Young T & Bugsey

Nottingham rap duo Young T & Bugsey first crashed the British charts riding the momentum of their summer hit “Strike a Pose,” a track that blended hip-hop, Afro-bashment, and trap into an instantly catchy package. Landing inside the U.K. Top Ten, the single opened the door for their debut mixtape, Plead the 5th, which also registered on American charts. Two years later, in 2022, they followed with a second mixtape titled Truth Be Told.

The pair—Ra’chard Tucker, known as Young T, and Doyin Julius, known as Bugsey—first crossed paths at fifteen through shared acquaintances in Nottingham. Drawn together by a mutual passion for music and a desire to support the city’s emerging rap community, they honed their sound at the local Community Recording Studios, a nonprofit facility that supplied professional-grade equipment. Their earliest release, “1st Quarter,” surfaced in 2015, yet it was the follow-up “Glistenin’” that drew widespread attention through hundreds of thousands of streams. Further momentum arrived via the D-Block Europe collaboration “Favourite Girl” and a guest spot on Stay Flee Get Lizzy’s BPI-certified gold single “Ay Caramba,” steadily expanding their audience and marking them as rising figures in U.K. rap.

Their breakthrough crystallized with the 2019 release “Strike a Pose,” which featured a charismatic turn from Manchester’s Aitch and climbed to number nine on the U.K. chart while earning platinum certification from the BPI. Building on that achievement, they recruited Headie One for the anthemic “Don’t Rush,” a track that peaked at number 19 and attained gold status. March of the following year saw the arrival of their debut mixtape, Plead the 5th, extending the smooth fusion of Afro-swing and rap that had defined their earlier work; the project reached number 25 on the U.K. album chart and registered on the U.S. Heatseekers chart. Additional remixes of “Don’t Rush,” one with DaBaby and another with Busta Rhymes, helped widen their reach across the Atlantic. In January 2022 the duo returned with Truth Be Told, a project that included appearances from Nafe Smallz, Unknown T, Chronixx, and Blxst.