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

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

Contemplating Drake’s present vested curiosity in underselling stateside rap’s efficiency, it’s totally exhausting to provide the declaration any weight, however it additionally appears clear to me what he’s referencing about British rap: the slappiness and drive, that punchy high quality in each insistent line supply on songs like “Shutdown” or “Titanium.” I personally consider Dave, the considerate London hood ethicist and social critic who has topped the U.Ok. charts and gained the Mercury Prize, to be one of the best rapper on this planet, 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 brief.

Drake’s phrases had been ringing via my head as I took my first take heed to black british music (2025), the brand new file by Lewisham rapper/singer/producer Jim Legxacy — among the finest rap releases of the yr, made, markedly, with out a lot rapping. It is exhausting to think about Legxacy “out-rapping” anybody, if he had been even concerned about such a factor, and but he is among the most fun rappers on the planet. Knowingly, he toys with the excellence within the early moments of the mission, dubbed a “mixtape.” “She do not like no rapper, so I instructed her I am a singer,” he exclaims on a tune referred to as “new david bowie.” The very identify 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.Ok. rap, figuring out connective tissue with Afrobeats, emo, drill and storage. Most pop music of the Black diaspora, even that of the U.Ok., treats both Africa or America because the fulcrum of cultural change, however Legxacy facilities the British expertise. “Black British music: We have been making asses shake for the reason that Windrush,” a DJ proclaims, nodding to the affect of Caribbean migrants on the British sound. The tape samples Wiley’s foundational eskibeat fashion 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 strategy to rap. Negotiating the various layers beneath any multicultural ethos is a observe not misplaced on Legxacy, a baby of Nigerians who was impressed to make music at 19 after listening to Kanye West‘s The Lifetime of Pablo. “A variety of us are technically the primary British individuals in our complete lineage, and that has an enormous cultural impression,” Legxacy instructed Rolling Stone again in March. “Our id continues to be at some extent the place it is malleable. We’re determining what that’s.”

That exploration of figuring issues out is, one way or the other, balanced with the arrogance 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 mission, homeless n**** pop music, additionally stuffed lots underneath one umbrella — turning Soul for Actual into one thing you can 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 frightened of being myself / Of letting my coronary heart communicate earlier than I communicate,” he sings on “problems with belief.” “Because you left our lives, I am blaming myself for all of the issues I stated and I by no means stated.” It appears like he is saying them now — or, if not saying, then expressing subconsciously, letting the center communicate — 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 on 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 instructed The New York Instances he got down to “make a futuristic model for the current primarily based on what has existed previously,” 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 form of singsong cadence that has develop into nonregional in recent times, 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 seeking to seep out, a lot he’s nonetheless working via, 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 stress 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 bought n****s tryna verify me out of pleasure / I bought gyallie tryna hit me on the aspect / I bought ’nuff individuals 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’ll be able to think about what the sentiment means to him — how there’s a loop closing right here, a torch being prolonged, a convention being handed on. (In a approach, it additionally appears like an change of favors: Legxacy co-produced “Sprinter,” Dave’s 2023 single with Central Cee, which grew to become the longest-running No. 1 rap hit in U.Ok. charts historical past.) One way or the other Legxacy straddles the strains 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 mission 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.Ok. rap. There’s a wealthy historical past, courting 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.Ok. 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 one in all world conquest — not diasporic inquiry, as with Legxacy, however social affect. A variety of the file 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 vital / The entire 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 additionally 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 person 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.Ok. recreation 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 actually win.

One thing completely 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 by way of a pattern of Summer time Walker’s “Potential.” The U.Ok. and New York Metropolis drill scenes are tightly interwoven — most 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.Ok. 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 via with the Jersey club-inspired “#Miles“), there may be nothing to outwardly establish him as a Briton. Singers from the U.Ok. usually lose their accents in efficiency; British rappers have been outlined by them, generally 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.Ok. id 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.Ok. rap have launched albums this yr demonstrating the breadth and character of the place. Little Simz, Loyle Carner, AJ Tracey, John Glacier and Wretch 32 all put out choices which can be distinctly British but additionally singular. (Kae Tempest, too, although mileage could differ there.) Simz’s Lotus marks a artistic rebirth from one in all England’s biggest 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 reside 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 hanging debut marked by stony flows and skittering rhythms, the juxtaposition of which makes for a form of dissociative expertise. HOME?, Wretch 32’s first album in six years, is like black british music (2025) made by a U.Ok. 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 function, 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 just lately 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.Ok. rap, however black british music (2025) appears to know that your id is yours and yours alone, pulling from a wellspring that’s borderless, even religious. It isn’t 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 additionally 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 people chorus that he and lots of others will repeat, advert infinitum, till they’re heard.