Antoin Gibson Is Reshaping The World With Her New Release “Disstopia”
Intro:
London’s own Antoin Gibson is today’s featured interview artist, joining us on the platform. Her new project, Disstopia, is a powerful record full of raw perspectives & valuable insight. Her single off the tracklist, “F U Society,” is a banger that we reviewed separately here a few weeks ago. Furthermore, Antoin wore many creative hats during the process by taking on roles such as songwriting, vocals, production, and more. Before reading our brief conversation, make sure you listen to Antoin Gibson today below.
Me: What was the creative process like while making this new record? How'd you get inspired?
Antoin Gibson: Well, this record actually was already made. F U Society, my last single that was the precursor but also the final track on purpose of this Diss Topia EP, because F U Society was, well, a track I wrote in a day and released by the next morning. This was down to the sheer level of frustration I've had as an Independent artist who debuted out of nowhere, and because I unintentionally garnered success and people interested in my first releases - This has been met with systematic pushback and shadow-banning to which I'm still impacted by today from streaming platforms like Spotify. After FlexAble was immediately shadow-banned for exactly 3 weeks after an overnight boom from a playlist add, I came across many other Independent artists who faced the same issue where their success was met with suspicion and suppression that is still a very prevalent and unresolved issue to this day and for many years where it's a simple case of denial and gaslighting by these large corporations who try to snub out any push back or attempts from Independent artist, especially like myself who is a one-woman show where I established my own Independent record label and do all the music writing, composing, production, mastering, distribution, marketing etc. entirely on my own where in many cases a large corporation just shake off an individual fighting against the injustice until the individual tired and gave up. I am not one of those individuals, so Diss Topia is actually my response to the attempts to suppress, silence, and erase my artistry. They expected me to give up after FlexAble and 2 months of back-and-forth emails going nowhere.
So instead I launched Diss Topia, an intellectual and conscious rap EP (where female rappers are scarce to none in that area of the rap genre) that is a narrative series starting with Diss Continued and is a heavily layered, scathing dark satirical take down on the genuine reality of how society has developed that is now the norm and not a lot of people are willing to speak out and address. It has tracks like Diss Genesis covering the Global obsession and desensitisation of True Crime violence and glamourising serial killers in Hollywood cinematic stylings. #DISS - which focuses on the whole "algorithm" culture that is layered with both satirical take downs as well as incorporating genuine computational language, functions, programming language, an entire segment is decision as the execution of a "loop function" within the track and the title itself is written to embed itself into the actually # algorithmic system that it is very much calling out in the track, like utilising what it's actually "dissing” by using it's own system to place it for free organic promotion every time anybody would use #diss in a post or comment online about rapper feud diss tracks. Dissometry is definitely probably the most complicated track in that it's a multi-disciplinary "academic" rap track, is the only real way I could describe it in that it takes mathematics, physics, economics, philosophy, and linguistics to flip the actual academic concepts and layer them through a cohesive "diss" format.
This is where F U Society then rounds out as the final track where by the end of the EP (I hope ha) Diss Topia showcases the actual sheers level of depths, narratives, multiple entendres, word plays, phonetics, etc. on much more densely packed and conceptualised levels across different subject matters that F U Society on original release and listen has a very clear surface level message, I'm hoping that by the end of Diss Topia listeners will be hearing it with a whole new different perspective and see that there are many many layers to F U Society than just what the surface originally showcased. For example "Everything AI DID right and on my own" is the opening bar - sounds simple "everything I did right and on my own" but AI is spelled intentionally referring to AI utilisation as part of the "bot barriers" and "DID" is intentionally capitalised as it ties into the later bars regarding "Mr Robot" where if anybody has seen the show will know that the main character Elliot suffers from DID - Dissociative Identity Disorder. One more hint I'll share (people may want to try and break down the layers and bars themselves I hope), is at the end of the second bar "no measurable intelligence and excuses that’s “no, just is” " - that's no, just is - "that's no justice". Haha.
Incredible!!! Did you draw inspiration from any specific genres or artists for this comeback release?
Em, honestly, no I did not. I am very much someone who writes from a place within myself and don't bind myself with labels including "genres", hence why I actually have a very large array of tracks that are all 100% me as an individual but for example, FlexAble - my first track was a pop, hip-hop, rap hybrid that actually spawned an origin story where I had no idea what a "flex" track was that everybody spoke about. I believed it myself to be a track where an artist showcased their flexibility and range of skills, such as their songwriting, lyrics, composition, singing, rapping, dancing etc., all in a single track. I discovered one day when I actually looked it up after saw people posting "flex" track so much about hits for example "JENNIE's - like JENNIE" and "Lisa's - FXXK UP THE WORLD" that my definition wasn't quite making sense and discovered a flex track is simply a braggadocios "muscle flex" track. Duh, I kind of liked my own personal interpretation better, so FlexAble was written to combine both my own mistake in what I thought it meant and a satirical take on the traditional actual meaning of "flex" being quite the braggadocios lyrics to combine the two.
