PS Hitsquad just dropped ‘123’: a track that arrives like a flare in the night sky, warning the UK rap scene that the 24-year-old Peckham lyricist is no longer just a name whispered in underground circles. From the first drum hit, it’s clear this isn’t a casual release: the production from Gotcha is hard and propulsive, Skengdo X AM’s verses snap in like the punchlines of a late-night freestyler, and PS himself navigates it all with the charisma and menace that made him a Zone 2 legend before he’d even finished school.
The video, directed by Billy Howard Price, starts like medieval LARP: knights, priests, the whole ensemble in a misty field. PS himself is the only one not in costume. Swagged in a classic grime-core bomber, hoodie, camo pants, and a gold chain, he moves through the chaos like a visitor from the present. Zoom out, and the tableau vivant isn’t just cosplaying anymore: it’s a quintessentially English fever dream. Burberry bucket-hat hooligans rub shoulders with firefighters in neon jackets, suffragettes, coal miners, and other english archetypes — a collective erupting around the track like history, absurdity, and hype all collided at once.
And yes, this is his first release on House Anxiety, the label that’s been quietly nurturing UK music’s rule-breakers, from MIKE to Bad Boy Chiller Crew, and, for the indie-heads, Courtney Barnett and King Krule. It positions him in a lineage of artists who don’t play by the rules, and with this track, he’s staking his claim unapologetically.
At 16, PS and lifelong collaborator Kwengface helped define the first wave of London’s revolutionary road rap with Zone 2, and even prison sentences couldn’t slow his momentum. Solo releases like ‘Guten Tag’ have already reminded the world why PS Hitsquad is not a name to sleep on. For a lyricist who’s always danced on the edges of the underground, this is a step into something bigger: a track and a vision that suggest 2026 might just be the year PS Hitsquad’s story breaks wide open.
