ON THE RISE
PRZNT has gained massive popularity on music platforms with more than 120 million streams under his belt. Now the Cuban-born hip-hop artist has released Night of the Rose, and he is extremely proud of the overall aesthetic of the debut album.
“It’s the instrumentals, the vocals, the melodies and the cover art,” PRZNT said of the album released on March 1, which has a unique and eclectic mix of genres and styles. “Everything about it is a perfect representation of me as an artist, and the person I’ve been trying to become all these years. I feel like I’ve finally reached a point where I am that person and I finally got to showcase it with a body of work.”
Night of the Rose is a compilation of songs that PRZNT has been working on for the past five years. Slowly but surely he was building a catalogue of material and was able to narrow it down to 11 songs that meshed into a finished product that he loves.
“I put it all into a collection for everyone to hear,” PRZNT said. “It’s like a piece of me for the world.”
PRZNT has been putting his due diligence in releasing Night of the Rose, saying that plenty of effort has gone into including songs that were just right for the collection. While there are smooth vocals that overlay solid beats in a hip-hop and R&B manner, it also transcends genres with an array of instruments including guitar and trumpet.
The album has a general mantra of going out and living the good life.
“Whether it is hanging out with friends, going out partying, or driving in the late night, there are a bunch of different experiences in every song,” PRZNT said. “It’s less of a message, but more of an experience that you have to have. Have fun and live life.”
Night of the Rose starts off with beautiful guitar picking that serves as a delicate introduction to PRZNT’s powerful, yet calming, vocals. He sings in the song opening track titled “Saint”:
“No I'm not a saint
And I won't change myself for you
Just to ease your pain
And I can't let myself fall through
Every puddle in the rain
It's like the petals of the rose
Telling me my fate
Will I be okay”
“The part of this album, specifically, that I’m most proud of is the beginning of ‘Saint,’” PRZNT said. “I feel like it couldn’t have been better as an introduction to my project. Like the beginning, the intro, is immaculate.”
The track is followed by “Like Pablo,” which PRZNT said is one of his favorite tracks. He loves the storytelling aspect to it, and it is once again along with some tantalizing guitar work that moves along with a rhythmic drum beat.
“Toxic” was released as a single for a year before the album came out, but PRZNT said this track went along so well with the rest of the Night of the Rose that he knew it needed to be included. The other single released was “Or Nah” which has a relaxing vibe with a sweet beat that goes with the steady easy flow of PRZNT’s vocals. It closes out the album in more of a traditional hip-hop and R&B manner.
The rest of the 11 tracks were released to the world with the full album all at once.
After moving from Cuba when he was six-years-old, PRZNT was raised in Florida where he still resides to this day. Music was his first passion, and he constantly surrounded himself with it. PRZNT was inspired by artists like Michael Jackson, Kid Cudi and Lil’Wayne, and said from a young age he knew he wanted to make music of his own.
“I am inspired by the music I grew up listening to, and not so much my experiences,” PRZNT said. “I think through my music I have lived a lot of experiences.”
When writing a song, PRZNT tends to just sit down and go at it, trying to write the best lyric he can possibly think of on the spot. PRZNT has been working on making his own beats to use, and said he usually gets a melody from a friend that he will vibe with for a bit. He’ll get a hook going and then put the drums and other instrumentals around the vocals.
“Mainly I come up with the hook melody first, before the lyrics,” he said. “I always try to focus on the hook because that is what people are going to feel the most.”
The sky is the limit for PRZNT, as he plans to release music for many years to come. He is putting his all into promoting Night of the Rose, saying that he has taken some time off from writing new material until the time is right. PRZNT will have shows in Los Angeles this spring that have yet to be announced, and this is where he will be able to showcase the album in a live setting.
“I’m really just trying to explore everything I can, and give it all I’ve got,” he said.
Night of the Rose and other material by PRZNT is available on all major platforms.
ON THE RISE
As Belle & Sebastian share their buoyant 2026 Scotland World Cup anthem ‘It Only Takes One Lion’, frontman Stuart Murdoch has spoken to NME about capturing the feeling back home and his hopes for the team since childhood.
Released today (Tuesday June 2), the Scottish indie heroes’ bid for their nation’s tournament anthem was written after the team’s surprise 4-2 qualifying win against Denmark.
“I felt like we were watching history in the moment, like the hand of God from the old National Lottery adverts was pointing at us,” Murdoch told NME about that game-changing victory. “It was meant to be. Scotland aren’t a terrific team and Denmark are better, but it just felt that day that Scotland were destined to win. Three out of the four goals were things of beauty.”
Produced by and co-written with Pete Ferguson and premiered at the band’s recent London Royal Albert Hall show as part of the anniversary tour for their classic first two albums ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’, the soaring song is intrinsically Belle & Sebastian as it morphs from a hymn to a an orchestral disco jam as Murdoch sings of a nation’s hopes and his own boyhood dreams.
NME spoke to Murdoch from the band’s North American tour, where we found him in a graveyard in Texas. “I was just looking for a park because Austin is a pretty scary place downtown now, so I’ve ended up in the Texas Cemetery,” he shared via Zoom.
