The Spit Game on being a collective of talent, advice for creatives and how to join the journey

If you don't know about Spit Game, you must have been living under a rock this year. The Spit Game is an online platform for fresh creatives and they need their flowers. We've come together this month and spoken about who they are and what they really do for these young talents on the rise. We speak on how you guys can become a part of the movement and all kinds of advice for young talents out there! A huge thank you to Spit Game and everyone involved for speaking with us. If you don't already, go over and drop a follow @thespitgameuk to keep up with all things Spit Game.

Hey guys, please could you give an introduction to who you guys are for those who are yet to know?

We are the Spit Game, which is a collective of rappers, singers, producers... basically anything creative in Black culture. We’re based in London, where we host our main cypher series and Spit on the Street - which is building a rep for finding new talent - but we also do film, vlogs, artist management and a load more!

I hear you, what you’re doing for the culture is so refreshing to see! How long have you been going on for?

Love for that. We hosted the very first Spit Game cypher in October 2021, so that puts us at 1 year and a half... but the community started to grow way back in 2016 when the twins (Boodz and TL) and producer Impho were only 11 years old.

That’s incredible for them to be that young and interested in the culture like that! What’s the goal for you guys? Where do you want to be as a platform in five years time?

We have quite a few strands of the project now. With the platform, we are aiming to continue steady growth, keep building the community and doing whatever we can to help boost the careers of the talent around us - too often that comes at a cost or with strings attached, so it's important we fill that space, along with other programmes. For the core collective (who Spit Game represents through management), we are working on exciting projects across music and film - our first ever short ‘Black Boy’ is screening at a BAFTA-qualifying film festival next month and we just got big funding from BBC 1Xtra and others towards a feature film so things are looking really promising. Hopefully, in 5 years our talent will be getting recognition across the culture in major spaces like the Brit Awards, BAFTA's and even Oscars!

I've seen 'Black Boy' and it looks incredible! For sure man, do you help manage everyone that appears on the cyphers or is it just a selective few?

Earlier on we tried giving everyone the same level of support, but as we grew we realised that meant we couldn’t do much for any of them. So we shifted our model and now have a core team who manage just the core artists, and then give a lot of time and access/support to those outside of this but not to the same level. We’re hoping as the team grows we will be able to work at a higher level with more and more talent.

Absolutely man, we've spoken to some of your guys, like TMillz, 44Certii, and LMR. They're all killing it for real! How does someone become a part of Spit Game? What's the process behind it?

Really proud of all the talent that has come through, whether they're still in the cyphers or have moved on. Because we find there's so much talent who wants to be involved we set up a more process for new talent. Anyone can get involved in a Spit on the Street Cypher and there's no limit on the number they can go to, it's completely open - they just need to DM one of our A&Rs (Isaiah La Touche) on Instagram with some content and they get put on the waiting list. And then from there we work out what the best support we can provide is based on the need or development level of the artist.

That's definitely given some people reading a huge insight on joining you guys! What do you think makes Spit Game stand out from all of the other platforms out there at the moment?

We are a family. People only really get it when they are part of the collective for a while, but that’s how it works. Obviously like any family we have our ups and downs, but at the end of the day all we want is for everyone to succeed, if possible together. Also, we are tiny in terms of the number of people actually running stuff (all but one of them is over 18), plus we are led by energy and creativity, which is why we now do film at the same level as music... it just felt right and that’s what matters.

For sure! From what we're seeing you guys are on top right now. The creativity is unmatched for real. Is there anyone that is currently not a part of your family that you would love to be able to work with?

Thanks, we appreciate that! Obviously collaborations with established artists will be a great way of boosting our artists’ profiles, but end of the day we most just want to be surprised by the unexpected - finding the next raw talent and supporting them to achieve their dream!

Absolutely! Have you got any advice for any rising artists that are struggling to get people to see their stuff?

Build your team and be consistent. You need to use the people around you... the person good at edits, the producer, the one who can take good videos/photos on their phone... that is the start of your team, and then you need to apply that and post regularly. But being upfront about it, get in touch and we will see you on Spit on the Street!

For sure man, someone needed to hear that. we've got one final question for you, before we ask - do you have anything else you would like to add?

Shout out to Scoop for shining a light on emerging talent - I know your features/interviews have meant a lot to the young rappers in our community. It's good to be connected to others who want to support the culture.

We really appreciate that for real, it means more to us than you could imagine! Our final question for you is if you have anyone else you would like to shout out, someone you've been working close with, someone you just like, anyone!

There’s so many individuals in the collective that deserve a shout out... no question gotta mention Turner who’s behind EVERYTHING but hides away from the spotlight. And a massive shoutout to Lil Trubz and Tracks on Tap for sharing the vision.

We hear you loud and clear! Thank you so much for your time in speaking with us and a huge thank you for what you're doing for the scene!