Hip-hop artist S7GMA’s latest single, “Now,” is a motivational anthem to remind us all to hold on — no matter what comes our way. S7GMA’s conscious single introduces listeners to the S7GMA sound.
S7GMA — pronounced “sigma” — is the solo act of an artist with years of prior experience in a group setting. The musician chose S7GMA as his moniker as a teenager because of its many underlying meanings.
“Sigma is the 18th letter in the Greek alphabet. When you turn 18, you’re free — it’s all up to you. Seven is also an important number in numerology. Seven is perfection,” explains S7GMA.
Originally from North Philadelphia, S7GMA relocated to Texas in junior high school.
“My uncle put me on old music,” shares the artist. “In junior high in Texas, I was allowed to express myself more. I started listening to different types of music.”
At that time, his friends began making parody songs (in the era of Weird Al and fellow creators).
“Then, my best friend (xiqt) dropped a real song and sent me the link. I was impressed in my head like, how did he do it? I thought you needed a million dollars in studio equipment to do so.”
After acquiring the software to get started (and a $100 microphone, courtesy of his mother), S7GMA was set.
S7GMA is a self-produced artist. Over the years, his sound has taken shape from experience and the influence of artists including Logic and Kid Cudi.
“My musical sound is in phases,” shares the musician. “It’s based on my mood. I have fun, commercial, poppy songs. Songs talking my talk. A love song coming out. But at the moment, I’m trying to stick with the S7GMA sound. My motivation is dark in a morbid-type way. My music is for people who have to learn the hard way.”
“Now” is about “welcoming listeners to your new forever.” The single is a positivity anthem, filled with affirmation. S7GMA hopes to remind listeners that pain does end and to hold on through the hardest of times.
To create the single, S7GMA began with a beat that took time to build.
“I had a beat that I started with a melody last year. At the beginning of this year, I was having thoughts about it. So, for the first three months, I locked myself in a room and opened the beat. I produced all the music from scratch. Piano, synth pads, strings, then drums. From there, I got to writing everything I was feeling in that moment. I was in the mindset of, ‘It’s been 11 years, so go ahead and stop wasting time. Time doesn’t wait for anyone. Get it now.’”
With his quest for sigma perfection, S7GMA learned to engineer his vocals to work perfectly with his unique sound. Over the past four years, he’s been mastering music production, first on FL Studio.
“I was tired of buying beats on YouTube and searching for this-artist-type beats. I’d like one of every 100 beats. I don’t rap about the same things others do. I got tired of looking for them. So, I got FL Studio and bought equipment, then watched YouTube videos to mimic what they do until I had the muscle memory down. It’s paying off one thousand percent.”
When he’s not creating new music, S7GMA is showcasing his talent to live audiences. In mid-July, he has a live show in Austin and another lined up in Houston toward the end of the month. He also plans to drop his EP, Mind Of Me, this fall.
Alongside “Now,” S7GMA has another single, “Sorry,” available on all streaming platforms, as well as a video for the single on YouTube.
Make sure to stay connected to S7GMA on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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.
