Love Island exposure for Derbyshire rapper Topps' new dance track single

But the exposure came as a big surprise to the rapper known as Topps aka Topps Chanzo who was unaware that his latest single Say Yes Or Say No was being played on the ITV2 reality show on Monday, January 23.

He said: “I was actually at the cinema, and when the film finished I switched my phone on and it started to ping ping ping and I wondered what was going on. I saw a message from my brother along with many other messages from various people across all social platforms telling me that they had just heard the song on Love Island.

"It’s a big achievement and I feel tremendously proud that my song was played on a very popular television programme that is currently aired across the nation and that the song was used for such a long duration, amazingly used for over two minutes.

"The feedback has been absolutely fantastic especially from the females. It has already received UK and international airplay including Brazil and France. The song has already accumulated over 100,000 views on YouTube.”

It’s not the first time that music by the 28-year-old rapper has been played on a television programme. Topps’ debut single, Social, has been played five times on EastEnders since the song was released in 2018. Sky Sports and DAZN have also used his music which includes second single, Ring Walk.

And there’s more songs to come from the independent artist. Topps said: “I am currently working on a number of different dance songs and expect them to be released throughout the year. I am also working on getting some live shows for the summer.”

His musical inspirations include Becky Hill, Boyz ll Men, Ray Watts, Ella Mai, Michael Jackson, Usher and J Cole.

Topps – whose real name is Brandon Watts – is also an actor who has appeared in 15 short films and had a very small role in television’s Line of Duty.

He has lived in Derby for 23 years, moving there with his family from Birmingham where his dad, Ray Watts, was lead singer with the reggae band Beshara.