Ragz Originale takes centre stage with his world-building debut album 

It’s a surprisingly hot Friday evening when Ragz Originale calls over FaceTime from his East London home. As the sun begins to set over the city, the producer and artist appears calm and content; a demeanour that seems inherent — and one that makes sense when you consider the scope of his fluid, decade-spanning career so far. As a producer, he was responsible for one of grime’s most pivotal tracks, Skepta’s “Shutdown”, as well as collaborations with artists including FKA Twigs, Sampha, SOPHIE and Lady Donli. Starkly different from one another, his most renowned projects sit alongside an array of work for more underground artists in a discography that truly showcases his range. The launch of his own artist project in recent years might have seen him release a series of mixtapes, but Ragz assures us that everything has been leading up to this moment: the release of Bare Sugar.

“This is the debut album,” he enthuses. “It’s the project that I actually went away to create.” Featuring guest vocals from an impressive range of talent including Sampha, John Glacier, Knucks, Tiana Major9, LOLA and Duah Saleh, Bare Sugar presents a new, intricately-crafted musical landscape. “I wanted to elevate the bar,” he says. “If I tried to chase hits or fit in, it wouldn’t have worked.” Comprising what he calls ‘elevated Black music’, Ragz took a calculated break to work on the project, distancing himself from both the industry and his personal circles last year and gathering a tight-knit clan of creatives including his brother E-Whizz. “His ear is so pure, it’s untouched in the sense that it doesn’t sway with what’s new, it judges purely the sounds and that alone,” Ragz explains. 

The album teaser nodded to that solitude, with Ragz playing the role of sonic architect, piecing together the sounds of his collaborators: the artists spearheading the UK’s R&B renaissance and the rappers contorting all parameters of the form. This is his most epic project to date, splicing genres including jazz, R&B, hyperpop, and alté. It sees him lament about love and lust across electronically-charged productions. While the hip-hop of “Dance Can’t Dun” exists in a vastly different landscape to the pensive “Ego”, which references traditional Japanese sōkyoku, somehow it works. Infusing unusual instruments like the 16th-century koto – introduced by co-producer Tyler Turner (Lil Keed, Juice WRLD) – throughout was crucial in ensuring Ragz pushed himself, he explains. “I wanted this album to take me to places I’ve never been before,” he says. “I needed to take myself from the original Ragz Originale state of mind.” Instead of leading from his heart, he began to centre curiosity; exploring uncharted realms of his mind with the aim of bending his former sound.

“I wasn’t put on this earth to do what everyone else was doing,” Ragz continues, not with ego or bravado but unwavering transparency. He firmly believes his music has the ability to travel, even if that doesn’t necessarily equate to a conventional form of commercial success. “I feel like this gift was for everyone, not for me to blow,” he says. “If I wasn’t doing this, I don’t think there would be another person putting music together in the way that I am.” Placing community above individual success, Ragz hopes to grow his sound in order to connect with more people and harness future talent, rather than chase fickle measures of fame. He values family, kinship and friendships above all else. “I’m just trying to do the normal things, and not miss those important moments,” he says. 

Paris fashion week is on the horizon when we talk, and even on an admin-heavy day at home, Ragz’ love of the adjacent art form is clear, the orange tint of his Nike Show X3 Elite piercing over FaceTime. “Clothes is your character man. It’s how you decide to present yourself to the world,” he rationalises. “There are so many perceptions of how you view someone based on how they decide to dress.” Ragz continues to dance across the topic, particularly in relation to audacity — discussing wearing Nike vs Adidas, and Prada handkerchiefs. “I’m just a fan, I honestly just watch all the shows whether I’m there or not,” he says. Despite not having formal associations with fashion, Ragz forms part of a new cluster of artists who have determinedly entered the space, and see it as an extension of their creative identity. “I appreciate fashion, 100%, it’s always been there.” 

While in Paris, between attending shows like Wales Bonner, Ragz debuted his album campaign’s experiential component with an open-to-all listening experience, which he later hosted in Amsterdam and London. For him, it’s about connecting communities. “I want to thank my listeners, I want them to experience the music with me,” he says. “This has been such a long time coming.” Despite having international fans everywhere from Lagos to NY and LA, Ragz hopes his music will take him back to his ancestral home of Uganda, both for inspiration and to visit relatives. The country’s influence is evident in Bare Sugar’s opener, “Not everyone can be a star (feat. LOLA)” on which the Lord’s Prayer is recited in his mother tongue; a connective tissue between his faith, identity and musicality. 

The intentionality and time taken to come into his own artistically have allowed Ragz to get to where he is today, armed with a vanguard of young Black talent anointing his rich, 14-track opus. Having spent 10 years enabling countless artists to create award-winning, nuanced music as one of the UK’s most coveted producers, with Bare Sugar, Ragz takes centre stage as an artist in his own right.

Bare Sugar is out now. See Ragz Originale live on his UK tour later in 2023, including London’s Scala on 28 October.

Credits

Photography Milo Matthew