So that as one example, F U Society spawned from my emotional intensity due to the suppression of the system for my artistry. #DISS was a direct aggravation of the whole "social algorithm" system. Dissometry was just taking academia I am interested in and enjoy, and turned it into its own breed of academic rap, calling it "Dissometry". So the inspirations and ideas come from all around me regularly, but what I produce is my own outlet about the subject matter.
Also, how would you describe your overall current style of music? Has it evolved over time?
Well as I mentioned, I only started writing music for the first time in September 2024 so I am still venturing and evolving constantly and going for things I'm passionate about or outside my comfort zone, or try something new because you never know until you try and you should always make an effort to try. And if you can't grasp it, then you know and you can bow and admit that gracefully, but until you try, you shouldn't stop growing and evolving as a person. I've written rap tracks, cinematic dark emotional ballads, dirty rap (a 6 part connected narrative series in fact that is not explicit or sexual but all word plays, puns and intellectually designed), dark pop, genre-blending hybrids like FlexAble, I've wrote a country track, I'm currently actually producing another completely new and kind of out of the blue decision to do so Tropical Summer Darkwave with Afro-pop influence EDM club track which I just started today so I'm constantly just evolving because I love music.
What themes or messages do you hope listeners take away from this specific project?
I think I answered this a bit prematurely in the very substantially long answer to question 1 (I apologise, I articulate and go into detail quite a lot). I am hoping that listeners can take away from this release a number of things. First of all, I hope they will take the main overall point to never allow themselves to be suppressed, silenced, put down or give up just because they think they are fighting a battle that can't be won due to large Corporation size and the amount of difficulty it is to be a one person army fighting against an entire Global corporation. We all deserve to be heard, have rights, and shouldn't allow any system to silence us. If we all collectively garnered a force instead of thinking we are fighting something alone, but there are many others just the same, and it's not something you have to take or deal with quietly or alone. I'm definitely here to fight a cause for justice, so they can at least know that there are at the very least 2 individuals (myself and themselves) which already is double the number of individuals who think they're alone.
Second of all, I really hope that people actually listen and realise that female rappers CAN write layered, multiple entendres, collective narrative series of Intellectual and Conscious and complex rap with meaning and purpose, and it isn't just the expected taking about sexuality all the time, that is the very common perspective. I know players out there are emerging like Doechii who are breaking that stereotype and I'm obviously not Doechii level of recognition and success but there is a place and we do have just as hard bars and could take on and out-rap many rappers who are cocky in their success and disrespectful belief that individuals are defined by their gender, race, sexuality etc. All of these are social constructs that don't exist outside the fact that society allows them to. Individuals are all unique and such be respected for who they are not what they are.
What a powerful message, wow! From there, what was the most challenging part of the recording process?
The most challenging part is still the fact that I'm releasing music into a space like Spotify where I know that I'm garnered interest, listeners, streams, playlist adds, etc. but it's not 2 and a half months and my entire account continues to exist in complete suppression that I'm actually close to being snubbed out entirely stating I went from 2,400+ monthly listeners after FlexAble and keep getting cut, suppressed and not receiving the credit whereby everybody else seems to be benefitting from my music releases but me as my stats are returns are flatlined coming close to null with only 129 Spotify monthly listeners which I know is total nonsense as I've had over 350 playlist adds from genuine curators, press, etc. all totally legit and earned, all 3 of my singles have aired on radio on the European Music Indie Network in over 70+ countries so I know people are listening but every day it continues to be slightly deflating to see my daily stat updates of 3, 2, 1 and 0 listeners in a day with no real exit in site at the minute. I'm just going to keep pushing to be heard and also to share my music, as I know that others are enjoying it, and it is being well-received, and that's what matters most to me.
Where does your stage name originate from? Has it ever changed in the past?
My stage name is my birth name, "Antoin Gibson"; it hasn't changed and ever will. My mum passed away from cancer in January 2018 from cancer after medical negligence misdiagnosed her terminal bone cancer as arthritis for a decade or so, without ever giving her a single X-ray it turns out. The GP closed his practice, fled, and got away unscathed. My mum, who was my best friend, passed away. It is the name that she gave me and I shall continue to wear it with pride and honour to her, her memory, and myself.
Thank you for sharing that emotionally touching story. Additionally, do you have any upcoming releases or plans that you're comfortable sharing with the readers?
Well I have many tracks ready to go and continuing to make more regularly in the pipeline so all I can say is that if I haven't been totally erased from the face of the industry planet then keep tuned because I have a lot more to give and share with the world as long as they'll have me!
And finally, in your own words, why should a new listener check out this song today?
Hopefully it will make them think, food-for-thought, self-awareness development, as self-awareness is actually a very rare trait that many of the population don't even realise that they are lacking until something actually pushes down that lifelong cloud of perception that has actually been running their lives, and it has never been truly their own. I know myself from my months of suppression from the get-go that I am not pushing my music and releases for monetary or any benefit or credit that goes to me. I want people to listen and hopefully, first and foremost, enjoy the music! It's there to serve that purpose! There are so many horrors and struggles in this world, people should enjoy something like music as self-care and to take a break if even for only a few minutes in something as powerful as the art of music.
