Bree Runway

There’s a pop-focused core to the music of Bree Runway, a provocative East London rapper, singer, and songwriter of Ghanaian descent, pulling in such wide-ranging sounds as experimental trap and noodling guitar rock. She issued her debut mixtape, 2000AND4EVA, in 2020, following with the 2022 EP Woah, What a Blur! A slew of singles and collaborations followed, including a hit Khalid duet, 2023′s “Be the One.” Born Brenda Wireko Mensah in Hackney in 1992, Bree Runway’s moniker was inspired by a cousin’s nickname and came to figuratively represent repeated attempts to take off and aim higher in her career. Early inspiration came from Michelle Obama, who provided words of encouragement after hearing Mensah sing as a teenager. Additionally, a 2010 trip to visit her extended family in Accra, Ghana, acted as a creative stimulus. In late 2015, she self-released her debut EP, RNWY 01, a lyrically candid set produced mainly by Nastylgia, who also worked on Bree Runway’s next EP, Bouji, which appeared a year later. Following a couple of stand-alone singles — 2016′s “Butterfly” and 2017′s pure pop “What Do I Tell My Friends?” — she made an appearance on the electronic duo Metroplane’s “Word of Mouth.” May 2019 brought Runway’s first solo material released on Virgin EMI in the form of “2ON,” a single that ultimately appeared on her breakthrough third EP, Be Runway. Following an early-2020 guest spot on a remix of Rina Sawayama’s “XS,” her debut mixtape, 2000AND4EVA, was issued in November, featuring contributions from Missy Elliott, Yung Baby Tate, and Maliibu Miitch. In 2021 she won Best New International Act at the BET Awards and later released the single “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” with Glass Animals. She even appeared on a Jimmy Edgar remix of Lady Gaga’s “Babylon.” Runway kicked off 2022 with the non-album singles “Pressure” and “Somebody Like You,” while “That Girl” landed on her EP Woah, What a Blur! A hit collaboration with Khalid, the pop-kissed “Be the One,” arrived in 2023, supported by numerous versions and remixes. Digging back into edgier hip-hop in 2024, she released the hardcore single “Just Like That.” ~ James Wilkinson