The rapper ZE about the success: "It took three years but we did it ourselves"

"Think I can, when you can, I'll do everything I can to motivate my brams," reports ZE, or Jozef Wojciechowicz, as he is really called, in the new song The Industry.

- You have to be on your toes, and value yourself. My advice is to have a strong team. But the most important thing is to deliver good music. Good lyrics, good beats, ZE says

It was three years ago, when ZE served a prison sentence for, among other things, gross theft, that he began to write songs seriously. He wrote the entire debut album My pen bleeds in detention and at an institution. At the same time, he got help from his friend who made sure the music came out on streaming services.

- Since then, we have "evolved," developed, says ZE, who consistently expresses himself in first-person plural.

Because even though ZE is a solo artist, he is clear that he is far from alone behind the successes. Together with his friends he has created his own record label: Team Platinum.

- It started rolling in cash. Five salmon, ten salmon, fifteen. Suddenly 70 salmon, and more and more. So we thought: We do this ourselves. It may have taken two, three years, but no one has done this for us, we have done it ourselves.

- That's what has driven us. That we can do it ourselves.

My pen bleed released in 2018 reached first place on the Swedish album list, without the help of any major record label. Today, ZE is about as full as Håkan Hellström. He himself believes that this is because there is a large group of Swedes who can relate to his music.

- I think we are a voice for many who live in the suburb, who feel the same way we do.

Offers from the record companies have hailed, but ZE would rather remain independent.

- We have received a lot of bids from record companies, there are bids all the time. But now it has calmed down a bit because they find that we have not signed a single contract, he says.

One reason for continuing to be independent is that it has become easier for ordinary people to market themselves, especially via social media. But most important for ZE is not to let go of the creative control.

- Record companies usually take percentages for things they might not help so much with. They may not prioritize the artist as much as we would.

- I like music, I don't want it destroyed because of money and "business". If a song was bad but I knew I was going to make money on it I still wouldn't have released it. I thought: No, I don't want to, says ZE