Photographer: Jake Isaac-Elwin
Photographer Assistant: Jesse Crankson
Styling: Austin Dillon
Words: Ramy Abou-Setta
After a four-year wait, Lord Apex returned with Smoke Sessions 4 in October, the latest installment in his long-running series that has been shaping his sound since his teens. The project sees the West London rapper exploring a more mature, introspective side of his artistry, reflecting on personal growth, life in his late twenties and the creative evolution that comes with it. While the series has always been tied to Apex’s signature aesthetic, this chapter digs deeper, offering listeners a grittier lens on his world.
In this conversation, Apex opens up about the process of making Smoke Sessions 4, the inspiration behind its sound, and why he’s hitting pause on the series for now. From revisiting his musical roots and studying the history of black music, to leaning on producers over features, the project represents a carefully curated reflection of his journey, both as Lord Apex the musician and Shaheem the artist, fashion enthusiast, and creative mind. It’s a project about growth and capturing the full spectrum of his experiences over the last 14 years dedicated to the series.
How does it feel to have your project finally out?
Lord Apex: Music encapsulates a lot of emotions—everything you’ve been going through in your life ends up in those songs. Until it’s released and given to the public, it feels like you’re kind of bearing the weight of all of the emotions in the music. So now that it’s out, even small moments in my day will trigger a song in my head, and it actually helps me in my day. That’s what the music is for, you know? So yeah, it’s exciting. I feel good, man.
What does it mean to you to be releasing your final Smoke Sessions?
Lord Apex: What I actually meant by calling it the final Smoke Sessions was me taking a hiatus from feeling like I have to be trapped in the smokebox. Yeah, so in terms of personal growth and everything to do with that, I felt like I wanted to take a pause on that. And since there’s so many other projects that I’m working on that don’t fall into that realm, I felt like that would be a chance for me to, over these next few years, get out a lot of the other projects that don’t fit into that category and don’t put me into that box.
I’ve been smoking for like 10-12 years now, bro, you know what I’m saying? I feel like because I started so young, I never got to a point where we took a break and we matured and my tolerance was down and it’s like, all right, we’re going to work and then smoking a date. It was like, no, I’ve always kind of operated smoking while doing whatever I’m doing.
I was always smoking while doing whatever I was doing, it felt like an achievement at first. But now, heading into my 30s, you start looking at life differently. You realise you’ve got to sort yourself out, organise your life outside of smoking, rapping, being an artist.
I don’t take away anything from it, it’s definitely made me who I am today. But for me, it’s time to step back and work on becoming the best version of myself. When I return to it, I want to be in a more mature, balanced space, so it adds to the creativity rather than taking away from it. So I’d call it an extended hiatus, not the absolute final one, but I made the album with the energy of it being the last.
Obviously I’m not comparing myself to him, but it feels similar to Lil Wayne saying, “Yo, I’m never doing another Carter again.” Fans would be like, What do you mean? That series is such a defining part of his legacy. For me, Smoke Sessions is the same. I’ve grown with it, and it’s a big part of my artistic identity. So it would be wild to say, “Yeah, I’m never dropping another one.” But because it’s my decision and I’m the artist, I wanted to pause it for now. I’ve got a lot more sounds and a lot more things I want to speak about that don’t fall into that realm. So it’s more like, let’s put it on hold and see where this next stage goes.
What was the process like in producing this project and paying homage to your previous iterations?
Lord Apex: I just wanted to pay homage to the whole series. So for this one, I really dove back into a lot of the older projects, and I felt that for the fourth one, I wanted to take the same approach I took on Volume 2. When I looked at what I’d done on Volume 3, where I’d just started working with my manager and we came out the gate putting our energy together, he brought in a lot of his connections to help make the album as big as possible. Before that, it had always just been me and my own process. That’s why if you look back at Smoke Sessions 1, the features are literally just the homies I grew up making music with.
When Volume 2 came around, I had a different process where I was in a mindset of I’ve always wanted to make a project that can stand strong when it’s just me, the dominant feature, and I don’t make an album that relies on features. So when Volume 3 came around, because I had already done that, it was like, okay, let’s do the opposite where we don’t put a lot of features on there, but I always tried to go for features that people wouldn’t expect to happen. So that was the process for Volume 3.
It was like, yo, who would people never guess I’d work with? ? But it turns out like in real life, I’m actually a big fan of them. That’s how we ended up with people like Wiki, Smoke DZA, CJ Fly. Those are rappers I grew up listening to, so it wasn’t surprising to me, but it created a surprising moment for the fans.
So once we’ve done that process and looking at analytics and that, because even though analytics aren’t super important to me, I realised there wasn’t too much difference between how Smoke Sessions 2 and Smoke Sessions 3 performed. So to pay homage to Volume 2, because that’s personally one of my favourites, I was like, I want to return to that process. I didn’t want to rely on rap features for this one. I wanted to rely on the producers. I wanted to rely on the sound.
And yeah, that makes sense because it was like a four year gap between the two Smokes, Volume 3 and now Volume 4. So it’s quite a lot to kind of go into and bring forward in terms of lyrics, in terms of storytelling and stuff like that. And that doesn’t come across when you listen to it, especially with tracks such as “What’s The World Mean To You Pt. 2”.
I also still treat producers as a feature because that’s half of the whole thing, if not even more, it’s more than 50%, because the sound is what brings the energy out of me. So if the sounds are not hitting, the music’s not going to hit. So for me, I try to just be like, all right, let’s get a Titan force full of producers that are just going to bring the sound up to the new level.
