Complex UK's Best Albums of 2023

The chemistry between Headie One and K-Trap was evident long before this mixtape dropped. Collaborations such as “No Convo” in 2017 and “Extra Sleeve” (2022) presented two UK drill figureheads trading evocative, whip-smart bars, and this first full-length project from the Londoners maintains those high standards. Producers including M1onthebeat, Carns Hill, 169, and LikkleDotz craft foreboding soundscapes from whispered melodies and counter-melodies, crisp, sizzling drums and joint-dislocating bass, while Headie and Trapo employ their usual best-in-class, syllable-jammed flows. There’s potential for that to feel like an overly dense mixture across the tape’s 32 minutes but *STRENGTH TO STRENGTH* never becomes impenetrable—largely because you’re constantly being pulled in by glittering nuggets of wordplay. The 10 tracks depict road life and music success while regularly attempting to find some reconciliation between the two. On “STREET X INDUSTRY,” the pair frown at the notion that a storyteller can detach themselves from their own experiences. Here, they recount their earliest musicmaking days, negotiating the pulls of two different endeavors (K-Trap: “Really sat down with a plug and an A&R and the plug had more to give/Music link in my bio still felt more legit/Yo, my time was coming/But until then, man, the lines were running”). Headie’s particularly sharp on “ANPR,” juxtaposing National Prison Radio with National Public Radio (“You ever been banged up by the seaside listening to NPR?/Case papers on this tiny desk/Not the one from NPR”). And on “GOOD GIRLS,” he finds the self-deprecation to remind a suspicious lover of the mundanities of a life in music: “Saturday night, everyone out, you’ll think I’m out-there lifestyle too/But I’m in the studio, being boring, writing tunes.” It’s this dedication to the craft that continues to pay dividends for the duo.

Just when it looked like The Hustla was about to leave us hanging for another summer—third album *Beautiful and Brutal Yard* arrived for 2023. When news first broke of the long-awaited album, fans were immediately alarmed by the lack of credits for JAE5. Exploring his range away from the guidance of his former exec producer and Afroswing architect, has, though, seen J Hus stage a coup on the direction of his own sound. Here, he turns up the dial on his flickering emotions: careering from aggressor to party-starter via lover boy at dizzying speeds. TSB holds the reins chiefly on production here—but it’s undoubtedly J Hus calling the shots now. Follow on for our pick of five highlights from *B.A.B.Y.*. **“Massacre”** Straight after the bright horns and gruff, motivational intro (“THE GOAT”), it’s “Massacre” where *B.A.B.Y.* shifts into gear. The sharp, sexy chords of the beat (produced by Marco Bernardis and P2J) was featured on the album’s visual trailer—narrated by Idris Elba. In the short clip, an invite to Hus’ yard, the London actor states, “Imagine if the heart was not designed to express love or pain, but to express ultimate power: the core of masculinity.” This internal struggle, in spite of all his success, is still key to understanding a mind as complex and chaotic as J Hus’. **“Who Told You” (feat. Drake)** A solid contender for the song of summer 2023, and a track fans have been waiting for since Drake declared his admiration for J Hus on stage at London’s O2 Arena in 2019. If we were worried about the absence of JAE5, this stellar single (produced by P2J, E.y, and Gaetan Judd) put all fears to bed. An infectious anthem on not being too tough to bust a move that certainly lives up to its billing. These badmen dance, and we should follow their lead. **“Militerian” (feat. Naira Marley)** The Marlian meets the Militerian on this swinging combination of sounds from sons of the African diaspora. Slick, pidgin-infused lyricism mingle within crisp production that wouldn’t sound out of place at Fela’s The Shrine in the ’70s. **“Cream” (feat. CB)** J Hus teased a snippet of this track way back in 2020. A month before release he declared it “The Hardest in Drill History” on Instagram. And when the rankings are eventually drawn up one day, this collaboration between Newham’s finest should at least be considered. Hus is joined by infamous driller CB—three years into a 23-year prison sentence when *B.A.B.Y* was released—on this blaring ode to money-making, to cement his legacy. **“Nice Body”** All the stars are out across the album’s genre-fluid features. There’s Popcaan (“Killy”) and Burna Boy (“Masculine”) flying their flag for their regions. And here’s the UK’s Jorja Smith, laying a sweet half-sung verse—a trick she also pulled off beautifully alongside Giggs on 2020’s “Im Workin.” An introduction to this joyful pairing that we hope to hear much more of.

In the past, the sage singer-songwriter, born Cleopatra Zvezdana Nikolic, perfected her sense of timing by consistently releasing music when it was ready, before disappearing from the public eye and leaving fans ample time to create bonds with her bodies of work. This time, however, Sol released two projects within two weeks of one another that both lean into the irresistible elements of her nostalgic sound while offering diverse narratives and emotions, allowing the sister albums to stand tall on their own. Coming two weeks after *Heaven* in September 2023, *Gold* elevates listeners towards the single source of all things—a spiritual offering from the British singer, who has become a voice of big-picture optimism and reassurance in the R&B and soul genre space. The album’s production, spearheaded by fellow Sault member Inflo, exudes the very warmth embodied by Sol’s velvety tone and serene storytelling, with glimmerings of gospel, funk, and reggae styles heard throughout the 10-track set. “Please Don’t End It All” calls for an emotional release, while elsewhere, tracks like “Desire” capture the euphoric feelings associated with finding one’s true match. *Gold* is an unapologetic display of what matters most to Sol, reaffirming the artist\'s ability to remain both consistent and innovative with each album.

