Today, Rush Martines, 1/4 of Singaporean rap crew Yeti Pack, released his solo single 'LOCK' into the ether. 

Everything about the hard-slapping banger is focussed to a razor-point. Martines' shrouded flow melds with the purple-black beatscape to noirish, intoxicating effect. Now, the rapper unspools his music video-accompaniment to the song. A lone figure on a hill, he speaks his truth to the world around him.

Read our interview with him below.

Tell the people who you are. 

Simply put, I’m a Corgi lover who makes stripper music. I produce, The drums was my first love. Then I explored the field of being a dancer. Which is when I found my love for reggaeton music. That has influenced a lot into the music I have today. My dancehall teacher once called my style subtle but sexy and that just stuck with me. I mainly love to rap about emotional breakup 6lack-type songs, together with heart-racing escapades and personal growth.

I’ve always loved music, how it makes me feel, how it makes me move. Music helps me express the most. I grew up very shy and insecure, and music, by far, brings out my expression completely without the need to censor myself. Music judst satisfies every aspect of me that I want to get better at.

It’s known that despite being immersed in rock music since young, you’re starting out as rapper. What drew you to rap?

It's just the best way I can express myself and use my voice. I've always talked myself out of being ‘a rapper’ but when I tried it, I realised I was decent at writing bars. But most importantly, it was fun. I’m a big thinker, and to have all your messy thoughts written down in a song in form of poetry and pairing it with all the instruments and beats, is just creatively incredible. Hip hop, I feel is so versatile where you can have a blues melody with a trap drum pattern. I saw endless possibilities of what I could make, from sampling my favourite Grand Theft Auto characters’ voices to using acoustic Sum 41-type drums on a hip-hop song.

How did you come to join Yeti Pack and how would you describe the chemistry of the group?

This is a funny story. Afrojunior, well, Ben. to me, has been one of my best friends for some time now. And we always thought of making music together. I knew he rapped and I play drums so we were thinking some Twenty One Pilots-type shit. But we never went too deep into that. Then one day Ben, Nathan (Ben’s brother) and Alex (YELLO) were collaborating on a song together and they wanted to use my house for an MV. And that day, the videographer was none other than Arvind (RVND). By the end of the day we were chilling and surprisingly them 3 started freestyling together. We found out quickly how much we clicked and shared the same weird humour. Ben, Arvind and Alex soon became mentor figures and brothers-in-arms. We have the weirdest but best chemistry I feel a group could have. We just added new members to our family. Even all our friends came together and made a super group. And I proud to call them family.

Today, you release ‘Lock’ into the world. What does the song mean to you?

It means the world to me. For me, it’s not just about the song and sharing it with the world. It showed me that I proved myself right and that I found what I what really love to do after months of experimenting and failing. This is the first properly finished product of a song that I’m proud of. Not just because of the production, but the lyrical content, and it shows how much I’ve grown even though I only started in January this year. And for once, I could see a proper future in music. So ‘LOCK’ is essentially the first step into a world of a lot more experiences and I can’t wait for the challenges and rewards to come.

Do you see it as a breakup song, an empowerment anthem, or, both? Please explain.

I would say it leans more towards an empowerment anthem. The wounds are not fresh in this one. This is where I am exactly in life right now. You’ll always want that one person but you can’t have them and thats okay. You’re doing just fine without them, but you just want to let them know how you felt about what they did to you. Consider it angry Drake. But Asian.

What are your hopes for 2019?

I definitely want to be able to share as much as I can of myself to the world in 2019. I can’t wait to grow with people who resonate with my music and, hopefully, build a community around likeminded people who can enjoy the same music. I’ve always felt under-the-radar all my life and I’m ready to be known as I feel I have something special to offer that no one has ever seen. Ultimately, I can’t wait to grow so much more than I did this year.