Vibbar’s New Mission

With their latest project, ‘Gyal Thoughts’, currently doing the rounds, the London-based music collective—founded by rapper and content creator Poet—share their plans to find and nurture the stars of tomorrow…

In today’s complex musical landscape—shaped by the dynamics of the post-digital era and enriched by platforms such as X and TikTok—we see a remarkable evolution in how music is created and shared. Here in the UK, there is also a current resurgence of crews and collectives seeping through the cultural concrete they came from, returning to the community-focused roots that have helped shape its first birth through a number of genres.

One of those worthy collectives is London’s Vibbar (“vibe” in Swedish), a multi-disciplinary outfit aiming to use their rapping, A&R skills and their penchant for genre-blending to bridge the gap between older and newer generations. Birthed in 2015 during a performance by Joel Baker, beloved content creators and rappers Poet and Jordy observed a striking phenomenon: audience members were so engrossed in their own conversations that they completely disregarded the artist on stage.

This moment sparked a crucial realisation, and Poet came up with the idea to form a new collective. A number of singles and EPs later, Vibbar has just released their new project, Gyal Thoughts, featuring rising stars Victoria Jane, Naima, Abbi Normal and Deyah. The 8-track set builds on the intricate themes explored in their 2022-released project, Guy Thoughts Night, offering a renewed perspective that is often overlooked in society, telling the story from a woman’s perspective with women also at the forefront of the rollout.

We sat down with two Vibbar members—Poet and TJ 2 Percent—to discuss Gyal Thoughts, why they love UK garage so much, and how they want their next phase to be one where they put new talent in the limelight instead of themselves.

“Vibbar’s new aim is to become a platform that speaks to alternative voices within music.”—Poet

COMPLEX: How did Vibbar start?

Poet: It started with me phoning TJ 2 Percent and telling him I wanted to make a specific type of sound. I only knew where the start of that journey was, and I wanted to take old garage songs and see what they would sound like today. “Summer Of Love” by Lonyo was the first song I had, and then “Flowers” [by Sweet Female Attitude] was the second song. But that’s all I had, and I just knew the only person who knew me well enough to know what that sound would sound like, as an experience, as a community, was TJ 2 Percent. I remember giving TJ the Lonyo song and saying, “Yo, I think this would be sick as a sample,” but I’m not a producer in that way; I know maybe certain things I want to take out of it, but the executive producer who knows everything is him. So when I gave it to him, and he made the “Summer Of Love” song for Vibbar—our first-ever song—the vibe was created.

TJ 2 Percent: To echo that, Poet is a community man who knows everyone. He’s called everyone to the studio; some people aren’t even musicians—it was just to chill. But it was turning that energy in that session into a soundtrack, hence you see the initial music video of everyone going wild. We only planned for it to be a night; we didn’t expect it to go on longer than that [laughs].

I’m curious about why you guys decided to name the collective Vibbar. Is there any specific reason why?

TJ 2 Percent: The name Vibbar wasn’t around then, but it was like, “Let’s call it a night of vibes”, and we had this experience with Swedish girls.

Poet: To be fair, it’s probably my fault. We’re very London-based, but I’ve always loved exotic kinds of women, and I blame the ‘90s era of hip-hop for that. One time, we were at this dance and I met these Swedish girls—they were super cool and attractive, and they had a different perspective on things. It was the first time I met attractive women in London who didn’t care about their appearance. There were many of them, and it was just a vibe. That was in 2012, and the vibe was so strong… Let’s just say, that’s how I got my kids today.

In the early ‘90s, there was a surge in hip-hop crews, and now we’re seeing a rise in collectives in music. What do you think the difference between those two things are?

Poet: I think they’re the same things, really. I think, sometimes, we try to be too introspective and try to be too different—it’s just a group of people together that have a dream working forward. The truth of the matter is, you’ve all got to be on the same page, or at least be in the same book because—without going into too much detail—that’s been the one hindrance I would say I’ve had moving forward in situations, where I believe me and someone are in the same place, for the same reason, but we’re actually not. The whole collective thing only works if you recognise yourself as family. Scribz Riley is my cousin, in real life, and the most important thing is that we’re trying to go in the same direction.

TJ 2 Percent: To add to that, I believe it’s all the same. Everyone is Vibbar: we’ve had Poet’s sons on tracks—they had a long outro—so anything goes; we’ve had Maya Jama involved in stuff, we’ve had Big Narstie involved in stuff and everyone was reaching out. For me, crews and collectives are the same thing but what I will say is different over here is we have more of a tribe or community mentality, just as long as you understand the vibe.