Five years after her critically acclaimed studio debut *Lost & Found*, Jorja Smith returns more self-assured than ever. On *falling or flying*, the UK singer-songwriter stays true to her roots, her lush tone draping over jazzy, futuristic production, while cuts like “GO GO GO” give listeners access to Smith’s more lighthearted side as she dips into indie rock territory. While *Lost & Found* exuded the energy of an exploratory coming-of-age for the then-19-year-old, *falling or flying* is a brutally honest expression of all the artist has learned. In her return to the musical spotlight, Smith also found her way back to her hometown of Walsall after spending a handful of years in London, during which time she worked on her sophomore album. *falling or flying* represents the singer’s blossoming sense of self amidst relentless public opinion, once again proving her intricate capabilities as a storyteller through both lyricism and vocal prowess.

On his Mercury Prize-winning debut album, 2017’s *Process*, Sampha Sisay often cut an isolated figure. As the Londoner’s songs contended with loss—particularly the passing of his parents—and anxieties about his health and relationships, a sense of insularity and detachment haunted his poignant, experimental electro-soul. Arriving six years later, this follow-up presents a man reestablishing and strengthening connections. Lifted by warm synths and strings, songs are energized by the busy rhythms of jungle, broken beat, and West African Wassoulou music. Images of flight dominate as Sampha zooms out from everyday preoccupations to take a bird’s-eye view of the world and his place in it as a father, a friend, a brother, a son. “I feel sometimes making an album is like a manifesto for how I should be living, or that all the answers are in what I’m saying,” he tells Apple Music. “I don’t necessarily *live* by what I’m saying but there’s times where I recognize that I need to reconnect to family and friends—times where I can really lose connection by being too busy with my own things.” So where *Process* ended with Sampha ruefully noting, “I should visit my brother/But I haven’t been there in months/I’ve lost connection, signal/To how we were” on “What Shouldn’t I Be?” *Lahai* concludes in the fireside glow of “Rose Tint,” a song celebrating the salve of good company: “I’m needy, don’t you know?/But the fam beside me/Is what I needed most.” Before then, *Lahai* examines Sampha’s sense of self and his relationships through his interests in science, time, therapy, spirituality, and philosophy. “I became more confident with being OK with what I’m interested in, and not feeling like I have to be an expert,” he says. “So even if it comes off as pretentious at times, I was more comfortable with putting things out there. That’s an important process: Even in the political sphere, a lot of people don’t speak about things because they’re worried about how people will react or that they’re not expert enough to talk on certain things. I’m into my science, my sci-fi, my philosophy. Even if I’m not an expert, I could still share my feelings and thoughts and let that become a source of dialogue that will hopefully improve my understanding of those things.” Started in 2019 and gradually brought together as Sampha negotiated the restrictions of the pandemic and the demands and joys of fatherhood, the songs, he says, present “a photograph of my mental, spiritual, physical state.” Read on for his track-by-track guide. **“Stereo Colour Cloud (Shaman’s Dream)”** “I wanted to make something that felt like animation and so the instrumentation is quite colorful. What started it off was me experimenting with new kinds of production. I was using a mechanical, MIDI-controlled acoustic piano and playing over it. Same thing with the drums—I built a robotic acoustic drummer to build these jungle breaks. So, it’s all these acoustic instruments that I programmed via MIDI, and also playing over them with humans, with myself.” **“Spirit 2.0”** “It’s a song I started in my bedroom, a song I wrote walking through parks in solitude, a song I wrote at a time I felt I needed to hear for myself. It took probably a year from start to finish for that song to come together. I had the chords and the modular synths going for a while and then eventually I wrote a melody. Then I had an idea for the drums and I recorded the drums. It was also influenced by West African folk music, Wassoulou music. I guess that isn’t maybe quite obvious to everyone, but I’ve made quite a thing of talking about it—it’s influenced the way I write rhythmically.” **“Dancing Circles”** “This also came from this kind of acoustic/MIDI jamming. I wrote this pulsing, slightly clash-y metronomic piano and wrote over and jammed over it. I put the song together with a producer called Pablo Díaz-Reixa \[Spanish artist/producer El Guincho\], who helped arrange the song. I sort of freestyled some lyrics and came up with the dancing refrain, and then had this idea of someone having a conversation with someone they hadn’t seen in a long time, and just remembering how good it is, how good it felt to dance with them.” **“Suspended”** “I feel like a lot of what I’ve written goes between this dreamlike state and me drawing on real-life scenarios. This is a song about someone who’s reminiscing again, but also feeling like they’re kind of going in and out of different time periods. I guess it was inspired by thinking about all the people, and all the women especially, in my life that I’ve been lifted up by, even though I frame it as if I’m speaking about one person. The feeling behind it is me recognizing how supported I’ve been by people, even if it’s not been always an easy or straightforward journey.” **“Satellite Business”** “This feels like the midpoint of the record. I guess in this record I was interrogating spirituality and recognizing I hadn’t really codified, or been able to put my finger on, any sort of metaphysical experience, per se—me somewhat trying to connect to life via a different view. The song is about me recognizing my own finitude and thinking about the people I’ve lost and recognizing, through becoming a father myself, that not all is done and I’m part of a journey and I can see my parents or even my brothers, my daughter. \[It’s\] about connection—to the past and to the future and to the present. Any existential crisis I was having about myself has now been offloaded to me thinking about how long I’m going to be around to see and protect and help guide someone else.” **“Jonathan L. Seagull”** “I speak a lot about flying \[on the album\] and I actually mention \[Richard Bach’s novella\] *Jonathan Livingston Seagull* in ‘Spirit 2.0.’ For me, the question was sometimes thinking about limits, the search for perfection. I don’t agree with everything in *Jonathan Livingston Seagull* as a book, it was more a bit of a memory to me \[Sampha’s brother read the story to him when he was a child\], the feeling of memory as opposed to the actual details of the book. I guess throughout the record, I talk about relationships in my own slightly zoomed-out way. I had this question in my mind, ‘Oh, how high can you actually go?’ Just thinking about limits and thinking sometimes that can be comforting and sometimes it can be scary.” **“Inclination Compass (Tenderness)”** “Birds, like butterflies, use the Earth’s magnetic field to migrate, to be able to navigate themselves to where they need to get to \[this internal compass is known as an inclination compass\]. I feel that there’s times where love can be simpler than I let it be. As you grow up, sometimes you might get into an argument with someone and you’re really stubborn, you might just need to hug it out and then everything is fine—say something nice or let something go. Anger’s a complicated emotion, and there’s lots of different thoughts and theories about how you should deal with it. For me personally, this is leaning into the fact that sometimes it’s OK to switch to a bit more of an understanding or empathetic stance—and I can sometimes tend to not do that.” **“Only”** “It’s probably the song that sticks out the most in the record in terms of the sonic aesthetic. It’s probably less impressionistic than the rest of the record. I think because of that it felt like it was something to share \[as the second single\]. Thematically as well, it just felt relevant to me in terms of trying to follow the beat of my own drum or finding a place where you’re confident in yourself—recognizing that other people are important but that I can also help myself. It’s a bit of a juxtaposition because there’s times where it feels like it’s only you who can really change yourself, but at the same time, you’re not alone.” **“Time Piece”** “Time is just an interesting concept because there’s so many different theories. And does it even exist? \[The lyrics translate as ‘Time does not exist/A time machine.’\] But we’re really tied to it, it’s such an important facet of our lives, how we measure things. It was just an interesting tie into the next song.” **“Can’t Go Back”** “I feel like there’s a lot of times I just step over my clothes instead of pick them up. I’m so preoccupied with thinking about something else or thinking about the future, there’s times where I could have actually just been a bit more present at certain moments or just, ‘It’s OK to just do simple things, doing the dishes.’ The amount \[of\] my life \[in\] which I’m just so preoccupied in my mind…Not to say that there isn’t space for that, there’s space for all of it, but this is just a reminder that there’s times where I could just take a moment out, five to 10 minutes to do something. And it can feel so difficult to spend such short periods of time without a device or without thinking about what you’re going to do tomorrow. This is just a reminder of that kind of practice.” **“Evidence”** “I think there’s times where it just feels like I have ‘sliding door’ moments or glimpses or feelings. This is hinting \[at\] that. Again, the feeling of maybe not having that metaphysical connection, but then feeling some sort of connection to the physical world, whatever that might be.” **“Wave Therapy”** “I recorded a bit of extra strings for ‘Spirit 2.0,’ which I wanted to use as an interlude after that, but then I ended up reversing the strings that \[Canadian composer and violinist\] Owen Pallett helped arrange. I called it ‘Wave Therapy’ because, for some of the record, I went out to Miami for a week to work with El Guincho and before each session, I’d go to the beach and listen to what we had done the day before and that was therapeutic.” **“What if You Hypnotise Me?” (feat. Léa Sen)** “I was having a conversation with someone about therapy and then they were like, ‘Oh, I don’t even do talking therapy, I just get hypnotized, I haven’t got time for that.’ I thought that was an interesting perspective, so I wrote a song about hypnotizing, just to get over some of these things that I’m preoccupied with. I guess it’s about being in that place, recognizing I need something. Therapy can be part of that. As I say, nothing has a 100 percent success rate. You need a bit of everything.” **“Rose Tint”** “Sometimes I get preoccupied with my own hurt, my own emotions, and sometimes connecting to love is so complicated, yet so simple. It’s easy to call someone up really and truly, but there’s all these psychological barriers that you put up and this kind of headspace you feel like you don’t have. Family and friends or just people—I feel like there’s just connection to people. You can be more supported than you think at times, because there’s times where it feels like a problem shared can feel like a problem doubled, so you can kind of keep things in. But I do think it can be the other way round.”

Nines’ fourth album, *Crop Circle 2*, ended (on “Outro”) with a pledge to “tap out” from the streets. Just a few months later, this follow-up finds him dismissing all plans for a gracious exit. Arriving less than six months on from its predecessor, the Londoner’s second full-length of 2023 harvests a fresh batch of potent raps. A slick display from a snarly kingpin still deeply staked in a lifestyle that has both threatened and supported his rap rise at different moments. Again faced with the question of how to leave the game behind when it’s all you’ve known, Nines is flanked by ICB partner Skrapz for swinging, supersized trap joints (“Only One,” “Devils Rejects”), hovering over choices previously weighed up and laid out as far back as 2013 on acclaimed mixtape *Gone Till November*. In this sense, the harsh and roundabout motion of the streets now sticks as *the* defining circle of this colorful trilogy. Nines has been delivering effortless, larger-than-life rhymes for more than a decade, defined by his unique form of slick-talk. Unsurprisingly here, references range from *Rugrats* to *Game of Thrones* (on “Daily Duppy”), as Nines pulls in everyday pop culture that softens the gritty and dark tints to his story. There’s also room to stir over street politics (“My Turn”), but fun pairings with Bradford natives Bad Boy Chiller Crew (on garage stepper “Toxic”) and Tunde and Mugzz (on “I Do”—a bouncy flip of Snoop Dogg’s 1994 classic “Gin and Juice”) flicker at a dizzying tempo—as does the latest installment of the UK’s hardest posse cut series, “Line of Fire Pt. 7.” “They want to see me fade but I ain’t done yet/But one day I’ll sail into the sunset,” Nines declares over plucked chords for a redemptive final flourish (on *CC3’s* “Outro” with R&B riser Debbie), likening his break for freedom to Andy Dufresne’s escape from Shawshank. Welcoming fresh sounds and collaborators to the bright, expansive world within his fifth studio album, Nines weaves together another motion-picture-worthy saga.

