Photo by Stef Mitchell
Denzel Curry bounds out of AJ Tracey's London home and unexpectedly hands us a chocolate bar. He seems up, bouncing, even. And why wouldn't he be? The 22-year old rapper is behind some of the most thrilling sounds of the past couple of years and is over from his native Miami for a sellout show at London's Jazz Café. He might as well tie in a quick video shoot with grime linchpin AJ Tracey while he's at it."I got up around 8 AM, took a shower, got dressed, got ready for the day, headed to the airport, and came here," he says, making a transatlantic flight sound as easy as popping to the shop for a pint of milk and a packet of Frazzles. "We were three hours late to our own video shoot with AJ but it worked out. We had a hard time getting past the border guard because they had to look up what we were doing here to see if we were telling the truth. But we was telling the truth."In fact, it's hard to imagine Denzel Curry doing anything but tell the truth. Sharp and effortless, ever since he announced his arrival with his debut LP Nostalgic 64 in 2013, the Carol City, Florida, rapper has carved out a space for himself as perhaps the most exciting prospect to have come out of the troubled Miami Gardens neighborhood since Rick Ross. Eighteen years old at the time of release, Denzel had already spent a couple of years as part of SpaceGhostPurrp's cult Raider Klan crew, making his name as the punk kid behind knockout mixtapes King Remembered and King of the Mischievous South. With sonic influences ranging from OutKast to the afro-psychedelia of Flying Lotus, video games to the melting pot nature of his home city—his family is from the Bahamas and his flow reveals a Caribbean influence—Denzel has created a sound that is, like Miami itself, quite unique. What's more, he did it all while still in high school.Continue reading on i-D
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