ON THE RISE
Hip-hop artist Caz Kush takes pride in his ability to put out a vast range of music, saying that one track of his will never sound like the next. His newest song, “Piñatas,” is aimed at getting people on the dance floor to enjoy the positive vibe that it oozes.
Caz Kush had a goal of bringing back that “crunk type music,” which he said has become a bit of a lost art. This is a tune where listeners can gravitate towards, and embrace, his fun loving nature.
“I knew that people would really vibe with it,” he said. “It’s one of those tracks that you can play no matter what you’re doing. Whether you’re just chilling, or going to a job, or in the car driving- it’s just a feel good song.”
The creation of the track spawned from when he was hanging with his cousin, just chilling and listening to the beat. Caz Kush knew right from there that it was going down, and he had himself a track.
“I started singing, “Yeah, I gotta. Yeah, I gotta,” he said about the intro of the song. “I started going with it and it just created itself. I knew it was going to be something people would love.”
Caz Kush, 25, has been putting out music since he was only nine, dating back to when he learned the ways from his musically inclined uncle. He showed Caz Kush the ropes and got him into musicians like Lil Wayne, which was the beginning of his musical inspiration.
They would listen to music together, and make their own, “cooking up” tracks constantly. He even made a dis track toward his uncle when he beat him in a push up battle, which is when he began to realize that he had a gift.
“As I grew up and became more mature, I started feeling like I was really connecting with the music,” he said. “Around 14, I felt like it could really go somewhere. I didn’t know where, but I was going to figure it out.”
This is when he started dropping music, saying that it gave him the chance to make his voice heard, and his art appreciated.
“My whole thing is about connecting with people, with my music,” he said. “I want you to learn something whenever you listen to it. I want to help the next person.”
Caz Kush is responsible for everything in creating his music aside from making beats, as he prefers to find one that hits him, and then put his own words to it. He is responsible for writing, mixing and the recording process of his tracks, saying that everything is done in his bedroom, AKA his studio.
“I take the thoughts in my head and put them down in the ways that I know I can express myself the best,” he said. “If I have something going on and nobody to talk to, I know the mic is there to listen. What the mic has heard already, it would cry from. That’s what keeps me doing what I’m doing. I am about peace, spreading love and positivity.”
Caz Kush will hear a beat and then find a melody that fits. Sometimes he’ll write lyrics, and other times he’ll simply freestyle a hook. Often, he’ll know within seconds of what he’ll be doing with a beat, saying that something is always brewing in his head. This can get things flowing quickly.
Caz Kush likes to have his own unique process, and he wants the whole world to hear what he has to offer. He has more than 150 unreleased tracks, along with the seven he has available on music platforms. Caz Kush is constantly making music, and there is plenty on the horizon for the Indiana based rapper.
“This is just the introduction to Caz Kush,” he said. “I hope people go check out more because there are deeper songs with deeper meanings. Piñatas is really just that good vibe, fun track. Don’t sleep on me, because I’m coming.”
Be sure to keep up Caz Kush’s music, available on all platforms.
ON THE RISE
Blossoms caught up with NME to discuss competing with The Beatles and Johnny Marr for this week’s Number One album. With ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ in the running, the band also explained why making things themselves remains such an important part of their work as AI becomes more common.
The Stockport group put out their sixth album last Friday, October 2. By the midweek update, it was sitting at Number Two, between The Beatles’ expanded edition of ‘Rubber Soul’ and Johnny Marr’s latest solo album, ‘The Age Of Everything’.
“It’s mad, to be honest,” singer Tom Ogden said to NME about the chart race. “Liverpool on one side, Manchester on the other and Stockport in the middle. If you’d told us this 10 years ago, when we were releasing our debut, I wouldn’t have believed you. But I mean, we’re in good company aren’t we?”
Discussing the stories behind the album, Ogden described ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ as “about being married and all the everyday stuff that comes with it”. He married Katie Donovan, the sister of Blossoms drummer Joe, in 2021. Married life has since given him a new appreciation for what he describes as “the extraordinary ordinary”.
“Saying the wrong thing in an argument, losing your wife’s no claims bonus, crying at the Kardashians, it’s all in there,” he explained. “The album is named after Stockport Town Hall, which everyone round where we live calls the Wedding Cake, and it’s where I got married, so it couldn’t be much closer to home.
“The last album [‘Gary’, 2024] had a song about a stolen fibreglass gorilla, which everyone loved, and that gave us the confidence to bring the same playfulness to this one, just with more personal subject matter this time.”
Alongside tracks that came out of writing sessions with Declan McKenna in a hot tub, the album reflects the band’s desire to stay involved in every part of the creative process.
“It started with the recording,” Ogden explained. “We made the album with Shawn Lee, playing live straight to tape, and once you’ve done it that way you can’t really go and fake everything else. We sat down as a band and picked the colour palette, and everything visual followed from that. We had body scans taken of ourselves and cake toppers of the five of us 3D printed, put them on a real cake and photographed it. I’ve directed and edited the videos, and the sets are all built by hand, no green screen. For the pop-up shop on launch weekend, a local artist hand-painted the album cover for the sign outside.
“It’s more work, but you end up with a world that’s yours, and I think people can tell when a band’s had its hands on everything.”
With AI tools and digital effects becoming increasingly widespread, that approach feels particularly relevant. For Blossoms, though, the motivation is simple: “the fun is in the making”.
“Tape doesn’t let you cheat and neither does a real cake,” Ogden said. “If a set’s a bit wonky, it’s because one of us or our mates built it. I think the more stuff gets generated, the more people want to know a human being actually did it. We’ve been in this band together for over 10 years, five lads from Stockport, and that isn’t something you can ‘prompt’.”
Maya Jama also appeared in the video for the album’s first single, ‘Meet Me In Love’. Her appearance came shortly before the UK launch of Celebrity Traitors, where she took on the role of a traitor alongside a cast that included Richard E Grant and James Acaster.
“She was brilliant,” Ogden recalled of working with Jama. “We’d met her at the MTV EMAs in Manchester a couple of years ago, so we took a chance and sent her a DM …and she said yes. Next thing she’s in a theatre in Cheadle miming my vocals while a load of people dressed as me serenade her. She got the idea straight away and was a proper laugh about it.”
The conversation then turned to whether he thought Jama could take home the win on Celebrity Traitors.
Ogden joked: “As for Traitors, she spent a whole day pretending to sing my song and I almost believed her, so I’d say she’s got every chance.”
Fans can listen to ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ now. In November, Blossoms head out on a UK arena tour with The Royston Club. Tickets and further details are available here.
Before the tour begins, the group is also scheduled to appear on SNL UK on Saturday, October 24.