For James Blake, making his sixth album felt like going home. Since emerging as a post-dubstep trailblazer in 2010, the electronic producer from the outskirts of London has explored a realm of different sounds including minimalist pop, trap beats, stark ballads, sparse chamber music, digitalized experimentation, and more, all while becoming a go-to collaborator for a wave of game-changing artists (Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Beyoncé, and Dave among them). On *Playing Robots Into Heaven*, though, he reconnects with the club sounds that fueled his early work—and a side of himself he felt compelled to tap back into. “It felt like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do the thing that I do really easily,’” Blake tells Apple Music. “Writing songs is definitely something I love doing, but it doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s really rewarding and challenging, but not my most natural thing. I think probably my most natural thing is collaging shit together.” That’s the approach Blake employs on *Playing Robots Into Heaven*, a captivating record where twisted loops and warped samples intertwine with the melancholic warmth of Blake’s trademark piano chords, hypnotic hooks, and heavily treated vocals. Following a loose narrative arc of a night out raving—taking in the euphoric thrills, spills, ups, downs, and return to reality—it’s a heady trip. Creating it, Blake realized that putting yourself through the wringer to make a record doesn’t have to be the mark of a serious artist. “What I learned was that the feeling of ‘Is this too easy?’ is actually a good feeling,” he says. “It means you’re onto something, it means you are doing something right.” Blake is in his element on *Playing Robots Into Heaven*—and here, he guides us through it, track by track. **“Asking to Break”** “I made this with \[Mount Kimbie’s\] Dom Maker. He started it off with a loop of me playing piano and singing, which is the first thing you hear. The refrain and the song came from that. It happened pretty naturally, pretty quickly. I’m not sure what word it is that the chord sequence evokes, but it evokes something. It doesn’t really happen on the rest of the songs. It’s unique to the album. I like this song as an opener just because it’s not exactly rave-y, but it’s sort of giving you a little nudge in that direction.” **“Loading”** “The whole album is the arc of a rave, basically, or the arc of maybe some kind of drug experience that includes a high and a comedown. ‘Asking to Break’ sets that up and then ‘Loading’ starts to bring you up into more of that place, \[with\] a little bit more euphoria. That’s why I liked it as a second tune. It’s not crazy hyped, but it’s suggesting it and you get that big release at the end. Again, I collaborated with Dom on this one. He made the loop that you hear at the beginning and then we bounce off each other really well.” **“Tell Me”** “‘Tell Me’ started on the tour bus. Me and Rob \[McAndrews, co-producer and Blake’s live guitarist\] were messing about with modular stuff and we ended up with a thing we really liked. There’s actually a video of us playing an early version of it, just bobbing our heads on the tour bus. We’ve got nothing else to do, we’re just eating peanut butter and drinking shit coffee and making stuff on this thing. I knew this had that transcendent wave vibe about it and it felt like a perfect one for the record.” **“Fall Back”** “I had a little modular jam I was working on. Yaw Evans is a producer from South London and I discovered him because he was remixing old grime a cappellas but using old hardware, and it was kind of unusual. I messaged him like, ‘Hey, I love what you do and it’s inspiring to me because I’m doing something a bit similar. Do you want to send me any ideas because I’d love to incorporate what you do into a song?’ Two of them ended up being on the record. One was the drums on ‘Fall Back,’ which I then manipulated a bit to bring it into that world. It’s got echoes of Burial but also maybe more traditional garage stuff. The way he programmed was different and maybe better than something I could do so I was just like, ‘Well, let’s use that.’ It could have been a case of like, ‘Oh, these drums are cool, I’ll do something like them,’ but I don’t really do that. I like to get it from the source.” **“He’s Been Wonderful”** “I actually remember playing an early version of this on Radio 1 about seven years ago. I ended up playing it out a lot at my 1-800 Dinosaur \[club nights\] back in the day but also the CMYK nights that I’ve been putting on—I’d be playing it every set. This song doesn’t feature my voice. I think the thing that some people might find odd about this record is that there are a couple of tracks where I’m not singing and it’s a sample of someone else. But there was a bonus on *Overgrown* that had Big Boi samples on it, ‘Every Day I Ran,’ so I’ve done it before.” **“Big Hammer”** “When I put this out as the first single, I was like, ‘This is the only way to make it clear that this record’s going to be different.’ Some of the other songs might have just been seen as slightly different James Blake tracks but this one was like, ‘OK, people aren’t really going to know what’s going to happen next,’ and that’s what I wanted. I sampled \[Hackney’s proto-jungle adventurers\] The Ragga Twins, who were a huge voice for me growing up. They’d either be at the things I was going to, or they’d be in the tracks of the DJs I was listening to. They were a big influence and when I sampled them, the tune just felt like, ‘Now I’ve got it, now it’s done.’ They brought the energy that the tune had without actually even being there.” **“I Want You to Know”** “This again is something that started with Yaw Evans’ drums. I was in a studio in Los Angeles and I was playing chords over it, just seeing what I could find. I ended up writing a little bit over it and then there was a moment where the only melody I could hear over this song was the Pharrell line from the end of Snoop Dogg’s ‘Beautiful.’ I was listening to it in the control room and once I’d sung it out loud, I was like, ‘Oh no, there is no better melody than that, that’s the only thing.’ It was like, ‘All right, let’s hope they clear it.’” **“Night Sky”** “This is now the arc downwards. We’re starting to really wind down. It’s a pretty odd piece of music. I really love the strange Gregorian-sounding shit at the end where you don’t really know what it is, whether it’s a voice or whatever, but it sounds haunting. I made it with Rob again. We started it together at my house with modular stuff. Those weird voices at the beginning, that’s all me put through some technology. I thought it created the perfect ladder down back to Earth.” **“Fire the Editor”** “The editor in this case is yourself and your self-censorship, and when you’re not truly saying what it is you want to say, or you are saying a version of it but not the whole thing. It’s a tough place to be. It’s a rallying cry to a freedom of thought and personal freedom. There’s a lyric in this song I really love: ‘If I see him again, we’ll be having words.’ There’s something a little bit confrontational about it, but the idea is that it’s setting you free at this moment in the album.” **“If You Can Hear Me”** “This is a letting go sort of song, too—a letting go of the constant pursuit of something, the pursuit of success or the pursuit of music, or the pursuit of whatever it is in your own life. It was actually written at the time of the movie *Ad Astra*, because I was writing something for it which ended up not being used. It was written to the scene where he finally communicates with his father who’s out in space and who might never come back. I think that in some way it’s a nice metaphor for how we go on our own path compared to our parents or maybe our father, in this case. We are trying to go as far as we can in a certain direction without getting lost and hopefully not repeating the same mistakes they did, but also learning from what they got right.” **“Playing Robots Into Heaven”** “The title *Playing Robots Into Heaven* came from an Instagram post where I’d made this jam on a modular synth. For some reason the phrase ‘The organist that plays robots into heaven’ is what came to mind because that’s just what it sounded like for me. This is the track that I posted on my Instagram during the pandemic and it’s on the album in full without any modification, exactly the piece that started the album off. Again, it’s bringing you all the way down back to Earth.”

“This is about me telling the stories I want to tell, in the order I want to tell them, through the sonic landscape I want to tell them,” RAYE tells Apple Music of her debut album, *My 21st Century Blues*. The South London singer-songwriter, born Rachel Keen, had to wait longer than most to do that. In June 2021, she claimed on social media that she hadn’t been “allowed” to release a debut LP, despite having signed a four-album deal seven years earlier, and that she was “sick of being slept on.” (She left her label shortly after and released this LP as an independent artist.) “There really did have to be quite a lot of soul searching and therapy and forgiveness and reflection,” says RAYE of the aftermath. “I wanted to go back to the songs that I was passionate about.” Those were tracks that RAYE had written years earlier, and which, revisited and reworked, make up half of *My 21st Century Blues*. Most of the others were written fresh, after she escaped to a cabin in Utah with producer and friend Mike Sabath, armed with a laundry list of topics to dig into (reflected in some of the album’s meatier song titles, such as “Body Dysmorphia.” and “Environmental Anxiety.”). *My 21st Century Blues* can sometimes be a difficult listen: RAYE unflinchingly processes traumatic experiences including sexual violence, substance abuse, disordered eating, and the suffocation she has felt as a woman in music, with embraces of everything from trip-hop to hypnotic dance, dancehall, cinematic pop, gospel, blues, and more. Getting to this point, she says, feels like “the most beautiful validation,” as well as something close to healing. “Everything for me on this is so medicinal,” she says. “I’m so excited for the artist now I get to become. This has set the tone for me, knowing how much potential there is in what I can say and what stories I can tell.” Read on as RAYE talks us through every track on her long-awaited debut. **“Introduction.”** “Before synths and electronic stuff, it was just a show. It was a real band. The singer would come on and sing for you in a nice dress or a nice suit. I really wanted listeners to feel like they’re in this little blues club or a jazz club, taking in all the songs as they go on a wild tangent far away from that.” **“Oscar Winning Tears.”** “The version you hear now has really taken on its own form since the original demo. When the situation with the spiking happened \[RAYE’s drink was spiked by a man she knew and trusted\], the man was just crying tears in my face. He was the victim. I was like, ‘Wow, I have a song for this.’ It was liberating. And when we finished it, I knew this had to be the start. I think the initial concept and then the story ended up just merging so perfectly into just a beautiful piece of medicine for me.” **“Hard Out Here.”** “When the story or feeling is burning at my chest, it has to force its way out. It was just rage and pain flowing out. For the line about CEOs and white privilege \[‘All the white men CEOs, fuck your privilege/Get your pink chubby hands off my mouth/Fuck you think this is?’\], my engineer turned and looked at me, but I was like, ‘Yeah, we’re going there!’ This song was me promising myself that I will bounce back. It’s hard to put the story of what I’ve been through into words because it’s so much over so long. In my opinion, I really did such a good job of holding it down and in. Some of the things that were said and the way I was emotionally manipulated, it’s so dark. Coming out the other side of it, I just needed to remind myself that I will bounce back.” **“Black Mascara.”