Pa Salieu

Crowned BBC’s ‘Sound Of 2021’ – an honour that’s previously gone to the likes of Adele, Sam Smith and Sigrid – the 24-year-old Coventry rapper has rapidly established himself as one of the most hotly tipped talents in the UK with his genre-blending style. His rise has been particularly remarkable, considering the fact that he was shot in the head in 2019.

Lancey Foux

He’s considered one of the UK’s best-kept secrets, but don’t expect things to stay that way for long – given that the artist has already been rubbing shoulders with Kanye West and Skepta. Outside of the recording studio, the East London artist has also modelled for the likes of Givenchy and Alexander McQueen.

Knucks

Hailing from South Kilburn, the rapper released his latest project, Alpha Place, last month – cementing his reputation as an artist who fearlessly blurs the boundaries between hip-hop subgenres. ‘Los Pollos Hermanos’, his one-and-a-half-minute-long 2021 single, has clocked up nearly 44 million streams on Spotify.

ENNY

Widely tipped as one of the UK’s most promising emerging voices, the rapper and singer kept busy over lockdown – signing to Jorja Smith’s FAMM label (also home to Maverick Sabre), and scoring a major hit with ‘Peng Black Girls’. She teamed up with Smith for a remix of the track in 2020, with their COLORS SHOW performance garnering nearly 19 million YouTube views.

M Huncho

Since emerging in 2017 with his acclaimed Mad About Bars freestyle, this masked rapper has steadily built up an underground cult following. He’s now set for serious global success, following the release of his debut studio album, Chasing Euphoria, last month. Born out of his mental health struggles during lockdown, the LP broke into the Top 5 on the UK charts.

Read the full Longitude special in our new issue, out now.