AJ CALLS SHOTS

RISING star AJ Tracey has vowed not to sign to a major record label so he can keep control over his music.

The rapper has managed three Top 40 singles and a Top 20 album independently, and is proud to say he calls all the shots.

AJ said: “I’m fully independent, so no-one can tell me anything, no-one gives me artistic direction.

“I just make what I want.

“My manager will obviously say if he thinks something’s a good idea or not, but sometimes he says: ‘That’s not a good idea’, and I tell him to f*** off.”

AJ says his success is the equivalent of having No1’s because no-one else can claim any of the hard work.

He continued to Music Week: “Everyone’s going to be annoyed and people hate when I say this, but if you’ve got a major label and a machine behind you and you get a No1, that’s all great and well, but the machine did a lot of the work for you, some might say most of the work.

“Whereas me, I’m completely on my own, so if I get a No1, it’s 100 times harder, literally. So, me getting a Top

20 with Butterflies is like getting a

No1, that’s unheard of, everyone else in the Top 40 was signed, so for me that’s amazing.”

The Butterflies hitmaker added he is a “bit of a show off ” but enjoys occasionally rubbing it in, most recently by posting a snap of his new diamond watch.

He said: “I get in moods sometimes where I want to be silly.

“I said: ‘A lot of you rappers are in debt for your diamond watch, but I bought mine myself. You got an advance, maybe £500,000, and you spent £50,000 on a watch. It’s not your money, you owe the label for it’.”