OFB

Informally founded in the mid-2010s, drill collective Original Farm Boys (shortened to OFB) took their name from Broadwater Farm Estate, a Tottenham housing complex where many of the group’s members grew up. OFB’s first real success came with founders Headie One and RV, who became one of drill’s staple duos after they released classic 2017 mixtape Drillers & Trappers. When Headie became a mainstream figure toward the end of the decade, the collective’s younger members pushed the group’s sound forward: SJ, BandoKay, and DoubleLz, branding themselves simply OFB, swiftly became some of the genre’s most promising talents.
Born from the ashes of infamous North London gang Tottenham Mandem, rap group Star Gang quickly became the proving ground for many of Tottenham’s rising rap talents, most notably Headie One (formerly known as Headz) and RV. Working under the Star Gang banner through the early 2010s, the duo quickly found a creative synergy on singles like “Youngers from Farm,” gradually making their inroads into London’s road rap scene. As the sounds of London shifted, so did the duo’s: their 2016 collaborative mixtape, Sticks & Stones, saw the pair delve into U.S.-style trap, while 2017′s follow-up, Drillers & Trappers, took to the city’s burgeoning drill scene. It was here that the pair truly made their mark: working with producers from MKThePlug to M1OnTheBeat, the duo quickly built a following with their punchy flows and artistic synergy. Marking their singles with the tag #OFB, the duo founded drill collective Original Farm Boys, an homage to the Broadwater Farm Estate, where they grew up. Though the collective’s early roster was expansive, it was Headie and RV who championed OFB in the eyes of the mainstream, landing spots on freestyle series like Behind Barz and Hardest Out with their staccato delivery and choice wordplay.
When Headie secured a place in the U.K. mainstream (landing his first Top 10 hit with 2019′s “18HUNNA”), and OFB’s original members had developed solo careers of their own, the group’s next generation of rappers had already found their footing. Tottenham-born BandoKay, SJ and DoubleLz, known as the group’s “youngers,” had honed their skills by rapping alongside OFB veterans, and by 2018 were ready to carry the torch for Tottenham. After releasing the single “Reality” (2018) and racking up millions of views together on freestyle series Next Up, the trio decided to move as a unit: under the OFB banner, they dropped the explosive 2019 single “Ambush,” quickly becoming some of drill’s most recognizable voices. While SJ found himself in legal trouble toward the later half of 2019, the trio still found time to record and release their debut mixtape, Frontstreet, which was released on Halloween that year. ~ David Crone