We caught up with Official Recordings bossman, Wish Master, somewhere towards the end of last year and fired 10 quick questions at him looking back at his 2021 release and general OR Records movements. Here’s what he had to say…
1) You’ve been keeping shit prolific for a long time, 6 albums released since 2018! Have you settled into the rhythm of one project a year now?
To be honest it got to be at least one a year now but if I can get two out why not. I believe if I got something ready then let it off don’t hold it, give it to the people.
2) This year’s marked the heavyweight release of Cold Harbour Tales with Illinformed. To anyone who hasn’t heard it, how would you describe the LP?
Tales from my life script The world from my verbal perspective. I would say It Real Raw, Gritty Rap, a very honest and strong body of work. In my Book Instant Classic.
3) 2020 saw you drop the The Bull which felt like a more reflective album. Safe to say Cold Harbour Tales is more banger driven. Did you set out to make something harder or was it more of a natural response to the process of writing to Illinformed’s brand of Boom Bap?
The Bull is definitely a more reflective album but I don’t set out to make anything in particular I just let the music take me where it takes me, the beats kinda dictate the vibes and how I attack the track. I was working with Illinformed, he built me a sound and I trust in his process so it just ended up being more hard hitting and more banger driven. Not to mention ill’s got a lot of dope people that he works with so feature list was crazy.
4) How did the Illinformed link up come about?
I knew of him from back in the day through the music and that but met through both sharing a few mutual friends. Think Datkid introduced me and we just kinda linked up and we got it cracking straight away. I recorded the album in like 4 months But i Had to wait for a-lot of features.
5) Features are crazy. A lot of Bristol talent. Was sorting the guest spots mainly reaching out to extended family? Anyone on there that you’d not met or worked with before?
A Bit of Both really i want to bring my family through cause it always a family affair O.R to the world . But there were a few people I already wanted to work with and ill was producing or produced a project for them already so it just made sense, it was more case of the right feature on the right track which I think I picked em well.
6) Clocked a little while back you had a billboard up in Bris. Is that a Wish Master first?
Yeah it was my first billboard massive like that, but was all part of the album marketing campaign. Cant lie it felt good people telling me they seen it.
7) On top of your own material, you’ve been doing bits at the helm of Official Recordings. What originally led to you starting the label?
Just the need and want for my own creative hub and platform, so I’m self sufficient and could help bring through the family.
8) Looks like the label fam has been expanding. Checked the full roster on the new website and the full team is looking like a threat. Is it safe to say there’s a lot of music incoming? What’s up next?
I have a few artist dropping this year gunna be a big year for O.R. We got stuff coming from Da Regiment, Tac, Tona Montona, Gaza Glock and Billy Whizz got an album as well so fully loaded this year trust me. And as I do yearly I will have something to come this year just deciding which project to drop. There is also an O.R compilation album in the works.
9) Would have liked to have made it to the Cold Harbour Tales album launch party. Line up was a madness. How was it?
The party was crazy, it was really dope to see everyone having a good time, after all its been a very unsure stressful rollercoaster of a year. It was actually raining that day but that didn’t stop the love and support, people showed out for me. Everyone on the line up killed it. My set was crazy had near enough all the features from my album preform the songs minus a few, overall dope night.
10) Any OR events coming up to plug?
Got few shows I’m booked for and O.R take overs coming, keep your eyes peeled.
