The sun glares brightly over the roof of Leeds’ Headrow House, as Saba reaches up into the sky and DJ Damnage captures a few silhouette shots as they take in the view. A couple of years ago, Saba was rapping about the possibility of making it overseas – specifically to England – through his music, and way sooner than he expected, here he is. Tonight, he will be performing on the same bill as Toronto’s Jazz Cartier, and given the very contrasting styles of the two artists, it’s difficult to guess the audience for the show. As, DJ Damnage plugs his camera into his iPad and they begin perusing the images – they’re hoping that one of them will work for the cover of his forthcoming single ‘World In My Hands’ – they begin to consider the set list, which changes nightly, depending on how the mood takes them.

They’ve been doing this together for years now back home, and while they’re in a brand new territory, don’t seem to sweat the outcome of the show. Having come up in Chicago’s open mic scene, they’re well practiced at improvisation, and the past six months have given them a wealth of material to choose from to keep the crowd on side. Not only has Saba been dropping his own singles and making beats for his peers, but he also appeared on Chance The Rapper‘s ‘Angels’, a secret weapon that will always get him out of trouble if worst really did come to worst.

To his surprise though, when stage time does come, the crowd are very attentive – and admittedly to his surprise, a bunch of them know all of the words – as he takes them on a musical journey from the Neo-Soul influenced rap 2014’s ComfortZone right up to the present day, with the rebellious ‘Soap Box’ and up-beat ‘GPS’. In an era where we’ve become used to rappers just shouting over their lyrics with little connection to the audience, Saba delivers a masterclass in performance.

Visibly excited, but highly professional, and with perfect clarity whilst retaining a natural down-to-Earth persona that leaves the crowd feeling connected, when Saba leaves the stage it’s like he’s just made a bunch of new friends. In the street outside the venue, kids quiz him on friends and collaborators, Noname and Supa Bwe, while introducing him to the world of R.S. and Hood Documentary. It’s inspiring to see someone on the brink of a breakthrough and able to keep it from going to his head, as he makes lasting connections with his fans that will undoubtedly contribute to his success. He’s here to tell stories, reflections on his life so far, and there is a lot that we can learn from them…

From ‘GPS’ to ‘World In My Hands’, you’ve dropped a bunch of great singles this year. Is there a project to follow?

Yeah. It’s project time. I’m aiming to drop it later this year. It’s like coming together and seeing what works, what doesn’t work.

Last year I didn’t put out any music. I dropped one song last year. This year I think is basically just re-familiarizing myself with what it’s like releasing music. Getting people used to seeing that I released music again and I’m not in rapper limbo and stuff in my basement.

We’ve just been, I don’t know, having fun. Recording. You want to play it out. Not thinking as much about the kind of role stuff. Liberating the music.

Why did you decide to take a year out from releasing anything?

Comfort Zone was an interesting project. It did pretty good locally. It did good getting my name out and we spent the whole of 2015 pushing that, dropping videos and stuff. But, I wasn’t in the creative place. A lot of 2015, I was working on music but nothing I would release. I think it was just getting back to a good space, mentally getting ready to record and trying to do everything over. Dropping the project and going back to square one. That was the first time I ever really felt that.

A number of your fellow Chicago artists seem to have made these huge jumps from a first mixtape that resonates locally, to a globally renowned follow up – like Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa and Mick Jenkins. Why do you think that happens?

You can really see the growth in a lot of the projects that are coming out in Chicago. It’s like, a lot of us are young, or were young when we were putting out our first projects. Once you drop a tape, it does well locally, you see what you can do. It opens up new doors for the next thing you release to be bigger. I’m interested to see what kind of year this is for me in that same aspect. Just to see, putting out a body of work, what will come from it?

Do you think it’s fair to say the new songs you’ve been releasing are reaching a wider audience that Comfort Zone?

I think so, all I really had to judge is my Soundcloud account. But the fact that I’m here, and we are talking face-to-face, that definitely means it’s reaching a broader audience. I think it’s one of the situations where only time can tell. We’ll have to stay tuned and have this conversation again after the product comes out.

On ‘Burnout’ you said “Picture me touring in England”. How does that feel?

It’s one of those things. You speak shit into existence, sometimes it accidentally happens. I always knew that I would end up here. I didn’t think it would be this soon. I was looking forward to doing the trip next year. Then we just got a call, “Are you trying to do this?” Of course.

It’s been a crazy trip so far, being over here is so different. We’re doing things that, at a young age, we were made to believe are impossible. Even if this wasn’t rap related and I just had to save money to come over here, that’s a dream come true for a lot of people. I think for this to be happening this early is really dope. I’m not taking this experience for granted. I’m excited to see what the second time brings.

A lot of artists I speak to talk about how travel influences their music. Can you already feel that happening?

I wrote a song the other day and I used the word Euro. That’s not a word I’ve ever had to use before. Sometimes it’s simple stuff. Getting out of what you’re used to and broadening that horizon could open up a lot of passages, as far as writing material goes. I think artists basically just try to tell what happened in their life, in a creative way. The more life you live, the more world you see, the more you’ll have to bring to the table.

A lot of artists now are used to recording in their bedroom, then they blow up online and find themselves on the stage, overseas, trying to learn to perform. I know your come up has been a little different, you’ve been heavily involved in Chicago’s open mic scene, so you’ve always been working on that live element too. How important do you think that’s been?

I think the live element is what has gotten us this far. The music live is the experience of the music, I think seeing the song live can have an effect on you a completely different way. That’s something, we bring a lot of energy to our shows but we also bring a lot of emotion. To try to visualize where the artist was when he was making the song, I think just seeing the artist do it. I think it’s the different between liking a song and loving a song.

For us, that’s just something we’ve always been focused on. I’ve been playing with (my DJ), Damnage, we was both 18 when we started playing shows together. Now, being able to grow, everybody that’s involved, you can see when we touch the stage. Whether it’s 10 people or 100, that’s not the point. We’re in a new place, we have to play a new show. We got to do something we hadn’t done before. We’re somewhere we haven’t been before.

How do you gauge the audiences in order to know before you go on what set to play?

That’s hard for us; we’re not from here, we have no idea what to expect. I’ve never seen a Youtube video or anything like that from a Leeds show, so we have no way of knowing. We make a lot of different kinds of music. That has a lot to do with what we want to perform. We’ve got songs that are super chill, where I don’t even really rap, we wouldn’t perform that in front of the most turnt-up crowd, at least not just flat out the gate. We might build up to that point. I think the live show is important because it flows like a story, the set list is important. I think it really comes down to the performance. Even if nobody shows up, we’re still going to do at least some of the turnt s**t. It’s just feeling out the vibe. Seeing what kind of stage it is. Seeing what kind of stories we want to share.

To finish off, what does success look like to you?

Sitting in front of you talking about what success looks like.

Success is everywhere. People are successful and don’t know it all the time. A failure, I think, is easier to define because a failure is when you stop trying.

Staying on your goals, staying focused, really not letting anything stop you; I think that’s what a success looks like. Even if this person is dirt poor and can’t afford food, with that formula, that person will eventually be successful. No matter how long it takes.

To me, that’s what success looks like. It’s a matter of time before I feel like that person will be successful.

Follow Saba on Twitter here.

Interview by Grant Brydon.

Images by DJ Damnage.