there ready. So at the moment, I'm working on dropping something very soon. But in terms of how I create the music, I just allow things to happen. I allow life to take course so that I have things to write about, so that I can write about it from a logical perspective. But that's certainly an emotional one to begin with. So I need to be logical before I can put all the emotions into it. So that's why sometimes I don't write for a while because I need things to It takes time to settle in, for things to process.

Do you prefer working collaboratively or working solo when you come up with your music?

I actually really don’t do that many features. I have I'd say four or five collaborations I've really done. But it's because I've always tried to make sure that I can connect with the other person I'm doing music with. So a lot of the time, I prefer making music solo. But if there's ever an opportunity there to collaborate with someone who I can connect with musically, then I'm always willing to do it.

Where do you hope to see yourself in the next two years, five years, decade?

Well, it's tough, but I feel like I just want to see progress, to be honest. I want to start maybe getting nominated. So hopefully, I would have just a bigger project by then just getting in the eyes of the public a lot more and start solidifying myself in the industry.

I feel like I'm more about progress, just progressing, being better than I was last year, year before.

What is a message or a theme that you want your listeners to take away from your work?

I'm always going to be transparent. At the end of the day, I feel like I'm an emotional guy so I always try to show that in my music. I always try to portray how I feel and I don't like to just sugarcoat things. I literally pour out vulnerability, so I want people to be able to listen to me and understand things that I go through. I hope I’m able to inspire people to do the same thing.

If you're an artist, to express yourself through music or to listen to music that can help you sometimes express to yourself. When you can’t find the words. That's what I always hope I can do as an artist, help my supporters or listeners to be able to express themselves in whichever way they can by listening to me. To be able to resonate with someone.

Do you have any last words?

I just dropped a song, Billionz Affair. It's out at the moment. Yeah, I mean, that's nearly at 100K. I'm really pushing for 100K in a month on my own channel. That would be a huge achievement for me, considering where I started.

Honestly, I just want to thank everyone that supported me up until now and are still supporting me. And I'm literally just getting started. This is the beginning of great things that are going to occur. Just going to keep working hard, believing in myself, keep praying to God, just watching for the outcome, reaping the rewards.

That's amazing. Well, thank you so much for speaking with me.

No worries. Thank you very much.

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