Whenever the names most crucial in boosting drill from its inner-city beginnings to its position of chart dominance are being debated, there’s often a key omission. Tottenham producer M1onTheBeat helped to create the drill wave back in 2017. Since then, he’s ridden atop its crest without so much as breaking a sweat. From Headie One and Rv’s 2017 mixtape ‘Drillers X Trappers’, which crystallised bleak and menacing soundscapes as the sound of drill, to Digga D’s commercial breakout single ‘Woi’, the biggest names have all delivered their career’s best work on his instrumentals: the one time Drake attempted a UK drill song he opted for an M1 production.
In 2023, the North London native finally assumed “super-producer” status after dropping his debut project, ‘M1onTheBeat The Mixtape’, which breathed new energy into a scene that had stagnated. Enlisting frequent collaborators Digga D, K-Trap and Headie One, alongside newcomers Cristale and Booter Bee, the challenge of crafting a full-length project in his own creative vision proved, well, not that difficult. “My ting’s just too natural, man,” M1 says nonchalantly. “I love music, so there’s no pressure. I’m not here [trying] to be ‘this’ person.”
After years spent as drill’s unheralded hero, it isn’t the biggest surprise that M1 has sought out a new challenge; stepping away from rap and drill towards house. As he lists reasons for the transition, M1 seems more enthused, proof that the shift is no gimmick: “Boredom. My love for music. Wanting to do something new. I’ve always rated house music. I used to listen to drum n bass and dubstep and they can carry the same qualities; the rise, 808s. I’ve always liked that kind of sound.”
Last summer M1 popped up at an impromptu DJ set with dubstep legend, Skrillex. A partnership between a dubstep god and drill’s premier producer might seem unlikely, but it turns out their relationship goes beyond a mutual love of metallic sounds and 140 bpm tempos: “Skrillex shouted me. He said he’s been watching me since SoundCloud days. We’re good friends now, we’ve been talking for about two years. We’ve had studio sessions; we’ve got like 12/13 beats. He’s a real one, he’ll properly check for me.”
Whether those beats will feature on the house music project M1 plans to drop at “some point next year”, remains to be seen. What’s evident is that M1 plans to earn his stripes not through connections or status, but through the undeniable quality of his drops: “I’m definitely going to be concentrating on this house sound, taking the DJ life seriously, and having a bit more control over everything. If we make beats, DJ them across the world and put remixes out, I think we’ll be good. We’ll reach different crowds.”
After driving one genre to new heights, can M1 master another? Honestly, it would be ill-advised to bet against him.
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Photography: Terna Jogo
Words: Dwayne Wilks
