Drew Devine
(Werd) is an underground hip hop artist in Scotland, also the winner of the
2011 urban recording of the year for "A Declaration" which featured Wardie
Burns, Zambian Astronaut and Mog.
He has had his
songs played on national UK radio and international hip-hop stations in
Germany, Norway, France and US. He has featured on local stations like Glasgow
University's Subcity Radio and Steg G's Sunny Govan Community Radio. He also
was played on BBC radio 1Xtra and Scotland’s BBC radio 1. On the 26th June 2011
he appeared on BBC radio 1 introducing with Ally McCrae and Wardie Burns
discussing and playing live tracks from the Oor Wardie album.
Werd's first
release was Werd and Deeko Volume 1 in 2007, this release started their
fanbase, but it wasn’t until Werd's solo release The Scottish Rapper Mixtape in
2008 that he gained a fanbase as a solo artist, with this release he caught the
attention of the local promoters and artist which projected him to new heights
in the underground music scene.
He had a busy
year 2009 with all of his gigs, plus three releases, the Rap Re-Mixtape Volume
1, Patient Empowerment and Project Auld Reekie, All three are very good and all
show how hard he works to bring such good quality in such little time, in 2009
his fanbase greatly grew with people outside Britain were also becoming fans.
2010 was an even
busier year, his reputation had grown and he was performing frequent gigs and
working with many different artists including a collaboration track with
Australia’s Lee MC. He also had four releases in 2010, The Rap Re-Mixtape
Volume 2, The Anti-Knife Crime EP with Wardie Burns and Riddlah UvBeatz, He
featured on Underworld a Zambian Astronaut release and in December of 2010 he
and Wardie Burns released the 26 track Vagabonds EP with features from Madhat,
Riddlah, Mog, Zambian Astronaut, Nity Gritz and Phat Dave. He was also part of
the 2010 Dunnedin Glen Festival.
It was in 2011
that he and Wardie released the Vagabonds in Space Mixtape which contained the
track A Declaration featuring Zambian Astronaut and Mog, which won them the
urban recording of the year award, also featured on vagabonds in space was
Madhat McGore and Nostal. Also released in 2011 was Project Auld Reekie 2 and
his double single John Connor and Drive it Like its Stolen, 2011 may have been
his biggest year for gigs so far, as he supported some of the UKs biggest hip
hop artists, he supported Dr Syntax in Edinburgh’s Studio 24, Stig of the Dump
in the same venue and in December of 2011 he Supported Devlin onstage at the
Liquid Rooms with Cbas as the DJ, Cbas is also the Sons Of Scotland DJ. Also supporting Devlin was Madhat McGore,
Jimmy Snookz, Skipper, Villain, Shadowpeople (Nity Gritz and KayceOne, Dj by Toni
Smoke).
2012 holds big
things for Werd, Already with three releases this year, and having supported
Sway onstage along with Madhat McGore, Jimmy Snookz, Skipper, Wardie Burns,
Villain and Hector Bizerk. So far releases this year are Vagabonds Afterbirth
with Wardie Burns, a Conscious Route collaboration titled Nowadays which
featured other Scottish MCs such as Jordan Butler, Deeko and Wardie Burns. Also
released this year was See no Hear no Speak no Evil collaboration with
Conscious Route and Blasfima Sinna, He is also Planning to release his first
solo Album this year. We can expect nothing but improvement from one of the
hardest working and best MCs in Scotland; I personally think this will be a
massive year for Werd.
Currently there
have been over 20 S.O.S releases; all went through Werd with production,
recording and artwork. Werd’s first solo album called Untitled Scot is due to be released this year. I’m expecting great things from Werd and can’t wait to see who he
features with and supports in 2012 and I don’t think I’ll be disappointed.
Daniel
