Written by: Oliver Heffron

Archy Moor is a natural MC. Only a few years after picking up the mic for the first time, the Nigerian-born, Dublin-raised artist has quickly exhibited a natural knack for lyricism and a distinct ear for production with singles like “I’ve Been” and “Have It In My Hands'' before releasing his debut EP.

Bonnie Hill distills the most exciting aspects of his sound with lush instrumentation, cinematic atmospheres, and effortless flows making the 6-tracks fly by like a daydream. Sounding years ahead of his time, Archy Moor displays the talent and vision to be the next unique prodigy coming out of the alternative UK hip-hop scene. 

Archy Moor sat down with Nuance for a virtual interview to share how he quickly fell in love with hip-hop, the recording process for Bonnie Hill, and his mindset going forward at the promising start of his music career. 

Unlike most 21-year-old artists with a well-crafted sound, Archy Moor didn’t grow up with dreams of being a musician. He remembers wanting to be a doctor before the Covid lockdown hit and changed everything. Surrounded by producers and musicians with nothing to do but kill time, Moor naturally found himself spending more and more time writing and producing music, and it eventually turned into a serious career prospect: 

“It was just just messing around, collaborating with different people, different producers and just step by step you know, making it what it is. The whole thing I try to follow is not being artificial. I’m just trying to be as genuine as possible.”

In an era where much of hip-hop can feel engineered to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, Archy Moor has found his groove by making the type of music that will affect its listeners more deeply, even if that crowd is smaller than it could be with a less distinct and lyrically-focused approach: “Listen, if like 10 People listen, and they’re all like, ‘Yeah, this is insane,’ I’m fucking with that as opposed to like 50,000 people that’s just like, ‘Yeah, this is cool, whatever.’”

After scrapping six or seven versions of Bonnie Hill produced by various producers, Archy Moor was virtually introduced to producer Earl Saga. The two immediately clicked creatively: “Legit from the first zoom, we both just knew that this is something that’s gonna lead so much more. And for me, it was just such a breath of fresh air just because, like everything up until that point kind of felt like me caving in, but Earl was straight like, ‘I fuck with your focus; I fuck with your energy; I fuck with you as a person.’ Everything just gelled.”

Archy Moor and Earl Saga’s creative partnership started from a series of zoom sessions to a trip around the world, with Moor taking multiple trips to Earl Saga’s home in Milton-Keynes, England, an out journey to London to work with producer Nick Mills (Baby Keem, Kendrick Lamar), before flying out to LA to finish the EP with help from Grammy-nominated producer MIKEWAVVS (Jack Harlow, Kehlani, KayCyy). Moor and Saga even stopped at Japan and Korea on the way home, the latter being where they shot the video for the single “I’ve Been.” 

“So in terms of friendships, it’s very weird,” Archy says, laughing, “I’ve only known this fella for just over a year and we’re already doing all of this mad shit.” 

Listening to Bonnie Hill, the pair’s compatibility shows up in the dynamic mix of low-key, layered production with Archy Moor’s laidback delivery of personal lyrics. Without ever sounding overly confessional, he paints a refined self-portrait by poetically telling stories only he could: 

“I was just mainly focused on like, ‘have I given you a picture of who I am? Could you listen to this and be like, ‘Oh, he’s gone through that this is more or less what he’s about. I didn’t really just want to make an empty record. That’s just like, ‘Oh, he’s hard.’ But then like, you would mistake me for someone else just because everyone’s hard. You can’t really mistake me chattin’ about my mom for someone else.”

The most touching example of this is the aforementioned “Belly of a Queen,” which expresses his love for his mom and even features her heart-warming reaction to the track–a guest spot that he remembers not being easy to secure. While it may not have taken as much convincing, Archy Moor was ecstatic to get UK singer JGrrey to contribute to the opening track “Beautiful,” in which she opens the project with a slightly-annoyed plea for directions to Bonnie Hill: “It was a really sick moment, just being able to have Jen contribute like even something small onto the record. I was like, ‘Ah, that’s mad,’ just because I’ve been listening to her for years and years and years.”

Describing himself as an introvert who finds himself at peace just relaxing with a movie, Archy Moor describes how music has allowed him to express another side of himself as he gets in the mode to write and record: “When I’m recording, all of that just goes away and I’m the most open–probably too open–person…nothing is off the table when it comes to writing. I’ll say anything about anything that’s going on.”

After first stepping to the mic to fill time with some friends, Archy Moor found a voice inside that’s taken him around the world and changed his life. While there’s nothing wrong with being a doctor, I’m happy that he decided to share his story with the world.