Jim Legxacy’s ‘black british music’ cracks U.Okay. rap open : NPR

British rapper and singer Jim Legxacy’s newest venture, black british music (2025), slams collectively sounds from throughout and past the present U.Okay. rap scene.

Igoris Tarran

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Igoris Tarran

Through the second night time of headlining reveals at London’s Wi-fi Competition this month, beleaguered big Drake made a grandiose declare in regards to the state of hip-hop hegemony. “No disrespect to America. No disrespect to my nation. However, no person can out-rap London rappers,” he mentioned as he introduced the grime legend Skepta to the stage. “That is the very best, that is the very best stage. That is what I aspire to be.” He appeared adamant on proving the idea that night time, asking a number of the metropolis’s brightest stars to make the case for him in efficiency: J Hus, Central Cee, Headie One and Dave. The feedback, after all, incited a mini-uproar, largely from Individuals laughing off the entire sentiment. Sports activities commentator Bomani Jones leaned into consensus with a powerful eye-roll: “They do not even imagine that s***.”

Contemplating Drake’s present vested curiosity in underselling stateside rap’s efficiency, it’s totally laborious to offer the declaration any weight, nevertheless it additionally appears clear to me what he’s referencing about British rap: the slappiness and pressure, that punchy high quality in each insistent line supply on songs like “Shutdown” or “Titanium.” I personally imagine Dave, the considerate London hood ethicist and social critic who has topped the U.Okay. charts and received the Mercury Prize, to be the very best rapper on the earth, and it is true that the scene is undeniably slept on, from Kojey Radical and Avelino to Pa Salieu and Wesley Joseph. However misplaced within the sensationalism of the declare had been its phrases of engagement. What struck me was not Drake’s assertion itself, however the benchmark set by “out-rap” — a wierd measurement for somebody who has notably suffered not one, however two colossal lyrical defeats (by the hands of American rappers), and whose nice contributions to rap canon are melody and perspective. Why would he even worth such a metric? Why ought to they, given the rap local weather? In truth, it felt like he was promoting the motion quick.

Drake’s phrases had been ringing by means of my head as I took my first hearken to black british music (2025), the brand new report by Lewisham rapper/singer/producer Jim Legxacy — top-of-the-line rap releases of the yr, made, markedly, with out a lot rapping. It is laborious to think about Legxacy “out-rapping” anybody, if he had been even all in favour of such a factor, and but he is without doubt one of the most fun rappers on the planet. Knowingly, he toys with the excellence within the early moments of the venture, dubbed a “mixtape.” “She don’t love no rapper, so I informed her I am a singer,” he exclaims on a music referred to as “new david bowie.” The very title of the tape appears to shun the concept of style all collectively: simply “Black British music,” as if it had been a medley of issues pulled from an overarching archive.

black british music (2025) is a jumbled, marvelous survey of twenty first century U.Okay. rap, figuring out connective tissue with Afrobeats, emo, drill and storage. Most pop music of the Black diaspora, even that of the U.Okay., treats both Africa or America because the fulcrum of cultural alternate, however Legxacy facilities the British expertise. “Black British music: We have been making asses shake because the Windrush,” a DJ proclaims, nodding to the affect of Caribbean migrants on the British sound. The tape samples Wiley’s foundational eskibeat type and Case’s “Lacking You,” interpolates Hus and Snow’s “Informer,” options Dave and like-minded riser Fimiguerrero whereas channeling pop punk, hat-tips Giggs and Blade Brown however emulates Drake’s R&B-by-osmosis method to rap. Negotiating the numerous layers beneath any multicultural ethos is a apply not misplaced on Legxacy, a toddler of Nigerians who was impressed to make music at 19 after listening to Kanye West‘s The Lifetime of Pablo. “Lots of us are technically the primary British folks in our complete lineage, and that has an enormous cultural influence,” Legxacy informed Rolling Stone again in March. “Our identification continues to be at a degree the place it is malleable. We’re determining what that’s.”

