The Lyrical cardio of verge
Interview by Jeriah Fredericks
Photography by Arron Moos, Josh Dylan
VERGE is one of the cats that caught my eye in the early days of VERVE. We had met once upon a time through the boys, Themba and Alex and the gang, and I often heard his name brought up in passing, along with the fact that he was rapping.
Back then I paid no attention - but to be honest I wasn’t really paying attention to much outside of groove. But once we started VERVE and I started digging through Instagram for local rappers, he came across the feed and his ‘Lyrical Cardio’ video series intrigued me.
Late last year I finally got the chance to chat to him and find out more about what inspired the series, and how he uses it to stay flexible and constantly improve himself as an artist.
Image by @arronnathan
So VERGE, can you tell us who you are?
VERGE is an attractive (laughter), gifted young black man who’s passionate about Hip Hop, passionate about lyricism, and passionate about his craft. I’ve always been drawn to music that is centred around soul, not only the genre, but spiritually.
Would you classify yourself as a Boom Bap artist?
I can do Boom Bap, but I wouldn’t classify myself solely as Boom Bap. I feel like I’m very well rounded. I can do vibey Hip Hop, I could do Trap, and also the introspective Boom Bap thing. But yeah, people have associated me with being a Boom Bap rapper and I’m not going to push that away.
I think I’m very proud of where I’m positioned right now, especially sonically. I feel that I have those elements where I carry that Boom Bap spirit but I don’t sound outdated. I also don’t sound extremely modern or too far away from it. I like where my sound is at right now, in terms of the history of that sound.
Image by @arronnathan
How long have you been rapping for?
I started doing this seriously in 2017. I used to mess around with the raps before that but it wasn’t me doing this and immediately calling myself a rapper. If you see my social media handles, it’s @vergebeatz. That’s because I started producing and making beats.
At one point we had this group, James was in it, called The Royals. Another one of my friends, Skyf, was also in the group but he went by St. Cloud back then. It was just the three of us and every school holiday we’d link up and I’d produce, we’d mix, we’d record, and we’d just make stuff together. We did more and more of those and we got better at it.
I never saw myself as a rapper because I hated the sound of my voice bro. What also made it worse was St. Cloud was incredibly good. After I decided to take this thing seriously is when I started going through the motions of just finding my voice on the mic.
How long did that process of finding your voice take?
Yoh, it took long bro. Even when I took everything seriously, I dropped an EP in 2018 where I sound completely different. You can even hear it for yourself. It’s still me but I sound different from how I sound now.
Let’s even forget how I sounded sonically back then. Even my way of delivery was different. I think what really cracked and the turning point for me was the 2020 lockdown period. Obviously people dispersed but I had homies who I used to record with, their names are Veli and Simphiwe. They used to run a studio called Backroom Studios.
They had both left the city and for some reason I asked Veli if there was any chance he left his equipment in the city. He said yeah and his friend had the keys to the equipment which I could use. That was the first time in my life where I could just drown myself in music. I could play around and experiment. Also it was much easier because you weren’t timed like you usually would be when booking a studio session. 2020 really gave me that time to really tap in. I was even working with Alex Biaya at the time and he’d always help me. It was nice to always having that second ear.
Image by @arronnathan
Now that you have your fully polished sound, would you like people to still go back to experiencing your older work?
Ideally, no (laughter). As an artist, no, because I need ya’ll to listen to the new stuff! But it’s always special for people to go back and see the growth. I think that’s why I’ve left most of my work up. I’d also like to show and encourage other artists by letting them know that this thing is a process.
Nobody ever just wakes up dope. Nobody wakes up sounding polished and clean. I think that’s the perception that people have been having. It’s not like that and it’s why I still have my old posts on my socials from like 2018 and before the start of the ‘Lyrical Cardio’ series. I leave that there for whoever is watching. Like how dope would it be seeing your favourite artist trying to figure things out and discovering themselves.
For me as an artist, that’s encouragement because you see that they also had to go through the same thing. I think it also magnifies the growth more. So yeah, ideally, I won’t encourage people to go back to my old work but if they do, it’s there.
