lockdownT on his favourite TikTok skits, opinions on Wireless and a message for all DBE haters.

This month we caught up with TikTok star, lockdownT to talk about his favourite artists to create through sketches, also giving advice to his fans or anyone online trying to get into making comedy sketches. Shout out to the man himself and be sure to give him a follow across all of his socials, big thanks!

It’s your boy, lockdownT AKA Stiff Chocolate 2.0 AKA the reason why your baby mama loves Dave, I’m a 25 year old content creator from London, I focus heavily on music - music commentary to music breakdowns, lyric analysis, also entertaining videos, like funny musical skits. I’ve been doing it for two and a half years, since March 2020, and yeah man, that’s me.

I hear that, I’ve been a fan of yours for a minute, do you have a favourite style of content?

Thank you so much man, I proper appreciate the support, honestly from everyone who says the same thing, it means a lot. My favourite style of content is definitely my studio session videos, where I like impersonate what happened in a specific studio session, it allows me to like, properly ignite all of my creative juices and think about how I can firstly make a story so wild and completely not what happened in the studio but also it allows me to bring out my acting side, which is what I used to do a lot and still want to get into, so yeah, those videos really push my creative boundaries to the limit.

Do you have a favourite rapper to impersonate, if so, who?

Yeah, I think probably Drake is my favourite rapper to impersonate, just because like, he has so many elements to himself, he’s got like the sweetboy Drake, the emotional Drake, he’s got the more gritty rapper style, so like there’s a lot I can do with him when it comes to performing his character, so I think he’s my favourite.

Musically, are you a Drake fan?

Yeah, definitely a big Drake fan, he’s just one of them artists that like, he doesn’t ever do much wrong to be honest, always in my like, top five list on Spotify, always listening to his music here and there, yeah he’s a go to I can’t lie, as much as sometimes I hate to admit it, he’s definitely up there.

Do you rate any other American rappers?

Yeah yeah yeah, definitely, Lil Baby, Young Thug, Future, Pierre Bourne, Larry June, who else do I rate, Travis Scott obviously, Kanye West, these guys are my GOATS by the way, I don’t even know why I didn’t say them first but Kanye West, Travis Scott, yeah they’re like my favourite US rappers, yeah that’s some of them. Pop Smoke, 21 Savage, The Migos, yeah they’re just a handful of US rappers that I really like.

Have you seen any of them live?

Yep, I’ve seen Drake multiple times, Travis Scott multiple times, Kanye West a couple times, have I seen Roddy? I don’t think I saw him at Wireless, I don’t think I did. Lil Baby, I’ve seen him, Future, I’ve seen him, yeah I’ve seen quite a few of them.

What do you think of Wireless as a festival, do you think it’s become better over the years?

It’s alright, like I think the festival itself has gotten better because there’s more diverse artists going, they’re giving and showing a lot more love to the UK scene and stuff but they’re still - the headlines are always American guys, I always have a bit of a problem with that, it’s a UK festival but they’re showing all of the love to the big American artists, so yeah, it’s okay but like, for me personally I don’t enjoy it as much anymore, because obviously I’ve grown out of it a little bit, there’s a lot of like younger people that go there, I don’t really like the pushing and shoving, the moshpits and what not, so it’s a bit of both init.

I hear that! Speaking of UK rappers, do you have a top three?

Yeah currently, It’s probably Dave, D-Block Europe and Sainte.

100%, I know Max is a big hater on DBE, do you have anything to say to those haters?

Man, bun those haters man! Anyone who doesn’t understand like the vibes that DBE bring are more time the people that see the amount of music they produce and then just assume that you know, the majority of it is low quality, which is not the case. You have to actually have a bit of patience to sit through their projects and realise that actually, a large chunk of it is real good quality, they’ve produced five, six different projects yeah, and I’d only say like, one is a pure miss, other than that, there’s a got sixty to seventy percent of tracks which are really good in each project, so yeah man, bun the DBE haters.

Just so we know, which one’s the miss?

The one that’s a miss is Street Trauma then possibly Lap 5 as well but I feel like Lap 5 is.. Actually no, Lap 5 is not a miss, Street Trauma is the only D-Block Europe miss in terms of projects.

Speaking of DBE tracks, what’s your opinion on Central Cee?

