Matt Ox Isn't Slowing Down

With a creative eye and ambitions that expand past the musical spectrum, Lord Apex has been the face of campaigns with major brands such as Supreme, Carhartt, New Balance and Nike, and is even working on an exclusive collaboration with Champion for his forthcoming international tour. Having already recently performed China, Japan and Manchester, The Good Fight will see Apex on the road again in March, kickstarting his headline tour in Amsterdam and finishing in his home city of London. 

What was your upbringing in West London like? Were you always around music growing up?

Yeah, there's a lot of music lovers and musicians in my family, so it's something I was always around for sure.

Did you play any instruments?

A little bit, but not as consistently as I wanted to. I played a little bit of steel pans and I played a little bit of African drums, but I could never really stick with no instruments. My mom just knew I was into music, so she would try to get me to start different shit, but it came when it was ready.

Who were your music influences growing up?

All the early ones like Vybz Kartel, even older than that, like Buju and Capleton. But then all the hip hop shit as well, like Busta, Pharrell, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, in that sort of pocket.

Was it a fairly even split between UK and US artists?

Nah, it was a fair split between reggae and hip-hop. I didn't really listen to no UK. I listened to D Double because my sister did. But I wasn't really listening to it, it wasn't for me. Respectfully.

It feels like now the gap between UK and US music is being bridged. Is that something you welcome and want to see happen or is there a part of you that kind of likes that separation?

It's only separation if you allow yourself to be separated. So by calling yourself “UK rap”, just because you're from the UK, you're almost closing so many other doors for yourself. You know what I'm saying? So I'm good. I'm a world wide rapper. I would never consider myself ‘a UK rapper’. I wouldn't consider US hip-hop, ‘US hip-hop’. It's just hip-hop because it started over there. Rap is rap. When people start putting the borders on it, they start closing doors for themselves. So I don't really do that, and I felt like that's allowed me to get to where I'm at. I think of it all as one genre. We just come from different places in the world.

Is it true your stage name was inspired by Madlib’s?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I remember coming across his alter ego, Quasimoto, and I think at the end of one of his songs, he just referred to himself as “Lord Quas” and I was like, ‘I like the ‘Lord’.’ I already had the ‘Apex’ by that point.

It must feel nice to now have him collaborating on your album.

Definitely a beautiful full circle moment. Yeah. Yeah, it's nice.

How did you connect with CJ Fly for ‘Belize’?

Oh, man. I grew up being a big fan of Pro Era. I owe them a lot of respect. So me and CJ Fly, we played a festival together in Renne, in France and we had a good vibe. CJ's another one that's grown up with Jamaican heritage so it is natural. It's natural for me. I'm very proud of where I'm from, so I would collab with every Jamaican artist if I could.

Yeah, Pro Era was a favorite for me growing up too.

But even outside of that though, growing up CJ was one of my favorite artists, so I was glad we got to make that happen. And we got a couple more in the stash.

I was looking at the lyrics for ‘Vintage Garms’. Has fashion always been something that you've been into?

Yeah, man. From the Primark days, we used to get fly. Real life.

I love the song ‘Muuma’.

Ah, yeah. I played it for my mom. She loves it. She was like, “I don't want to be biased, but it might be the best one.” I was like, ‘you right mom.’

No, it's my favorite too, to be honest. Has your mother always been a big influence on you?

For sure. I wouldn't be here. Everything; mentally, physically, all of them. All the ‘-allys’.

And in terms of your music career too?

Yeah, she gave me the freedom, you know what I'm saying? When I wanted to take a gap year off to expand my music, she was like, “all right.” So here we are.

That's nice she gave you that trust. How do you find it navigating the music industry and maintaining your creative control?

Man, I maintain creative control by just being like, ‘I'm not doing this over here and I'm going to do this over here.’ I'm a bit cheeky, innit. I feel like the industry's trying to maintain me. It's the other way around. I'm not even trying to maintain the industry because I'm going to just keep moving and flowing like water and doing what I got to do. The industry is always going to be the industry, but the industry is not set up for you to be successful. So if I was to follow the trends of the industry, I probably would not end up successful. I’d probably be a couple hundred thousands in debt because I'm trying to follow something.

Whereas if I created my own industry, you’re going to follow what I'm doing. So that's what I’m on. I'm going to create my own industry, my own empire, my own infrastructure and then you ain't got to worry about that. And then generational wealth and all of them things there, they just flow in naturally as they should.

Is there ever pressure from external influences to create hits or more commercial music?

Nah, I record what I want to, man. And one thing that's kind of dangerous about me is if you tell me to do something and I'm not here for it, you are almost going to push me to do the complete opposite just to be like ‘fuck you.’ If there ever was a point where people were like, “I want the old Apex”, I would just create a whole new one that they don't like, just to be like, ‘I'm not going to do what you like.’ And that goes for all parties involved in what I do. I'm always going to make what I make. I call on opinions but when it comes down to it, I make this shit. I've been making shit. It's not my first album, it's like the twentieth. You know what I'm saying? This is not my first walk in the park. 

So outside of everything else, I take in creative and other opinions, but I do this and this is the one thing that I do that's very personal for me so I kind of don't want to even hear shit when it comes to making albums. I'm speaking on my life. So you may know me, but you're not in my head, so you're still not going to know why everything is chosen. Creative control, it can get sticky. I can turn into a real ignorant guy, just don't fuck with my creative process. But other than that, everyone knows it's love.

What do you feel like the next few years hold for you?

These braids are going to keep getting longer, the love's going to keep getting stronger. More art. Hopefully we expand off into the movie world, the film world. If not, buy some other scripts. Probably buy some short films that I'll do myself. That's been on my bucket list for a long time. More merch. I got the first batch in of the new shit. Hopefully we just keep the new shit going. Merch, but more officially on a clothing brand scale. But I kind of don't want to say clothing brand yet. It's a different pressure. The word ‘brand’ already is just wild. Hopefully some more collaborations with some cool brands that I grew up looking up to. And always new music. The offers keep coming in but I feel like when we hit 2025 I want to slow down touring a little bit and we’ll just have to double the number. And if you want me, you're just going to have to pay that. If you're not going to pay that, I'm alright because we've got money over here now.

I love being on the road, but I'm a stoner. I'm tired as hell. It drains me out. It's long as hell and I don't get to travel with no homies apart from my manager. And it's lit, I love it. But I just feel like this solo traveling man… The first year was lit. Second year was alright, the third year feels like work. And it is work, it's what I do, it’s a job. I love going to see the fans in different cities and doing what I do, but me as a human, me as an introvert and someone that's not used to being around a whole bunch of people, it’s like, ‘let's ease up.’ So I think at the end of 2024 we'll discuss some new numbers and if they ain't hitting the number, I'm in the crib. I've got my little nephew, I need to look after. I've got family I need to look after so I can go put my time into some other shit. Not to sound ignorant and shit I'm just very certain on what I want.

I think that's the opposite of ignorant.

Yeah bro, you got to know what you want because they'll step all over you, trust me.

Absolutely. And I think to be able to come back and know you've got your family right, it's the most important thing. What should people expect from the new album?

The Good Fight is the start of a new chapter, man. The next one's probably going to be Smoke Sessions 4, and that's going to be the last Smoke Sessions. We're going to close the little Smoke chapter on my life and we're just going to be on some more mature and different shit. I'm kind of tired of talking about smoke myself. I just do it so I talk about it. LLCs and fucking savings. That's what I'm thinking about moving forward. And love. Building family. All of them things.