Eastbourne singer, rapper and songwriter Nicki Vibes is drawing on awful life experiences to create something hugely positive with her music.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely
00:07to speak again to Nikki Thames. Now, Nikki, we spoke pretty much a year ago to the day
00:11when you were releasing your first single, which was a powerful song about dealing with
00:16anxiety, wasn't it? But since then, you've now had 11 singles in a year, and you're looking
00:23towards an album by the end of December, your debut album. That's going in some, isn't it?
00:30Your music is taking off.
00:32It is, it is. It's going absolutely amazing. It's had over, the anxiety in the brain had
00:38over 15,000 new sounds on TikTok.
00:41Wow, that's incredible. And how do you explain, I mean, clearly touched something with people,
00:46didn't it?
00:48Yes, I've had so many messages off of people and commenting on the song itself to say,
00:53you know, they've been dealing with really bad situations. And the song has really,
00:58really helped them. There's one in particular person as well, as I mentioned earlier, his
01:03name's Scott Walker. And he will be actually sponsoring me from February with my music
01:09to help me get out there even more.
01:11Obviously, it's lovely that your music is helping other people. But I guess the starting
01:15point is that your music is helping you. You were hinting a degree of anxiety when we last
01:21spoke. And since then, you've found a way to talk about a lot of the reason behind that.
01:26And you, sadly, having fallen in with the wrong company, had four years in prison in
01:30Brazil.
01:31Yes, I did, yes.
01:32And you're now happy to talk about that in a way you weren't last year. So what happened
01:37that you can now talk about that?
01:41It was more so, I was, anxiety, you know, that was another one, anxiety and fear of
01:48everything and people judging me. It was that more so. But I found, I've done a few podcasts
01:54now. I did one interview with Off The Cuff Mel on TikTok as well. Barney made HD Addictions.
02:01He's actually my business partner with the boxing.
02:05And we should say that the prison sentence was for drugs offences and you're not saying
02:10that you were innocent. You were just naive and young, presumably.
02:15Yes, I was massively. Yeah. Yeah, I trusted in the wrong people and I suffered a big time
02:21for it.
02:22Yeah, and clearly a very different person now to who you would have been.
02:27Yeah, I used everything, you know, what was done was done. I couldn't change it, but I
02:31could make a change in my life and the way my life was heading. So what I wanted to do
02:35was show that change. And that's when I, when I come out of prison, I become a mentor and
02:39I'd help people sort their life out, get them housed and jobs and everything. So, you know,
02:44they actually hired ex-prisoners to do it because we had the real life experience.
02:50So they actually hired us to do that. And I loved it. I loved every minute of it.
02:55Wow. And you were released more than 10 years ago now, weren't you?
02:58Does it feel like a long time ago or there must be flashbacks? There must be a continuity?
03:03Yeah, I get dreams. I get dreams. I do of like being there and that again. And yeah,
03:10that does set my anxiety off. But then I have to look, wake up, look around and realise
03:15I'm not there. I'm home. I'm safe. I'm here.
03:19So these are all experiences that you can positively use to help other people.
03:25Exactly. And that's another reason my music, the message that I send to people.
03:33Yes, definitely. It's powerful lyrics, powerful message. I'm sending everyone in them.
03:40Brilliant. And you were there in terms of numbers of tracks for the debut album. It's
03:44just a question of getting it together. Yes, definitely. I've got this Sassafet I'll be
03:51performing for Heads On, which is for the Excitement in the Brain, my first single I
03:56released out. And I'm going to be performing a new single that I have not released out yet
04:00called Wind and Rain, which is about friendships.
04:03Fantastic. Well, good luck with all that. Let me know when you've got a date for the album
04:07and let's chat again then. Lovely to speak to you Becky.