That exploration of figuring issues out is, in some way, balanced with the boldness of figuring out oneself. Legxacy’s curiosity is each inward- and outward-looking, producing little vignettes from his life and the sounds that formed it, pieced right into a mosaic that revels in contradictions and polarity: “Broke however I by no means was a miskeen / On the block, I used to be listenin’ to Mitski,” he raps on “father.” His breakout venture, homeless n**** pop music, additionally stuffed loads beneath one umbrella — turning Soul for Actual into one thing you could possibly gwara gwara to and giving Miley Cyrus her personal riddim — however there’s a heightened instinct at play right here. All Legxacy songs bear an emotional residue, and but these ones have a way reminiscence coloured, greater than something, by the lack of his sister, who died of sickle cell anemia. “I’ve at all times been fearful of being myself / Of letting my coronary heart converse earlier than I converse,” he sings on “problems with belief.” “Because you left our lives, I am blaming myself for all of the issues I mentioned and I by no means mentioned.” It appears like he is saying them now — or, if not saying, then expressing subconsciously, letting the center converse — manifesting the muddled emotions introduced on experiencing grief and prosperity concurrently.

There’s a poignancy suffusing these performances, a curse following the artist from room to room, taking over all of the oxygen, even on the membership. Nobody has ever made “bringing all of the racks out” sound as glum as he does on “stick.” Legxacy informed The New York Instances he got down to “make a futuristic model for the current based mostly on what has existed up to now,” and doing so swirls cultural and private histories, producing songs that may be each brash and unguarded. He delivers most of his raps within the sort of singsong cadence that has turn out to be nonregional lately, however he makes use of it to deploy hometown slang and scan his metropolis. His voice is distinctly mellow, subdued but euphonic, lending itself to acts of subtlety — however when he presses, as on the hook for “d.b.a.b,” indignation is not removed from his grasp. There’s a quiet, pent-up rage trying to seep out, a lot he’s nonetheless working by means of, which pushes him ever ahead, rendering a triumphant but loss-stained depiction of dwelling that reverberates like an echo. In his invoking of music all through the diaspora, Legxacy is able to bravado (“i simply banged a snus in canada water“) and contrition (“’06 wayne rooney“), if by no means precisely within the methods you’d anticipate, however he’s at his finest teasing out the strain in between.

On songs like “stick” and the Dave-featuring “3x,” he glides alongside pattering rhythms, however the motion is not weightless; it bears the stress of his baggage like an albatross. “I acquired n****s tryna examine me out of pleasure / I acquired gyallie tryna hit me on the aspect / I acquired ’nuff folks preyin’ on me,” he lays out on the latter, letting out the final line like a sigh. Nonetheless, within the tight visitor spot that follows, Dave notes that he believes Jim has made his sister proud. The second comes just a few songs after the youthful rapper has dropped a reference to “Wanna Know,” Dave’s 2016 collab with Drake, so you may think about what the sentiment means to him — how there’s a loop closing right here, a torch being prolonged, a practice being handed on. (In a manner, it additionally appears like an alternate of favors: Legxacy co-produced “Sprinter,” Dave’s 2023 single with Central Cee, which turned the longest-running No. 1 rap hit in U.Okay. charts historical past.) In some way Legxacy straddles the traces of confession and homage impeccably. The futurism is within the integration of his system, as he turns into a one-man sound conflict of British music.

Legxacy appears to be utilizing this venture to shut the space between “Black” and “British” as signifiers — navigating two overlapping types of displacement and selfhood, searching for the connective house the place individuality meets neighborhood. You possibly can consider black british music (2025) as a reflector for all Black British music, and its launch comes at a productive time for U.Okay. rap. There’s a wealthy historical past, relationship again to Dizzee Rascal, JME and The Streets, however there has by no means been extra exterior consciousness of the tradition than proper now, and some of the native stars are responding to the elevated consideration in new methods.

Any convo on the state of the scene should start with Central Cee, U.Okay. rap’s first true worldwide success story. On the quilt of his debut album, Cannot Rush Greatness, from January, he wears a skully with the British flag and holds up a large Queen Elizabeth chain. Cee’s imaginative and prescient of British rap is certainly one of international conquest — not diasporic inquiry, as with Legxacy, however social affect. Lots of the report feels prefer it’s conspicuously reaching throughout the pond, flexing the achievement of merely having succeeded the place different British music has failed. “I hear them talkin’, seein’ the tweets, I am seein’ the boards / Seein’ them point out everybody else however me like say that I am not essential / All the strikes that I make in America’s makin’ it simpler for them,” he raps on “No Introduction.” He is in Beverly Hills and Miami, hitting Rodeo Drive and flaunting his Columbia deal. There are logical team-ups with Dave and Skepta, but in addition strategic partnerships with Lil Child and Lil Durk, and a cheeky collab with British expat turned ATL shooter 21 Savage referred to as “GBP.” “No one else from London’s gone Hollywood, simply Cee or the boy Damson,” he boasts on “CRG.” When he places himself on high of the U.Okay. sport on “Should Be,” it feels much less like sovereignty and extra like marking off a bit of a Go board, the place buying extra territory is critical to really win.

