Unveiling its festive feel-good campaign.
Celebrating the launch of it’s festive campaign, sports-fashion retail giant JD brought out some of the UK’s heaviest hitters for a night filled with hard-hitting live performances, sneaker customisations, haircuts and food courtesy of Wingstop.
Hosted at East London’s Village Underground, the festive celebration saw the Brighton spark ArrDee take to the stage to open up a night of performances from artists such as Centrel Cee, Shaybo, Young T & Bugsy, and more.
Taking a moment to catch up with the fast-rising rapper before he took to the stage, we spoke to ArrDee about his momentous rookie year, his love for his hometown and his affinity for tracksuits. See what went down below:
It has been a momentous year for you, and you’re capping it off by collaborating with JD. What does working with a sports giant like JD mean to you, your story and your career?
It’s mad you know because i’m young and every teenager around grew up with JD. And that used to be my link up spot in Brighton, the Church Hill Sq JD, obviously it got to a point at a certain age they didn’t really let me in there any more but we used to jam outside and that’s where we were getting trainers. So to be collaborating with them, it’s big man, it’s like a full circle moment.
You mentioned your hometown as well and your admiration for Brighton is evident in your work, whether it’s in your lyrics or visuals. What is it about Brighton that has shaped you, your sound and your art?
Well I’m not like your typical U.K rapper, what I rap about is quite different, quite abstract. But I’m so quite confident with it, and Brighton is a town where you can be whoever you want to be. You can go Brighton and rebrand yourself, it’s like Vegas of the U.K there’s no judging around there.
Switching gears a little. When it comes to fashion, what would you say is your signature style? What inspired it?
Tracksuits obviously. Maybe a young Cargo if I’m feeling it but mainly tracksuits.
Speaking of tracksuits, in the advert you appear in a PUMA tracksuit. And you’re wearing a PUMA tracksuit now. What is it about PUMA that resonates with you?
I feel like PUMA has been around, as far as I’m aware, because I’m young but, forever and a day and obviously I like to keep it me, which is not like street in terms of like hood but you won’t catch me in like Gucci or anything. I think it represents me and my brand the most and that’s why it makes sense for me.
You’re part of a star-studded cast in the JD Christmas advert. What made you want to be part of this, and what has that experience been like?
I think anyone my age would want to be part of the JD Christmas advert. It’s a thing that every year it’s something you watch, you know you get like the other ones like John Lewis and whatever but for me, this was the Christmas advert that I’d watch every year because they’ve always got a face or 2 in there and it’s always going mad. So yeah when I heard about it, it was definitely something I wanted to get involved in straight in.
What can fans look forward to from ArrDee in the New Year?
We’ve got the tour coming, that’s been announced and we’ve got a whole lot of unannounced stuff. We’ve got stupid amounts of music projects coming. We took over this year and we’re about to do it ten times bigger next year.