** “I’d just come back from where these assaults took place and was very much not good. It was just after ‘BED’ \[RAYE’s 2021 hit with Joel Corry and David Guetta\] came out, so I was having to sell the pop-girl image. At that time, I had the green light to do an album before they changed their mind for the last time. I played some chords, and they were very vampire-y and medieval. I had the phrase ‘Once you see my black mascara/Run from you’ on the way there, and so I was just building the lyrics. We had a session the next day, but I canceled it—I just wasn’t there—and didn’t listen to the song until maybe three weeks after I was sent it. I pressed play, and it sounds like what you hear now. I put it on repeat.” **“Escapism.” \[with 070 Shake\]** “I think when I was on my way out of the darker chapters in my life, I needed this song. It gives me hope. Mike played me this beat in the car, and I was rapping all this aggressive stuff. I knew exactly what story I wanted to tell on this. When we got to Utah, I went into the toilet and said a little prayer: ‘Dear God, help me find the best lyrics for the song.’ Then I got on the mic, and it came together so quickly—maybe in an hour and a half. I’m still processing the success of this song because I just did not expect it at all. I’m not doing this to gun for mainstream success. I’m not doing this to have the biggest chart records. These songs aren’t about that.” **“Mary Jane.”** “I’m an all-or-nothing person in every aspect of my life. So, when something dangerous is introduced \[substances\], it can get really bad—really, really bad. The lyrics in this song are dark, but substance abuse can really, really take you there. It’s a love song married with a slightly uneasy feeling behind the music. I wanted it to feel uncomfortable.” **“The Thrill Is Gone.”** “This song existed for years but was completely different in the beginning. I always wanted to take it back in time. We recorded it on tape and made it in the Valentine Studio in LA. It’s all carpeted walls, and it felt like a real taste of how music used to be created. Recording it was a beautiful experience. The story feels so classical, but the picture in my head is so distorted and modern and weird. I really love where we took it.” **“Ice Cream Man.”** “This is the hardest song on the album for me. There are so many layers of what’s taken and what’s affected and changed after trauma and sexual violence. So much is stolen. You battle so many minefields of, ‘Is this my fault? Did I put myself in the wrong position? Am I blowing something out of proportion?’ It just becomes this ugly thing that I’m having to deal with for the rest of my life because of someone else’s stupid, disgusting actions. And I think that, at the very least, this is me proclaiming what I am and that these things shouldn’t be allowed to define what we become. It’s as much for me as whoever might be listening who needs to hear it. I wanted it to just feel super intimate, with that hum that comes in at the beginning and these filtered drums. And at the end, you get this moment to feel beautiful with your tears, to stand up and walk out the room and continue with your day.” **“Flip a Switch.”** “I did this with Stephen McGregor \[aka producer Di Genius\], who’s a dancehall legend. He produced so many of the songs I grew up listening to, so he really brought his flair and flavors to the sound. I was in a budding relationship, and I had just decided to let my walls down. I felt it was safe, and then it was like, *bang*. I would have been fine if \[he\] hadn’t given me all this false hope. I was so angry, and it was like, ‘You know what! This song is going to be about you now. Let’s get all the drama out.’ It was very empowering and me saying all the things that I would love to say to his face. But instead, I just put it in the song and proceeded to listen to it all week.” **“Body Dysmorphia.”** “I’d been putting this one off for a while. It was the last day in Utah, and I felt I had to do it. I wanted it to feel sexy, in a weird way. So, we started with these scratchy, really uncomfortable strings, and then you have these smooth drums, which—if you were ignoring the lyrics—you’d probably have a little slow vibe to. It was a stream of consciousness. \[The things I talked about in this song\] can manifest in such ugly ways and hold really intense power over you. I think half of the power of this song is just saying them out loud.” **“Environmental Anxiety.”** “I’m a musician, but we know the state of the world, and you can see so clearly that things are just evidently flipping wrong. But \[the climate crisis\] is out of the control of an average citizen. It requires governments to pull their flipping pants up and put laws in place to better impact the climate. Banning plastic forks is all well and good, but you lot \[politicians\] are doing real serious damage. I thought I’d make a song about it, and I wanted to take the piss because that’s what the government does out of us. I wanted this eerie, childlike energy that brings you in, but also a punky, weird drum thing.” **“Five Star Hotels.” (feat. Mahalia)** “This song existed for a long time, and I always loved it. It was just a way of feeling sexy. We sent it to Mahalia, and when she sent me her verse, it was like, ‘Yes!’ We’re two girls who have dreams and have worked really hard from young ages. She just felt like the right person. Creating music to feel \[sexy\] has been empowering for me.” **“Worth It.”** “I wanted to release this a long time ago. Sometimes there are moments where it’s like, ‘Here comes someone—let’s make all of the shit things feel really cool. And all this work that I’m supposed to be doing on myself, I might pause for a section and start putting some work into this other thing because it feels really nice.’ I wanted to have this near the end of the album—a warm hug as you are leaving some of those darker earlier things. The irony is in putting it just before ‘Buss It Down.’ because it didn’t fucking work out!” **“Buss It Down.”** “It’s the juxtaposition between gospel feelings and a song about getting down. The choice to be single is empowering, and I think this is something for the single girls. It’s all right to be single and be joyous about it. It can be a good thing.” **“Fin.”** “I wanted to have the audience cheer at the end of ‘Buss It Down.’, and I want this thank-you moment. It’s a personal closing—I’m so proud of this album, I’m so grateful that people will even listen to this outro. I’m a human who’s put some stories together, and I’m excited for next time. It’s taken me a long time to get to this point, but we’re here. And the joy of being able to share this moment is really exciting. It’s been a long time coming.”