It’s nice to keep things up. I was watching a Joe Budden episode where he stated that back in the day, if you sold your CD, the consumer could own it and keep it forever. Nowadays with streaming, any project or work you love could disappear and you don’t actually own anything. I think the consumer has lost any control and it’s why I still keep my old work out there.
Tell me about Lyrical Cardio. How did that come about?
I’ll tell you where the name came from. There’s a song called Summer ‘19 that I had dropped in 2019. On that song was a line where I said “the boy’s gifted I’m phenomenal / never doubt I got it though, exercising my lyrical cardio”. That was at a stage when I was trying to be more present on social media.
Before I started Lyrical Cardio, I had this pride of not trying to be a rapper that freestyle’d. However it got to a point where I understood that I was an upcoming artist and I had to just do it because nobody knew me like that.
For some reason, that phrase, Lyrical Cardio, stuck into my head. I did that and it became the title of my freestyle videos. It became a series but it was never that consistent. There were always big gaps between each drop. But over time, my perspective changed for the craft where I knew I had to sharpen this thing up.
That’s when Lyrical Cardio evolved into a space where I could test out new ideas that I was working on and it was my way of also practising my craft. The idea started growing and coming together more. I started getting comfortable with the Lyrical Cardio series when I realised that I could test out stuff that I really liked, and I could really be myself. I started doing that and people started gravitating to it.
It was in 2024 when we really started consistently dropping the Lyrical Cardios. We were dropping weekly for about 15 or 16 weeks straight. From there is when people would ask if it was out on streaming platforms and that led to ‘Lyrical Cardio Vol. 1’, and this year’s ‘Lyrical Cardio Vol. 2’.
Do you think that helped with your recognition as an artist?
I think it did. I think I also started seeing value in being present more with my craft. I always knew with my personality that I could be present on social media, but I wanted to be known for what I do and I want to succeed at that.
Being in front of people’s faces did help but the added bonus was that people gravitated to the music too, which eventually evolved into a project.
How did all the Lyrical Cardio’s culminate into the project?
What I looked at were the ones that people were asking for the most, which ones the people like and resonate the most with. However, I also mixed it with some of my favourites. Those were the ones which I felt were really good and I wanted people to hear more of. At the end of the day, it is still my project.
I also wanted to look back at it and feel that it was something that I was proud of. I’ve dropped over 60 Lyrical Cardio’s and I knew a lot of people wouldn’t be satisfied because they had hopes of their favourite songs being on the album. It was hard because of that split between the public’s favourites and my personal favourites.
However, putting them together still made sense. There were some that I wanted on but couldn't make it and there were some that they wanted on but also didn’t make it but I had to figure it all out.
What are you building towards and what’s next?
I’m just focused on being present and consistent. That’s where I’m at right now. Seeing the reception from my last drop informed how I move forward. I’ve seen what people are gravitating towards so I know which way to go now.
Image by @iamjoshdylan
Tell me, what is it like working so closely with your homies - Alex and Themba and James and the gang?
I think it’s one of the biggest blessings bro. I can’t be more grateful to God for aligning things the way he did. It’s not like we all came together and said “I’m looking for greatness”. We just naturally aligned as people, and then we also realised we all have little flames in us, and over time we started nurturing each other's flames - now it’s a bonfire. I’d even go a bit further to say that everything is easy. And that’s not to say the actions that we take are easy - when something comes up that’s hard, it's made easier because I have the boys behind my back.
What’s your opinion of the current cultural landscape of the country, and where do you see it going from here?
It’s an exciting time. In terms of the industry, I love how it’s widening. Different tastes, different palates, so many new artists. BrotherKupa isn't for you? Shap, there something else for you then. Not too long ago there was this mindset of there can only be so many people in the front of the scene, but now there's a lot more room for artists to grow into themselves.
Image by @arronnathan
Whether or not you follow his videos, one thing has to be said about VERGE - his lyricism speaks volumes. The passion and authenticity that he oozes are second to none.
Be sure to check out his latest album, and keep an eye on him for more to come.
