Bugzy Malone has returned today (Friday 30th October) with his latest album, Make It Maintain It Part 1. The Manchester artist, actor and entrepreneur, long billed as the King of the North, has also joined the cast of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen series 3, which is now in production for Netflix.
The album is pitched as a meditation on what it took to get here, how to maintain success and wealth, and what it means to enter the next chapter of his career. Bugzy is at his most reflective, still prolific, and still pushing his sound forward. Trademark intensity sits next to soulful production and cinematic instrumentation, with gravelly vocals carrying as much weight as the bars.
Across the project he is candid about time in prison, a near-death experience and family breakdown, as well as his determination to build generational wealth with little family support around him. The press notes call it a portrait of an artist reckoning with what success has cost him, while remaining firmly in control of what comes next.
The 12-track album runs just over 47 minutes. Focus track ‘Ownership’ is a choral-powered statement of independence, built around the mantra “power” and samples from his conversation with Chris Williamson. It looks back on graduating from rap battles to building an empire on his own terms. Nodding to Kanye and Eminem, Bugzy delivers a defiant reminder that he is not married to the game and refuses to be broken by it.
Last week he released ‘Ski Mask’, a stripped-back freestyle about personal scars, fractured family ties and the people he has had to leave behind. The album closes with ‘Tears’, framed by moody, late-night production and pitched-up vocals, as he confronts emotions he can no longer hold back.
Elsewhere, ‘Mother 1’ is a soulful, deeply personal reflection on nearly losing his mum. ‘Murder’ leans on cinematic strings, while ‘HIM’ is described as sparse, gripping storytelling. On ‘DAVINCI’, he charts a path from early encounters with the law and mental health struggles to earning his first million and becoming the King of the North, drawing a parallel with the Italian Renaissance artist and his own ability to create something extraordinary from adversity.
‘Freedom’ is billed as a motivational blueprint for breaking out of the system and taking control of your own destiny. ‘Prisoner’ finds him turning to the page as a form of therapy. ‘Reina 1’ is more intimate, an Afrobeat-inflected ode to the woman who has brought connection and stability into his life. On ‘RAIN’, the storm stands in for depression, paired with some of the project’s most emotive vocal moments.
Make It Maintain It Part 1 tracklist:
- Mother I
- Moses
- Murder
- HIM
- DAVINCI
- Freedom
- Prisoner
- Reina I
- RAIN
- Ownership
- Ski Mask
- Tears
The album is out now, including on Apple Music.
Born Aaron Davies in Manchester in 1990, Bugzy found discipline through boxing and a voice through music, turning lived experience into accounts of ambition and adversity. Multiple UK Top 10 albums, and collaborations with Dizzee Rascal, Dermot Kennedy, Aitch, Chase & Status and Chip, have cemented his standing as one of the UK’s most successful independent artists. He has also been a regular on festival bills, including as a special guest at the debut of Festival People in Barking Park in 2023.
That ambition now stretches well beyond the studio. Netflix confirmed on 23rd October that Bugzy has joined The Gentlemen series 3, alongside Robert Carlyle, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Dexter Fletcher, Bruna Marquezine, Ed Speleers and Saffron Burrows. Netflix says production is underway, with filming across the UK and Morocco. No release date has been announced. Returning cast includes Theo James, Kaya Scodelario, Ray Winstone, Joely Richardson, Vinnie Jones, Jasmine Blackborow, Harry Goodwins and Benjamin Clementine, with Maya Jama also back after her series 2 debut.
It is not his first time in Ritchie’s world. He played Ernie in the 2019 film The Gentlemen, and appeared in Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre alongside Jason Statham, Hugh Grant and Aubrey Plaza. Ritchie has said the ambition of the series has accelerated, the world has expanded, and the consequences carry more weight, adding that a third season felt inevitable.
Image credits: Jos White
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