“Before drill, there was rap, and I’m taking it back there for this project,” Digga D tells Apple Music. “But there’s a double meaning, too. I’m also going back home to Powis \[Square\] in West London, where I’m from.” *Back to Square One*, Digga D’s fourth project and the first full-length release on his own Black Money Records label, finds the Ladbroke Grove MC in a state of flux. “I’m someone’s idol so I’m mindful when I talk,” he raps on the breathtakingly honest, soulful intro “Fighting for My Soul”—reflecting the newfound weight of responsibility he’s carrying. But if he’s worn out by the cycle of violence that has blighted his young life on “Cherish God More,” he hasn’t fully freed himself from it on “Bine on ’Em,” a chilling reworking of the Luniz classic “I Got 5 on It.” *Back to Square One* reveals a changing sonic palette, too: “Fighting for My Soul” begins like a piece of spoken-word poetry before blooming into Auto-Tuned crooning, he leans into trapwave with M Huncho on the boastful “Baby Mums Crib,” while much of the project’s production is couched in road rap—UK drill’s more meditative, slower forebear. For the most part, the choppy flows and supervillain energy that propelled Digga’s previous work is tempered into something slower and wiser. And *Back to Square One* ends as it begins, with maturity, as UK rap’s outlaw prince maps out his purpose. “I don’t wanna just like glorify the high life/I wanna let the younger n\*\*\*\*s know about the pain,” he raps on “West North West.” “A lot has changed for me as I’ve grown up and learned different things,” he says. “And I have more faith now. Not that I never had any before, but I feel like I’m more in tune with myself now, and you can hear it.” Here, Digga D goes *Back to Square One*, one track at a time. **“Fighting for My Soul”** “I must have been in a dark place when I made this track. When I play it now, I think, ‘Why did I say all that?’ It was a weird place, but also a deep one—in touch with myself. This sounds like a diary to me, laying out all of my feelings.” **“Me & Kinz”** “This is a little tale about me and one of my good friends. And it’s just the first part of \[the story\]. There will be more in the future, so I don’t want to ruin any surprises. Stay tuned for that!” **“I’m From…”** “I’m from the best place in the world! When I think of my area, I think of Notting Hill Carnival, playing basketball in the park, or Portobello Road—lots of things, and so many good memories.” **“Soft Life”** “I wrote this song about a special person, who I won’t name. Maybe not all of it, but parts of it they inspired. I’m sure they know who they are, so I’ll keep the rest to myself.” **“Facade” (with Potter Payper)** “This track came together in a way that was kinda staggered. I laid my verse on, then linked up with Potter at a studio in North London for his—that’s where he gassed me to throw on another verse! We just tried to give it that bit extra and it came out really well.” **“Energy”** “I deactivated my Instagram account and stopped posting on Snapchat for maybe two or three months earlier this year. Around that time, I made this track, but also ‘Fighting for My Soul.’ so you can hear that mind state is reflected in the songs I’m making. I’m just looking for peace. We shot this video everywhere—in Barcelona, Paris, and London. I told everyone, ‘Come outside, let’s meet at Piccadilly Circus and turn up.’ And they all came out to meet me!” **“Braids”** “Now, this song *is* specifically about someone. Here’s a clue: she’s got braids in her hair, with a heart on the side!” **“Baby Mums Crib” (with M Huncho)** “Funnily enough, this was Huncho’s song first. He sent this to me, and I thought it was so cold, as soon as I heard it. So I asked for it. That’s not usually how it works, though—but me and Huncho are locked in, obviously, so it depends. I remember AJ Tracey didn’t just allow me to have \[2021 single ‘Bringing It Back’\], we had to break down the splits. It all depends on your dynamic.” **“DTF”** “After putting this out, I’ve realized that a lot of people don’t know what DTF means! Which is cool, if you don’t know, then you just don’t know! I had the song with these lyrics over a different beat. Then I kept playing Nardo \[Wick\] and Lil Baby’s ‘Hot Boy’ that whole week, and I knew we needed to recreate that sound here.” **“Fuck Drill”** “Yeah, eff drill. I still feel like that. And I don’t care about backlash or any of that shit. Who’s going to tell me I can\'t say something if that’s how I feel? I grew up listening to so much different music. Whether it’s my dad with nonstop reggae, or my mom with the slow jams and dancehall. Then you’ve got my cousins with the street music. That’s how I was raised, growing up listening to so much different music, and you can hear it in the music I make right now.” **“Bine on ’Em”** “I really enjoy performing and touring now. So far, the most memorable were at Reading and Leeds \[Festival\] in 2022. Also Rolling Loud in Portugal—that was crazy, too! So I’m looking forward to playing this track later this year. It’s hard.” **“Kindness for Weakness”** “I meet new people every day and always try to take their approach where it’s like, ‘smile, shake hands, keep everything levelheaded’, which opens you to disrespect sometimes. It seems like, in anything I do, there will *always* be one person that will take my kindness for granted. So I just have to remind them, really. This is the announcement: ‘I’m no longer allowing people to take my kindness for weakness.’” **“Burn Bridges”** “I don’t like a weak bridge. Would you cross a bridge with hellfire underneath—and you know that it’s weak? That’s why I say here: ‘Before I beg friend, I’ll burn a bridge for my safety.’” **“Cherish God More”** “There have been a couple of times where I’ve gotten closer to God. Maybe the biggest time was on holiday in Jamaica. I was going to church a little bit more, and I had the words \[‘Cherish God More’\] tattooed on me—as a reminder.” **“West North West”** “The song is about my upbringing and how I came up—mostly around West and Northwest \[London\], obviously. This is me, and my life, so I can’t talk about anyone else! You get me?”

