Tom Austin lets us into his world.

★★★★★

If you’re from the UK, there’s a high chance you’ve heard of Milton Keynes’ rapper Niko B – real name Tom Austin – thanks to his track Mary Berry, released in the throes of lockdown (2020), that firmly put the city of roundabouts on the map and his brand of comedic, unserious rap spread like quickfire.

Fast forward to 2024 and Austin is releasing his debut album, dog eat dog food world, miles away from the thrown-together sounds of Mary Berry and Who’s That What’s That, with the latter making its way onto every teen and 20-something’s playlist, if only for a laugh. Now the 23-year-old is making real waves in the rap business, staking his claim to the top of the food chain, pushing away from what once was “his” sound and stripping it back to basics.

The album couldn’t have come at a better time: when the UK needed a chill, well-produced rap album with clever lyrics that are often uber-personal, detailing day-to-day shenanigans that would have a pensioner in tears (“I’m on Miniclip, any game and I’m winning it / See a handbag and I’m nickin’ it / Off of pensioners that skinny dip”).

Niko B is proof that you don’t need big features, a huge team or to be from somewhere like London because, at the end of the day, Milton Keynes is a 30-minute train journey away from London, so it may as well just be… London. Since he released his debut single, the town became a city, and the city still continued to be the butt of Britain’s jokes (I can’t join in, I live here too).

Referencing his roots in the album track ur a bundle of joy !, the rapper describes his birthplace as “the city of roundabouts and broken dreams,” despite being from this very city separating him from the thousands of London rappers dominating the scene nowadays. If anything, he’s a breath of fresh air — how many musicians can you name from here?

Nobody quite does comedic rap like Tom, who has somehow managed to make Google show his genre as ‘Indian Pop’, his humour a constant in everything he does, and the album has a running theme of gaming, cars and menial things like custom fees, and deeper subjects like anxiety. Tom doesn’t fit into your stereotypical rapper: he gets anxious when he smokes, so he doesn’t; he spends the majority of his time playing video games, so he writes about that and he loves to not rhyme, so his lyrics don’t follow your typical formula.

There’s no one really doing it like Tom, who else would write “I scammed Deliveroo for a Bánh mì and they banned me”? With knowledge of pop culture and his own fashion brand, Tom is a clever, wise-cracking rapper, whose alias Niko B comes from Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV, which he often pays homage to with nods to the series (“In a yellow Peugeot mustard, just stepped outta Los Santos Customs.”). For those of you who haven’t played the fifth instalment of the game, that’s where you go to pimp your ride, pretty much.

Tom’s talent shines through on tracks like it’s not litter if you bin it, tom did and i’ve smoked weed 9 times and have had one good experience, with all the tracks on the album interestingly being produced by different people; making sure every song is an entirely new experience. Interestingly, Tom opted to work with rising YouTube bedroom producers, giving them that massive boost and keeping it as real as ever.

“I want a weed strain that makes everyone just sound like they’re T-Pain.”

— i’ve smoked weed 9 times and have had one good experience (2024)

With this debut release, we also see Tom flex his vocal cords and add singing to his resume, showing us what he’s made of with stunning melodies that make this album unique from his vast back catalogue. If Tom is the future of music, then the future doesn’t look so bleak anymore.

dog eat dog food world is out now. Get the album on vinyl here.