Renowned rapper Bemz is branching his M4 idea and creating a festival.
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00:00Um, I hate this part.
00:01Hey, I'm Benz and I'm a rapper based in Glasgow.
00:05And yeah, as an artist, I thought it was very important
00:11to have a platform that showcased local talent, you know,
00:18especially the ones who, for whatever reason,
00:21have the talent but aren't getting the recognition
00:24they maybe deserved, you know.
00:26And that was really the rebirth of M4 as a brand, you know.
00:33And we built on that and it's led to us creating the M4 Festival.
00:38And basically what it is, like I said,
00:40is giving the youngsters and up-and-coming musicians
00:43a chance to play something that is bigger than ourselves,
00:49you know, something that is like our own type festival.
00:53Because when you look at a lot of the festival lineups
00:55that goes on these days, it's very, very rare that you see
01:00local acts from, like, maybe the rap scene
01:03or maybe the R&B scene or jazz scene and here and there, you know.
01:08So we were able to...
01:09We thought it was right to just, you know,
01:12create something that showcased that.
01:14And that's how we managed to, you know,
01:16pull in acts like Becky Sikasa, Joel,
01:21Sean Focus, Pence, Gael, you know.
01:24And then we thought, why not have an outside DJ stage as well,
01:28do you know what I mean, and just showcase
01:30what is coming out of Scotland in the sense of, like,
01:33young up-and-coming DJs who probably play
01:38different sounds to your norm that is, like,
01:42techno and house and stuff, you know.
01:44And with that, we were able to pull in the likes of
01:49Deeja, Iso Iso, Joshua Doobie, not today, Karen,
01:54Leo GTE, Texio, and then obviously we created a competition
01:59for another young up-and-coming DJ to get a slot to play it, you know.
02:04So that will be announced shortly.
02:07But yeah, it should be a very straightforward setup with,
02:11you know, BAD being such a beautiful space
02:14and also a big space, you know.
02:16So what we decided to do is have the live music predominantly indoors
02:22and the DJs in the outside area, you know.
02:25So we're going to have, like, a kind of crossover
02:28what's going to be between when an actor's on
02:29and when a DJ's playing, you know, so people don't feel like
02:32they have to choose between one or the other
02:34and everybody can experience good music, you know.
02:38M4 was, like, you know, the rebirth of an idea
02:42that I was doing back when I was on air, which was RTW.
02:46And the whole thing of it is literally being able to provide
02:51things that I never got as a up-and-coming musician, you know.
02:56Like, when I wasn't getting booked for shows,
02:59I just promoted my own shows, you know.
03:01When I wasn't being managed by anybody,
03:04me and my friends just came together and just managed ourselves, you know.
03:08And when nobody wanted to, like, put in merch,
03:10we just created our own merch, you know.
03:12So it was just kind of like doing all of that from a young age
03:17because I just felt like, well, nobody really cared about me.
03:21And it wasn't really because I wasn't talented enough.
03:24It was like people just didn't see me, you know.
03:27So it was really kind of a tough pill to swallow
03:31because it was just kind of then, like, right, okay,
03:32I need to work harder and harder and harder and harder.
03:35And the more people seen me,
03:37the more people appreciated what it is that I'd done.
03:39But I was always doing it.
03:40Do you know what I mean?
03:41It wasn't as if it was, like, brand new.
03:43It was, no, like, the work had always been getting done from a young age,
03:47but you guys just see it now.
03:49So I was like, well, it would be cool to create something
03:52where we can be the voice of the voiceless, essentially.
03:57Do you know what I mean?
03:57If we can find young, up-and-coming musicians
04:01who have got crazy talent, but people aren't noticing them,
04:06if I can use whatever platform that I have as an artist
04:09and whatever platform that I have created as BEMS,
04:12if I can use that to be able to, like,
04:15push these people into the forefront, then why not, you know?
04:18So that was how, well, the initial idea of RTW started.
04:22And then over the years, it grew to being what it is now,
04:24which is M4.
04:25And that stands for made for,
04:27because it's literally made for everybody.
04:28Do you know what I mean?
04:29So, yeah.