Was there anyone famous buried there?
“I was looking around and I found the founder of Austin City Limits, which is pretty cool as that’s where we’re playing tonight. I’m looking at one now and it just says, ‘Martin: he loved the law’. Then underneath it says, ‘Billie Louise: she loved the lawyer’.”
We joke that there’s the opening to a Belle & Sebastian song if there ever there was one. “It’s great! It’s given me inspiration.”
For now, read the rest of interview with Murdoch below as he tells us about Scotland’s chances, 30 years of hurt, if fans will be singing it at the top of their lungs in Canada, the US and Mexico this summer, and what’s next for the band.
NME: Hello Stuart. Here we are with ‘It Only Takes One Lion’ Who needs three?
Stuart Murdoch: “Who needs three? Good question. I wouldn’t know!”
What’s the mood been like in Scotland since you qualified?
“It’s funny. I’ve noticed this everywhere: with the World Cup there’s a mixture of cynicism and anticipation. When the actual tournament starts, everyone will get excited about it. Because of FIFA, the peace prize, the ticket prices, people seem quite down about it. I found that in Mexico. They were quite fed up with the general hype about it. I’m in the States just now and you shouldn’t believe all the hype: people are people. The States are just as ‘great’ as ever. We love coming here, we love the cities. The general sense of North American optimism will make for a good tournament.”
“With Scotland though, people will definitely be excited about it. You have to understand, it’s been 30 years since Scotland qualified so I think everybody and their dog has written a song for the team.”
How do you meet the challenge of penning a World Cup anthem, when there have been so many legendary bangers and absolutely shite duds?
“I never planned it. I woke up with a tune in my head and a feeling. That’s the way it should always be for songs. I couldn’t control myself and it was quite straight-forward. I wrote this initial bit about how I felt about the current World Cup team and the qualifying game. It was more introspective.
“When it starts off with, ‘The days are dark and long…’, it’s just my general feeling about football. I’ve been going to see my own team quite a lot recently. It’s my little anthem for how I feel about football and following Scotland for the last 50 years, just the ups and downs. It’s quite a heartfelt thing. When I was eight or nine, the Scottish team meant so much to me, it the thing I was most invested in. There’s a line in there about how I used to memorise the whole squad before ‘78 and 82.”
Tell us about lyric: “This is Scotland, where everyone knows you start with nothing… where you can join an army for peace”…
“My wife made the video for it and she said, ‘I’m not sure I like that line about everyone starting with nothing’. Our first game is against Haiti and they really have nothing. Their country is pretty poor and they’re going through hard times. It was almost a throwaway line and I’m not sure what I meant by it, but in a footballing sense every game starts with nothing. Even if it’s against Brazil, you’ve always got a chance!
“The army refers to The Tartan Army, which has really been quite a remarkable institution for the past 30 years. We changed from drunken buffoons that used to wreck things to this excellent supporting brigade.”
It’s not your standard football sing-along. Can you see it being sung in the terraces?
“I’m not sure, I didn’t cynically design it for that. Many people have said to me in the past, ‘None of your songs have a chorus, you need to write one’. ‘This is Scotland’ is a chorus! They things need to happen organically. I’m sure the fans will still be singing ‘Yes sir, I can boogie’ for years to come.”
What do you actually think of Scotland’s chances right now?
“With the last Euros, they maybe got stage fright or didn’t have that tournament experience. I think Andy Robertson [captain] will be telling them, ‘We really need to produce our best stuff’. If they do and we see them actually playing football, then I don’t really care about the results that much. I just want to see Scotland exceeding our expectations of them. That Denmark game was so crazy that everything after just feels like a bonus.”
If miracles do happen and Scotland make it to the final, how will you celebrate? A free gig in Glasgow?
“Of course, yes! Free everything. If we even got close, I think the whole country would shut down for a year and the GDP would drop. We’d go into a massive recession but no one would care.
“We were playing a gig in Mexico City and I told the crowd, ‘It’s you and us, Mexico and Scotland in the final’. Mexico have never really got close either. I told them it would be five goals a piece, even after everyone takes a penalty and we have to share the trophy. I would settle for that.”
You released two albums in quick succession with 2022’s ‘A Bit of Previous’, 2023’s ‘Late Developers’ and then your debut novel Nobody’s Empire in 2024. You’ve been busy! Is there any progress on new material?
“We went through a period where we recorded a lot and we said, ‘Let’s not record for a while and give ourselves a couple of cycles off’. We’re doing these 30th anniversary shows so we’re just going to lean on the back catalogue and cruise for a while. We’re doing a year on and a year off so everyone can focus on different things.
We’re not looking at new Belles stuff for a while. I’m meant to be developing Nobody’s Empire into a film, so that’s my next task. It’s a long way off from being made but I’m going to write the script for that.”
Scotland’s first World Cup tournament match is against Haiti on Sunday June 14, before they go on to play Morocco on Friday June 19 and Brazil on Wednesday June 24.
The band’s ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ anniversary tour continues throughout the summer, performing the iconic albums in full during across the UK, Europe, North America, Mexico, Australia, Singapore and Japan. Visit here for tickets and more information.
