Hip-hop artist B of Briz wins Future Sound of Bristol competition

B of Briz, who turned 42 this year, performs her material wearing a mask

A rapper, who only started writing music during lockdown, has been named the Future Sound of Bristol after winning a competition.  

B of Briz performs in a mask and her unique brand of hip-hop impressed the judges with its innovation.

She beat 110 rivals to win the £5,000 first prize, which she is set to use to finance recording her debut album.

Aged 42, B of Briz is also a producer and writer. She hopes to take her love of hip-hop to a wider audience.

"I'm in my 40s, my debut EP was called 42, and that's because I turned 42 this year, and really I started writing in lockdown," she said.

"I had all this time, I had this really powerful tool in my laptop and an idea came to me in a very interesting conversation I was having with a friend, and I said, 'I should write a song about this', and she said, 'Do it'.

"And I had the time, and I had the tool and I decided why not!'

B of Briz says her music is about things that are important to her

'Creative freedom'

Explaining why she wears the mask, B of Briz said: "The mask is basically to give me a bit of creative freedom, it's to give me that bit of separation between my normal everyday self and what I'm doing musically."

Simon Metson, one of the competition's organisers, said that right from the first listen he thought her work was different.

"It's a different kind of voice. There's a lot of 90s music in her stuff but she's got a new spin on it, and she's taken it in an interesting direction," he said.

The Future Sound of Bristol competition is run by Factory Studios

The work focuses on the likes of feminism and philosophy, and B of Briz hopes her love of hip-hop also comes through in it.

She now hopes to make more music, aiming to connect with as many people as possible.