“I’m just more mature now, I’m a lot more grown, Sneakbo tells Apple Music. Though fans had to endure nearly a decade-long wait for the London rapper’s debut [2017 album Brixton], on 9 Lives he’s now intent on making up for lost time. Hailing from Brixton, a cultural melting point of London’s immigrant communities, Sneakbo swept to prominence during the first half of the 2010s as an advocate amongst British rappers in fusing elements of Afrobeats with dancehall and hard-edged rap refrains. Navigating his second set with another pick ‘n’ mix blend of sounds, he takes modern drill for a spin on “I Used To”, while “Advice” offers sharp reflection on street escapades and Dappy lends charisma and melody to chart-ready thumper “Oh La La”. The album’s title, a playful nod to an old street rumour once attached to the rapper, only serves to bolster his claims of maturity. “When I was younger, obviously, when people started spreading the rumour about the cat, I didn't really like it. You feel me? But then as I got older, I see on Twitter people making jokes about it, it's just funny. You'll see every single year they talk about it.” Here the rapper talks us through the album track by track. Highs and Lows “I just wanted to talk about my journey over the last two years. I’m talking about some real shit. I wanted to start off with my son, I wanted his voice to be the first thing heard. My son, Lorenzo, he was born September 24. When he’s old enough and he hears this, he’ll love it. Trust me. If my dad did, I would!” I Used To (feat. Stickz) “In 2010, I went to jail. I was there for maybe two months but I would think to myself, ‘I can't be here.' It's definitely made me think twice because I can't be out here doing anything to risk my freedom. I have to move correct, stay focused and pattern the future for my son. To be honest with you, it was a different beat at first. I found a beat I liked on YouTube and gave it to [London producer] Lekaa to reproduce. This was probably a week before I had to hand the album in.” The Flyest (feat. Br3nya) “I met Br3nya through Lekaa, who produced this one with [London producer] NA, and we’ve become cool now. I go way back with Lekaa. I found him somewhere random. I think I found him on Twitter, I messaged him for some beats and we’ve been linking up since. I feel like he understands me, and it gets better the more time we spend together.” Hold You Down (feat. Mr Eazi) “I first recorded with Eazi for a song called ‘Chicken Curry’, and he said he would jump on one for my album afterwards. I sent over the beat and it came back with like three different hooks but this was the one I wanted. When I write about girls, it's all real life but it's not always about one girl. Bars might be something on this girl, and then I might switch and be talking about another." Since School Days (feat. Ard Adz & Tiny Boost) “I think of my school days and I think of just being out and being cruddy. After school, chilling outside Morley’s, not going home. I went to school with Stickz, and Adz went to a different school but after school all of us would link up in Brixton, and we chilled together. Just out there on the streets. All from the same area.” Advice “My advice to a younger G: I'll tell him, stay in school, focus, and don't be in any gangs. Do your thing. Be that wavy guy that gets girls, is cool with everyone, gettin' money. That's what I would tell a younger person. When I say 'Free Mags', thats the same Maggie I shouted on [2011 single] 'Touch Ah Button'. It's sad, he hasn't even felt me blow. He hasn't seen any of that. He was just out here when we were all on the road. There's some words I reversed on the intro but I'll leave that for people to try and work out." She Fell In Love (feat. Still Greedy) “This is Greedy on the hook. We’re from the same area of South, he’s my guy. I’ve made a bunch of songs with him and we had a track called ‘Rude and Smooth’ but the engineers lost the parts when we were trying to mix it. So we had to go back in. We hit the studio one night and just made this on the spot.” Do What I Want (feat. MK) “I recorded this out in Sweden with MK. He’s my friend from back in the days, he doesn’t really rap but this had to be on here—I know this track’s wavy. Everyone else will know once we’re out and we perform it. He always comes with me to all my shows anyway so I thought ‘boom boom boom... we might as well have a song together’”. Oh La La (feat. Dappy) “Yeah, Dappy went mad on this! This is another one that could be a single. They’re all different bangers to me, it just depends on how I’m feeling or what’s going on at the time. I just try and go with the flow. Sometimes my music does get me into trouble, even the songs ones about girls. On this one, the first two lines, I’m saying real stuff. I know it causes trouble, it is what it is.” Never Gonna Be “I recorded this with [UK producer and DJ] Rude Kid at a studio in North London. Sometimes you just get that feeling like, ‘Boom, this is a banger.’ I just like writing. I'm always writing. Sometimes I even have bars already in my phone and it fits on the beat that we're playing now in the studio. I've always just got loads of them ready.” Pree Me (feat. Moelogo) “I think Moelogo’s hard, his voice is sick and he writes bangers for others as well. I can’t really remember how we got in contact but it was probably around the time afrobeats was popping [in London]. Like when the scene was starting up, around those times. I don't know if we started [the sound] it, but we definitely were one of the first. Growing up in Brixton, surrounded by Africans and Jamaicans, that’s where the influences came from. It was just what we listened to.” Last Night In Brixton “I'm not there like how I used to be but I'm still there, in Brixton. My friends are all there. I might go and stay for an hour or two hours but back then, I was there for 24 hours, the whole day, chilling. That's what makes me go down there. I miss those days. I miss that feeling. When I was younger I used to think Clapham was kind of far. Now Clapham feels like one minute away, and that's because I never used to leave the area. I met a guy called Shamar in my early days, I used to work with closely back then, I'm walking on Camden High Street to get to his house and I was chased by these schoolgirls. There's footage of it online. That's the first time I knew I was famous.” Love Is A Gamble (feat. Kida Kudz) “Kida, he’s talented. He’s Nigerian as well so obviously we linked up. We both had sons around the same time too. He’s doing good, I think he’s enjoying fatherhood the same as me.” Skrrrr (feat. Fekky) “I met Fekky on the roads. That was before music, and before we’d done [2014 single ‘Real G’] our first track. I've got a lot of respect for him. Back in the days he would always shout me for his birthday bashes, I'd come up and perform, we'd do sets and turn up together. I can't just forget Fekky.” They Already Know “This was one of the last tracks I wrote before finishing the album. There’s different subjects on this but it's not really personal to me, I'm just waving on it.” Paris “Obviously, I was in Paris when I made this. I was thinking about my mum, my granny, my family business. I make my mum smile a lot more now. She’s always smiling. I think she’s mainly proud of me for staying out of trouble. I always knew I would repay her for the stress, I just didn’t know how." Outro “I’m just recapping, basically, here. This one’s personal. I feel like I’m saying too much real shit that people around me know about. I just want people to listen to it and understand my story.”