{"id":2516320,"date":"2026-07-24T23:27:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2516320"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:27:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:27:49","slug":"lancey-foux-the-godfather-of-uk-ug-is-starting-a-new-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/lancey-foux-the-godfather-of-uk-ug-is-starting-a-new-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Lancey Foux: The godfather of UK Ug is starting a new chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<!-- WhiteSpaceFilter: Exclude --><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lancey\/?hl=en\">Lancey Foux<\/a> only eats one meal a day. \u201cIt helps your energy levels and your focus,\u201d the rapper explains, breaking his fast over a plate of sushi in Roka in central London. His biceps bulge out of his tight-fitting blue polo shirt and, even sitting down, his six-foot-four frame towers above me. \u201cI\u2019m training hard at the moment and fasting keeps me going \u2013 I can only train on an empty stomach.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This regimented lifestyle lands in stark contrast to the high-flying hedonism usually depicted in Lancey\u2019s music. Breaking through in the mid-2010s with his punched-in, auto-tuned rap lyrics about partying the world over and racing supercars with supermodels, Lancey was an early glimpse into the digital maximalism that defines UK rap today. He bridged the grime scene with the global internet generation that followed, combining early mentorship from UK veteran Skepta with the influence of rage rap contemporaries like Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert in the States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But, having recently turned 30, life looks a little different for Lancey now. To the likes of Jim Legxacy, N4t, Finessekid and more \u2013 a new crop of UK rappers taking taking his genre-diffuse experimentations to new heights \u2013 Lancey is now the mentor, and these days his time is strictly divided between running his own label, Cultcaine Records; hosting his own club night, Club Blue and, apparently, keeping on top of his health in the gaps between. It is through adjusting to these new responsibilities that Lancey arrived at his long-awaited eighth album, <\/span><em><span>The Time of Our Lives<\/span><\/em><span>, which, after over two years of delays, releases next month.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ROCKSTAR RIDER\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gGofI2rYX5A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- WhiteSpaceFilter: Exclude --><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cI think your 20s are heralded as this period where you can have fun and fail and not take yourself seriously \u2013 the seriousness comes at 30,\u201d he explains of his mindset going into the project. \u201cWhen I was writing this, I had just finished [2023\u2019s] <\/span><em><span>BACK2DATRAP<\/span><\/em><span> album and I always knew my next album would be called <\/span><em><span>The Time of Our Lives<\/span><\/em><span>. Initially, it was just fun, pure euphoria, but the reality is: nothing\u2019s ever really all fun. Me being in my thirties now, looking back at my twenties, I started to question: \u2018Did I actually have a good time or not?\u2019 Over the last two years, it gradually became apparent that there was a question mark at the end of the title.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span>The Time of Our Lives <\/span><\/em><span>traces this journey. Originally taking the name \u2018Foux\u2019 (a misspelling of \u2018false\u2019 in French) to refer to the larger-than-life character embodied in his music, the first half of the new project revels in the digital overload that first made Lancey a cult hero. \u201c<\/span><em><span>Oooh somebody save me, too many sexy ladies<\/span><\/em><span>,\u201d he raps on today\u2019s single \u201cRockstar Rider\u201d, backed by melodies distorted like the blur of streetlights from a sports car at full speed. But, by the project\u2019s mid-point, the fa\u00e7ade begins to slip. He reckons with his vices, confesses that he feels \u201cdead inside\u201d, and, on confessional track \u201cTherapist\u201d, even comes face-to-face with the true Lancey behind the \u2018foux\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cSpeaking and being seen \u2013 being visible \u2013 was a big problem for me. I avoided it for so long and I still do. I\u2019m very comfortable living my life in the shadows\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201c\u2018Therapist\u2019 is a very real song,\u201d he tells me, picking his words carefully. \u201cI was going through something and somebody was urging me to go to therapy with them, but I denied it. I was like, \u2018It\u2019s a bunch of bullshit, I\u2019m not doing it\u2019. I ended up going with them but I didn\u2019t take it seriously, I just lied. As time went on, I realised that I was out of my mind. I <\/span><em><span>should <\/span><\/em><span>talk to someone, but I won\u2019t. I\u2019m so out of my mind, in fact, that if I see a therapist, they\u2019re going to become a part of my circus\u2026 It\u2019s a crazy way of thinking, but I love that song for how real it is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAround the time of [2024 album] <\/span><em><span>Conglomerate,<\/span><\/em><span> there were a lot of changes I wanted to make, both in my life and my career,\u201d Lancey continues, later describing <\/span><em><span>TTOOL<\/span><\/em><span> as \u201cthe last time you\u2019ll hear me in the way you know right now\u201d. \u201cThis album is what I wanted to do. Speaking and being seen \u2013 being visible \u2013 was a big problem for me. I avoided it for so long and I still do. I\u2019m very comfortable living my life in the shadows, but this was me coming out of my comfort zone. I realised that it\u2019s cool to let people into your world. No matter what you think of yourself, you\u2019ve got to let people take you for what you are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fimiguerrero, Lancey Foux &amp; Len - Osbatt (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h2gWVhLjmSg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- WhiteSpaceFilter: Exclude --><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In addition to Lancey\u2019s personal struggles, however, the <\/span><em><span>Conglomerate <\/span><\/em><span>album also marked a turning point in UK music as a whole. If Lancey\u2019s early career provided a glimpse into UK Ug maximalism, then that project was the moment it materialised. Recorded in collaboration with then-underground rappers Len and Fimiguerrero, <\/span><em><span>Conglomerate <\/span><\/em><span>codified the signature distortion and Atlantic-bridging rap sonics that, in the year following, would make global celebrities out of the likes of EsDeeKid, fakemink and Sinn6r. Still, Lancey is keen to downplay his part in the project, pointing out that his vocals only appear on five out of its 13 tracks and emphasising that his role was more as an executive producer and mentor rather than the face.