Culted Sounds: Lord Apex on The Good Fight and becoming a tastemaker

by Juliette Eleuterio 1 week ago

by Juliette Eleuterio 1 week ago 4 min

Lord Apex is an artist in all its senses. From his music that stems from a personal love of U.S. rappers such as Lil Wayne and Mac Miller, to the way he portrays himself stylistically, the London-based rapper is giving UK hip hop a new look.

Lord Apex recently released his new studio album, The Good Fight, adding yet another prodigious project to his lengthy list of mixtapes and EPs. Part of the 27-year-old rapper’s success can be traced back to his moon sign, Gemini. Astrologer believer or not, Lord Apex shares the Gemini trait of floating about, always switching up his sound while still operating under one universe.

Experimental, mellow, elevated, and elusive, Lord Apex’s music is far reaching, and indeed reaches far beyond, as the artist prepares to head onto his European The Good Fight tour. Today, we caught up with Lord Apex to talk about his new album, his overarching artistic vision, and his fashionable ventures.

Lord Apex is quite an impressive artist name. How did you come up with it?

When I was young I wanted to be one of the best, so Apex was a perfect word for me, I was always into nature docs so I would hear about apex predators a lot and the lord comes from listening to Quasimoto.

Your new album has just dropped. How are you feeling about the whole thing?

I’m feeling grateful.

Talk to me through this new album, titled The Good Fight. What is it about? How long has it been in the works?

The Good Fight, today, if I have to describe it, would be simply fighting for your life when it feels like the whole world is against you.

On this new project, we see features from Madlib and Freddie Gibbs. How did these collaborations come about? How do you usually go about working with other artists?

It’s usually a natural progression. Both people I’ve slowly been building connections with and we have mutuals that respect each other, so it happened like that.

What strikes me the most about you is that you aren’t just an artist musically speaking, you also work hands on with your producers and curate your art direction. Have you always had a strong vision and idea for your overall creativity?

Vision has always been strong! I love every element of the art, not just the music.

Clearly, your vision and work has paid off as you’ve infiltrated your way into the fashion scene. You’ve worked with the likes of Supreme, Carhartt WIP, and the viral Nike Air Max 95 x Corteiz drop. How important is fashion and personal style to you?

Style is everything. I’ve known since a yute I would be a tastemaker, everyone I grew up around was fly, so it was quite natural for me.

In recent years, we’ve seen fashion and streetwear move closer and closer to music artists. What do you attribute this phenomenon to?

I think what attributes to this is the reality that a lot of these brands are not able to keep up with what’s new. Regardless of the brand, it’s always the people wearing it that pushes them forward, and for the most part, whatever artists wear tends to be influential for whoever is into that artist as a fan.