Um, yeah, I think he’s absolutely great, what him and his team are doing is amazing, he’s literally like the perfect fusion between influencer and music artist. In terms of him as a rapper, I think he’s pretty basic, but he’s got great clarity, he knows how to make a banging tune every now and then, and he’s got large affinity with many people, a lot of people feel like they can relate to him or connect with him, and that’s really hard to do, so overall I definitely do rate him, I just think he’s not the best rapper from a lyrical and ability point of view but the thing that he definitely has is great beat selection and great clarity.

Some people are convinced he’s an ‘industry plant’, what do you think, would he be anywhere near where he is today without social media?

I don’t get this whole industry plant concepts, like it just makes no sense, how can a record label plant and make sure that a artist is successful unless they’re buying numbers but it’s quite clear that Central Cee’s numbers are not faked cause his engagement are crazy and it all matches up so he’s not an industry plant, no way. He is just an artist that is clocking the game and doing it well. Would he be anywhere near where he is today without social media, not at all. He uses social media so effectively and so well, he would not be how big he is if he didn’t use it so well.

I completely agree, is there anyone else that uses social media to it’s full advantage like Cench?

At the moment, Headie One definitely is, he’s doing some really good social media marketing with his TikTok, the first one was for the promotion for that 50s track and then I’d say secondly the promotion for his Martins sofa track, which I don’t think he’s dropped yet, but yeah, he’s going hard with social media right now so yeah he’s another good example.

His marketing is going crazy right now! Are you a fan of the OFB boys, which genre would you put them in?

Yeah, I’m a fan of OFB, not a huge fan but the main guys I like within OFB are obviously Headie, Abra is definitely up there for me and then like, Bandokay and Double Lz are alright but I don’t tend to listen to them all that much anymore. I like Kush as well to be honest, I really do like Kush but he doesn’t really release all that much so yeah, my top three OFB guys is Headie, Kush and, Abra. Which genre would I put them in? Drill. They’re just straight drill but then obviously Abra can do the melodic rap ting and the afro beat kind of fusion, which is why he brings the diversity to OFB in my opinion.

I’ll have to have a listen to Kush! Moving away from music now, what do you do in your spare time when you’re not making content or going to events?

In my spare time I’ll either be playing football, I play for a team on a Saturday and train on Wednesday, so I do that, or I am strategising content, having meetings with brands, emailing brands, pitching ideas to them, having meetings with my kind of peers who I'm working on different pieces of content with and stuff like that but then also like socialising with my friends like I'm always at my friends houses and stuff like that always just kind of chilling, debating, all that normal stuff. A lot of family time as well, I spend a lot of time with my family.

You’re big time!! What’s the goal for lockdownT, where do you want to be in the next five years?

Thank you, thank you, we’re getting there init, we’ve got to work hard to get to that stage but what’s my goal? To be a household content creator name in the next five years definitely, and then spread over to the US and all over the world basically. To be known as a personality, presenter, host, content creator in general, podcast facilitator, all of them kinda things there. Yeah, just be known as someone who like makes moves in the creative scene, that’s definitely a stronghold and I wanna have strong relationships with big brands in a few years time, and a lot of them.

Have you got any brands in mind that you would love to work with?

Well, I’ve been doing a lot of work with like record labels already so I just wanna start building those relationships more, would love to work with other fashion brands as well, like Daily Paper, JD, Represent, those are some cool fashion brands and then like I already work with Spotify UK, so I just wanna build on my relationship with them. And I did some work with another brand, I've just clocked I can’t really say right now but yeah, those are a few brands

That’s massive, is there any advice you’d give someone who’s starting out doing music skits and social media?

Think the only valuable advice I've got is find your niche and stay consistent, once you find what you believe in and what you feel is working well in terms of the audience you’re attracting, just go ham with that, be consistent with it, be in peoples faces, the more you put content out the more chance people share it and then the more chance people will see it and you never know who it is that might see it, that person that see’s it might have an opportunity for you which gives you a big break. So find your niche and stay with it.

That’s going to help someone for sure, do you have anyone you want to shout out?

Shout out God first and foremost, for giving me this gift to do this content creation that I do, shout out all my content creator inspirations, Harry Pinero, Chuckie Online. Shout out to my content creator friends, BTB Max, couple of others but also my team around me, shout out to my videographer, my boy Luke, my manager and my brother that just gives me bare advice, loads of good advice, shout out to my family and everyone else.