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIn the overground \u2013 or, whatever you want to call it \u2013 I\u2019m one of the oldest ones,\u201d Lancey explains. \u201cI understand history and I think it\u2019d be wrong of me not to contribute to the community, or teach what I\u2019ve learned to keep it going. Hip-hop in America has been documented for 50 years, but our rap community is still fairly young, we\u2019re about 20 years behind them. You have to do your best to pass things on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI came up off the back of grime being big, when everyone was insistent on everything being strictly UK, but I always saw the world as one,\u201d he continues. \u201cI grew up watching American TV shows, English TV shows, African movies, Chinese movies\u2026 I never thought that I should be limited to any sound because of where I\u2019m from. I\u2019d bend the way I say certain things because I liked how Nicki Minaj did it, or say something even more English because I liked how Giggs said it. 10, 12 years ago, the UK wasn\u2019t necessarily very supportive of that, but I think that\u2019s exactly what a lot of these new kids are doing now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- WhiteSpaceFilter: Exclude --><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cOur rap community is still fairly young, we\u2019re about 20 years behind America. You have to do your best to pass things on\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- WhiteSpaceFilter: Exclude --><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>There\u2019s an unmistakable pride in how Lancey speaks of the UK rap scene today. \u201cThey\u2019ve got it all figured out,\u201d he tells me, referencing the stark focus on community that underpinned <\/span><span>the recording of Jim Legxacy\u2019s landmark <\/span><em><span>Black British Music <\/span><\/em><span>mixtape last year. \u201cOne of the first things I said to Len and Fimi is, \u2018You need each other\u2019, because I didn\u2019t necessarily have that. Now, you have people singing for 20-30 million, but you have to decide: are you going to run away \u2013 that\u2019s easy \u2013 or will you keep things going here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Perhaps a big reason why Lancey is so invested in community, then, is that he himself has faced these very questions before. Not least of all is this latest album, which has been stuck in label purgatory for the last two years. \u201cNow that I have a record label, I have artists, I have responsibility, I understand the difficulties of the music business a bit more,\u201d he says slowly and diplomatically when I broach the topic. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who work in music that don\u2019t necessarily care about music. They push us away from a lot of the things we love, and a lot of the artists that we love, too. I think that\u2019s a good place to leave it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>With that, we wrap up our meal and Lancey gets ready to head out to some label business of his own \u2013 a launch party for his latest signing, live reggae band <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/theleagueofrebelz\/\">League of Rebelz<\/a>. He resembles a proud father when he talks about the group, grinning as he relays their high ambitions of winning Grammys and how he was \u201cblown away by their purity\u201d when he first met them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201c<\/span><span>Is this what the time of your life looks like now then?\u201d I ask one last time. \u201cI think you\u2019ve just answered it there,\u201d Lancey responds cryptically. \u201cThe way I looked at fun in my twenties, some of it was stereotypical. You\u2019re searching for these great moments in parties or whatever drugs you\u2019re taking. But now I\u2019m at the point of like, \u2018OK, I know that side of it, what does this new one look like?\u2019 That\u2019s the question mark.\u201d Lancey is opening a new chapter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Lancey Foux\u2019s eighth album, <\/em>The Time of Our Lives<em>, releases August 28. The project\u2019s lead single, \u201cRockstar Rider\u201d, is out now.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n!function (f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\nif (f.fbq) return; n = f.fbq = function () {\nn.callMethod ?\nn.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments)\n}; if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\nn.push = n; n.loaded = !0; n.version = '2.0'; n.queue = []; t = b.createElement(e); t.async = !0;\nt.src = v; s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s)\n}(window,\ndocument, 'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nfbq('init', '357833301087547');\nfbq('track', \"PageView\");<\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.dazeddigital.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lancey Foux only eats one meal a day. \u201cIt helps your energy levels and your focus,\u201d the rapper explains, breaking his fast over a plate of sushi in Roka in central London. His biceps bulge out of his tight-fitting blue polo shirt and, even sitting down, his six-foot-four frame towers above me. \u201cI\u2019m training hard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2516321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[22092,26063,26062,26064,26065,26066,26067,26068,22767,21799,26060,26061,21800],"class_list":["post-2516320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-art","tag-dazed","tag-dazed-confused","tag-dazed-confused-magazine","tag-dazed-and-confused","tag-dazed-and-confused-magazine","tag-dazedconfused","tag-dazeddigital","tag-fashion","tag-film","tag-ideas","tag-ideas-sharing-network","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Lancey-Foux-The-godfather-of-UK-Ug-is-starting-a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2516320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2516322,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516320\/revisions\/2516322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2516321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2516320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2516320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2516320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}