Before they came together, London luminaires Bib Sama. and TayoLoxs were already fixtures in the UK’s alternative underbelly: Bib, the hyper-rap auteur raised on Gambian and Senegalese rhythms and the chaos of early-internet culture; Tayo, the prodigious beat-builder turning Sega dreamscapes, combat-game soundtracks and nostalgia into his own electrified language. Both were carving out their own dimensions – instinctive, maximal and defiantly left of the mainstream – long before their new collaborative EP ‘Gaia’ existed.

Their paths first crossed online through Discord messages, beat packs and late-night MP3s traded back and forth. It’s a process sharpened on Bib’s 2024 mixtape ‘Dogma’, where tracks like ‘Oh Yea’ and ‘Sand’ hinted at a bubbling chemistry together. They’d always floated the idea of teaming up, but this January they finally “locked in” – a daunting shift for both. Bib had always been autonomous, sculpting his own warped soundscapes, which got him onto this year’s NME 100; Tayo had never tailored his universe to one artist. But when Bib proposed ‘Gaia’, everything clicked.

Tayo’s glitch-core production merges into Bib’s fluid, warped vocals. They build songs with glittery digicore textures that feel closer to game worlds than real life. If past releases hinted at scale, ‘Gaia’ is the moment they start building somewhere you can actually step into.

Behind every detail is intention: world-building as escapism, sonic experimentation as liberation, “ear candy” crafted with near-scientific precision. Together, they’ve arrived at something borderless, experimental, playful – the kind of collaboration that only happens when two artists with fully formed universes decide to build a bigger one.

‘Gaia’ feels less like an EP and more like a universe. What does that world look and feel like to you?

Bib Sama.: “It’s magical and colourful. When you reach ‘Gaia’, you feel liberated, at peace. It’s like our world, but diverged – not the dystopian times we’re surrounded by, but something more hopeful. A lot of the art I consume – games, anime, films – gives you escapism, so I wanted to give our audience that same feeling through sound. [The genre of] Isekai is about stepping into a reality with different rules – that’s what ‘Gaia’ is: escapism with intention.”

What shaped your ears growing up?

TayoLoxs: “My uncle showed me a lot through old Nintendo DS games – Sonic Adventure 2, all the Sonic games up until Sonic Unleashed, Street Fighter OSTs [original soundtracks]. I’d copy the instruments into my beats. At home, my mum was playing funk, gospel, Patrice Rushen – The Jones Girls’ ‘Nights Over Egypt’ is like my song. All of that fed into how I hear music now. It felt normal to mix those worlds together.”

Bib Sama.: “My parents played Gambian and Senegalese music, then the internet basically raised me. After school, I’d search grime riddims on YouTube. Then I got into Tobuscus parodies, then dubstep, then Chief Keef and Kanye West, then Kendrick Lamar, Migos, and the SoundCloud era. And games and anime had a big impact – especially that feeling of being transported somewhere else. That’s where the world-building thing started without me realising.”

Who are your current electronic stars you’d love to work with?

Bib Sama.: “People like Lucy Bedrock or Jane Remover – I feel like they would’ve been real cool – and PinkPantheress: she would’ve fit into the ‘Gaia’ universe really beautifully, whether it be vocally or even production-wise. I really like when she’s on her electronic bag – UKG, drum and bass, jungle. There are so many similarities between her taste and how I like to approach tracks.”

TayoLoxs: “I was one of her first followers on TikTok when she was blowing up. I liked her throwback songs – if you listen to the drums or the sample, it’s like a throwback to an old song that used that exact loop or drum. I knew those songs originally, so when she remixed them and jumped on it, I was like, yeah, that’s really cool. I’d say I’m a PinkPantheress fan, 100 per cent.”

What makes music feel “magical and colourful” to you – and where does “ear candy” fit into that?

Bib Sama.: “Bright synths, bubbly textures, plosive sounds that scatter across the stereo field, bass that rattles – when you shape frequency, velocity and volume in intentional ways, you’re basically painting. Ear candy is basically sweetness for your ears. Little sonic moments that pop out – a pitch jump, a harmony shift, a texture – and it hits your brain like sugar. Even small sounds can do it. There’s a science to it: certain frequencies feel like a reward.”

TayoLoxs: “And symmetry – even when I was a kid building Lego, everything had to match. That’s how I produce: making things symmetrical, adding ear candy. It’s the thing that makes you replay a track for that exact moment like a treat hidden in the beat.”

‘Pressure’ became the early breakout from the project – even TREASURE’s Haruto co-signed it. What did that moment mean to you?

Bib Sama.: “That track broke a mindset for me. I’d been caught in that myth of meritocracy – thinking if something didn’t take effort, it wasn’t good. But I made ‘Pressure’ in one night. It was the easiest song to make. Then people kept reacting to it, and the Haruto repost made it spread even further. It taught me that ease can translate – that ease can be rewarding.”

TayoLoxs: “I honestly didn’t think anyone was going to get on that beat. Bib played it in the studio and I was shocked at how perfectly he landed it. It gives you confidence. Recording the video, I came out of my shell because of that song.”

Bib Sama.: “And the hook – ‘Pressure on me so I’m feeling my best’ – is intentional. I believe in the power of words. The last few months came with pressure, so singing that felt like a self-fulfilling prophecy because I feel like I’m currently in top form creatively, all round.”

Liberation feels like a big theme in the project, too – why?

TayoLoxs: “Growing up, a lot of things felt unfair – at school, in life – and it made me want to liberate other people through my music.”

Bib Sama.: “I’m definitely a quiet empath. World events hit me hard – whether it’s something happening across the world, someone homeless on the street, or friends going through stuff. And a lot of the art and games I consume serve as escapism or inspiration. So with ‘Gaia’, it made sense to give that back. If we can make something that lets people breathe, feel lighter, feel seen, that’s important.”

The UK underground has exploded this year – where do you sit within it?

Bib Sama.: “I think I’m in my own corner of it. I’ve been doing this for a while, so in some ways, I’m a vet, but I don’t really think of it like that. I’ve always just made what I’m drawn to, and right now the UK underground is in a place where people feel comfortable doing that. But what me and Tayo are doing? You’re not going to find that package anywhere else. It comes from being Black British – our influences are so specific to how we grew up that the outcome can’t sound like anybody else. Genres aren’t cages. People might hear this as a new era or new sound, but to me, I’m just solidifying what [my sound] Bibcore is.”

TayoLoxs: “I don’t feel like we fit in one pocket of the underground. Some people hear my beats and think they’re electronic, some think they sound like game OSTs, some say it’s rap-adjacent. But that’s why ‘Gaia’ works – we’re not fighting a scene, we’re contributing something new to it.”

Bib Sama. and TayoLoxs’ ‘Gaia’ is out now. They will headline London’s Oslo on January 22, 2026. 

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