What would you like the fans to take away from this project?
Lord Apex: I think the main thing I want people to take away is that growth is important. Growth is everything. I started this series when I was about 15 or 16. I’m 29 now, that’s 14 years dedicated to one series. So I felt like the biggest point I wanted to make is that I can’t get trapped in that box of portraying something that I created when I was young, because that early music is from someone who wasn’t fully matured. It’s coming from somebody who was just go, go, go all the time. That’s why there was so much music, because I was very unconscious to a lot of things, just moving in the moment, running off instinct without really understanding the effects of every decision.
It’s not until later reflecting back on certain things I’ve said in music and being like, “Yo, that was very impulsive.” And now, the older you get, the more you have a better understanding of your emotions and the depth of the emotions.
So I feel like this new album is just everything I’ve done before, but just with a better understanding of emotions and how to encapsulate that in different places. I wanted to create an album that is no different from the old ones, but again, just a more grown version of myself and showing people all sides of the spectrum of being a stoner not just the glitz and glam and la, la, la, skip through the park with stones.
I wanted to show people more of the gritty reality. Like, if I was showing it to you through like a Tarantino lens, as opposed to some Disneyland lens, you know what I mean? More of the gritty reality. And I think I’ve done that to the best of my ability.
You mentioned Tarantino, do you have a lot of US influence on this project?
Lord Apex: At the beginning, when I first started working on this project, I was in a space of falling out of love with just listening to music. I found myself kind of being uninspired, but also trying to be in a space where I wasn’t taking in the outside influences. So I was focussed on watching films and podcasts, and just listening to my own music that I was making.
It wasn’t until stepping away from the album process that I started revisiting older music—MJ, Stevie Wonder—because I like studying the history of music. I’m very OCD in that sense, I like to do everything chronologically. Even though I’m an artist and have playlists of songs I love, I tend to approach listening in a study mindset. In fact, only yesterday, I got back into just listening to music I love. I spun N.O.R.E.’s Noriega album, which is one of my favourite albums of all time, and it reminded me how much I’d missed that experience. So even just getting back into spinning that, I was like, “Yo bro, like I haven’t been locked in listening to music for so long.” So I enjoyed that experience so much. I started listening to Young Thug’s new album too last night—it was quite interesting. But again, I’m only getting back into a space now where I’m listening to music and genuinely enjoy it.
If I trace it back to the start of this new album process, it really began with The Good Fight. While making that project, I got into a lot of 70s black exploitation films, which inspired the world-building for Smoke Sessions 4. I was vibing on funky 70s sounds, afros, that whole aesthetic. I wasn’t really focused on listening to music at that time, aside from revisiting some of my roots—artists like Vybz Kartel and a lot of bashment and reggae to reconnect with the music I grew up on.
You get to a point, especially in someone that’s a bit more like lyrical, you don’t want to be pinned or you don’t want to be compared to nobody. So the only way, in my eyes, the only way to not be compared to nobody is to not listen to nobody. Just to keep it pure, you know?
How does fashion fit into your life, and how do you approach it alongside your music?
Lord Apex: I feel like the fashion journey is a lifelong one. It’s always just been about having an eye for it. I like putting pieces together, and I have a great eye for colour palettes, knowing what matches, what works well together, and how things complement each other.
That instinct informs everything I do. I tend to keep that journey more personal, it’s more of a Shaheem journey rather than Lord Apex. Lord Apex is a musician first. He likes art, he likes fashion, all of that, but I consider that side of me Shaheem, because that’s what I was doing before I became a rapper. I’ve always loved to draw, and it’s always been about clothes for me.
I study streetwear on my own accord, I’m on Hypebeast every day, I’m watching runway shows—that’s me, that’s what I like to do. I see all of that as separate from Lord Apex, but it goes hand in hand with everything I do. That’s why I’ve been able to work with so many different brands, which is a real blessing to me—all things I never thought I’d be able to do. But the confident side of me knows I could always put that shit on.
So when I started working with brands, it felt natural, you know what I’m saying? They reach out because they like my image and how I put myself together, and it matches their vision. There’s a synergy there between me and the brands I work with.
What’s next for Lord Apex?
Lord Apex: The next few steps, bro, I’m trying to learn producing. I’m getting back into drawing again, you know? Art has always been like a big, big therapy. When I stop doing it, the world feels unbalanced. It helps me express and release a lot of the tension loaded up with the album and shit. I’m just trying to dive back into all of that, cleanse the salt, and be the best version of myself.
I’m also trying to get back into fitness. I was never super locked into it before, but the older I get, the more I realise how important it is. How you feel physically really affects your day-to-day energy and mood. So I’m focusing on diet, working out, making sure everything’s at its best, so I can be in a better space mentally.
The better I am mentally and physically, the better I can be for the people around me, and the better the art I put out. Everything trickles off each other. For me, it always comes back to mind, body, and soul—that’s the balance. If your head isn’t in the right space, your body’s not going to operate properly, and if your body isn’t right, your core isn’t strong.
Everything revolves around longevity and life. Health has always been the pinnacle of everything for me, no matter what. I’m just trying to be a healthier me, bro. But I guess that’s part of being an adult—you reach a point where you have to put yourself first, you know. And that ties into self-love too, so it’s all connected.
Listen to ‘Smoke Sessions Vol. 4’ below.