One thing totally different is going on throughout Jordan Adetunji’s A Jaguar’s Dream, launched the identical week. From Belfast (by the use of London), the vocalist and rapper went viral on TikTok for the 2024 single “Kehlani,” named for the singer, mixing drill and R&B through a pattern of Summer season Walker’s “Potential.” The U.Okay. and New York Metropolis drill scenes are tightly interwoven — lots of the finest Brooklyn drill songs, together with Pop Smoke’s “Dior,” had been produced by children from London — however “Kehlani” is way extra Money Cobain than M1onTheBeat, and Adetunji sounds much less like he is from the U.Okay. than merely of the web. Vocally he rests someplace between trapsoul pioneer Bryson Tiller and bionic man Don Toliver; like fellow chameleon skaiwater (who broke by means of with the Jersey club-inspired “#Miles“), there’s nothing to outwardly establish him as a Briton. Singers from the U.Okay. typically lose their accents in efficiency; British rappers have been outlined by them, typically to their detriment. Adetunji represents a brand new crop of MCs not beholden to the quirk, present within the Drake custom of being so melodic that rap feels largely like a top level view. A Jaguar’s Dream brings to thoughts Legxacy’s remark about malleability, the U.Okay. identification being much less inflexible (Adetunji can also be the kid of Nigerians) — besides that the place Legxacy’s music is as private as it’s kaleidoscopic and as homegrown as it’s untethered, Adetunji’s music appears as if it has been hollowed out primarily right into a receptacle for outdoor sounds.

And maybe that is fantastic, contemplating what number of different mainstays of U.Okay. rap have launched albums this yr demonstrating the breadth and persona of the place. Little Simz, Loyle Carner, AJ Tracey, John Glacier and Wretch 32 all put out choices which can be distinctly British but in addition singular. (Kae Tempest, too, although mileage could differ there.) Simz’s Lotus marks a inventive rebirth from certainly one of England’s best lyricists, because the extremely conceptual auteur defines her sound with out her longtime collaborator Inflo, following the title’s metaphor of transformation by increasing her emotional and aesthetic palettes to crackling impact. Loyle Carner’s hopefully ! finds an earnest spoken-word artist loosened by fatherhood, drawn right into a doting posture by his understated dwell band. With Do not Die Earlier than You are Lifeless, AJ Tracey bridges grime and drill with skittish, somber flows, even flipping Playboi Carti‘s “R.I.P. Fredo (Discover Me)” into a contemporary eskibeat reinvention. John Glacier’s Like A Ribbon is a putting debut marked by stony flows and skittering rhythms, the juxtaposition of which makes for a sort of dissociative expertise. HOME?, Wretch 32’s first album in six years, is like black british music (2025) made by a U.Okay. rapper of the earlier technology, and of Jamaican lineage; with songs referred to as “Black and British” and “Windrush” back-to-back, it is roots-tracing and asylum commentary multi functional, delivered with unshakable conviction.

If there’s a key distinction between HOME? and black british music (2025), it is in that query mark. The previous is an album of belonging, and rightfully so, searching for reduction for doubts he not too long ago posed to The Guardian: “I am right here, however am I accepted right here? Or am I simply tolerated right here?” Displacement will at all times be the subtext of U.Okay. rap, however black british music (2025) appears to grasp that your identification is yours and yours alone, pulling from a wellspring that’s borderless, even non secular. It’s not one thing that may be taken or overwritten. In a sure sense, the album honors the interconnectedness of those British tales, the broader tapestry they weave collectively, but in addition the idiosyncrasies that make every story its personal. “This that Blue Borough s***, I hope you are listening,” Legxacy repeats twice, referencing his Lewisham hometown. It is a folks chorus that he and lots of others will repeat, advert infinitum, till they’re heard.