In November 2024, a cross-generational line up of grime’s very best — from Flowdan and Jendor to Kibo and Trappy — packed out Kindred LDN for a special TravsPresents set. When he grabbed the mic, the young MC from Luton stomped all over the Pow instrumental like it was on fire. N3 bagged a perfect hat-trick of wheel ups in the process. He’s since gone on to collaborate with scene stalwarts like Scorcher, Duppy and Manga, releasing his own debut full length 2000 Hours in February.
“I feel like I blacked out,” he tells RWD, reflecting on that TravsPresents moment. “I just entered the flow state. It was a madness. And then you had Kruz saying, ‘tell them your age!’ I said, ‘seventeen!’ And the room went mad. I was surrounded by so many people who I rate and this was one of my first ten sets ever. I said to myself, this is gonna look amazing on YouTube,” N3 adds, laughing.
It’s an origin story of sorts, but N3’s grime odyssey started way earlier. He remembers being four or five years old, grabbing the Sky remote at home and chancing upon the video for Lethal B’s Pow 2011 on Channel AKA. “I really liked it,” he says. “For something to capture my energy and gain my attention the way it did, I knew it was powerful.”
N3 penned his first bar when he was seven, drawing inspiration from something straight out of left field. “It’s gonna sound mad when I say this,” he admits. “But I was watching Britain’s Got Talent and there was this duo called Bars and Melody. They were not too much older than me, on that big stage rapping and singing. I felt really inspired after that.”