It’s always a major event when Giggs’ distinctive growl rumbles through the speakers. The veteran rapper—one of the most influential figures in the UK rap scene—has seen his career go from strength to strength over two decades, but on *Zero Tolerance*, his sixth studio album, it seems Giggs has had enough. “*Zero Tolerance* is where I am at in life right now,” he tells Apple Music. “The older and more mature I get, the less time I have for certain things—especially things that are meaningless or don’t directly impact me. Right now I feel like I am on zero with it all. Less patience, less tolerance.” Perhaps it’s the weight of responsibility that comes with the level of respect Giggs commands that is wearing on his spirit. “I’ve been supportive/But they hate me/They blame me for man’s crimes,” he broods over the theatrical orchestration of the title track, which opens the record. His sincere determination to fulfill an unspoken duty of care to the artists who have emerged in his wake—to help them get a leg up, to bring them to his level—is admirable, but seemingly unappreciated. It’s a topic he ruminates on constantly across the album’s hour-long run time. “I draw influence from my everyday life,” Giggs says. “The mandem, women, supporters, haters, being a dad. It all feeds into *Zero Tolerance*.” There is one artist, at least, who sees eye to eye with Giggs on the experiences that have elevated him to legendary status. That recognition comes from hip-hop mogul and icon Diddy, who features on “Mandem,” the album’s lead single. “Hey yo, Giggs, I see how you got it goin’ down down here, man/You got the ends on lock/Yeah, you like me, longevity, n\*\*\*\*\*,” he observes with admiration, ad-libbing over the track’s thudding outro. The album’s tracklist, which also boasts collaborations with US rapper Jadakiss, dancehall star Popcaan, and repeat chart-topper Dave—among others—reflects that generation-spanning longevity. It’s also testament to the ways in which Giggs’ reach, and his artistry in turn, has expanded since his last release, 2019’s *BIG BAD…*—from North America to the Caribbean to Africa and beyond. “Hallelujah,” an Afrobeats linkup with Nigerian singer Lojay, is a particular standout, a splash of summery warmth to break up the rest of the record’s cold front. While the guest artists may have big-name recognition, the production roster on *Zero Tolerance* is far less starry-eyed, leaning on more underground beatmakers—Louis Egyin-Buadu, Andrew Poku—or else utilizing producers from the creative circles he has overlapped with on this project, such as Marcus Rucker (Dave East) and Kevin Gomringer of Cubeatz (21 Savage, Travis Scott). “I keep it simple. If I like the beat, I use the beat,” Giggs says. “I’ve never been the type of artist that only works with one set producer or goes for someone just because they have a big name. It’s always about the beat and how I personally feel towards it.” To that end, *Zero Tolerance* is primarily a complementary blend of reverberating trap, drill, and melodic hip-hop, each track with its own distinctive sonic fingerprint, anchored by Giggs’ measured, deliberate flow. Drums pound and skitter menacingly on tracks like “We Nuh Fraid,” a singsong threat delivered with taunting relish, and “Spiderman,” a superhero flex on his rivals produced by the team behind BIA & J. Cole’s “LONDON.” In softer moments, piano twinkles sweeten the bitter taste of betrayal on “Once in a Blue” while “Unlimited Blessings” draws solemn contemplation from the same instrument. Giggs has never been the kind of artist to mince words, but there’s a fresh layer of relatable vulnerability to *Zero Tolerance* that, far from weakening his stone-cold image, instead gives it a sharp new edge. The “Black king god” juggles his conscience, his friends, his enemies, his women, his community, his ambition, his expectations of himself, the expectations of others—not to mention all the international flights and the star-studded parties—in pursuit of cultivating a measure of happiness and security in the micro-universe he is at the center of. And yet, “this the loneliest I’ve ever been/And trust me it’s gon’ happen but I miss my kids,” he admits within the first two minutes. Just a man, after all—and not ashamed to show it. “I keep it real and authentic with who I am and what I do,” says Giggs. “Whether it’s me happy, sad, in love, heartbroken, just with the mandem—it all comes from a real place, so it’s all meaningful to me.”

On his debut album, 2022’s *Chasing Euphoria*, M Huncho was in search of happiness. *my neighbours don’t know.* finds the fame-wary rapper in mixtape mode, transplanted from the streets to the suburbs, adjusting to life as a first-time parent and subject to a level of curtain-twitching scrutiny that can’t be easily deflected by donning his trademark mask. Obligingly, Huncho’s refusal to relinquish the block gives them something to talk about, as he continues his tenacious mission to chronicle life on the margins—from the struggle to the come-up—undeterred. Huncho leans on longtime collaborator Quincy Tellem (Headie One, Nines) for the main heft of the production duties, expanding the trapwave pioneer’s unique lane to incorporate new influences—“misunderstood” is embellished with a G-funk-reminiscent twist, while there’s a jersey bounce tint to “tell me how you feel.” Elsewhere, contributions from the likes of Chucks (Central Cee, Pa Salieu), Cage (Dizzee Rascal), and emerging Ukrainian beatmaker Mike Vegas (Wiz Khalifa) add yet more dimensions to the sonic landscape. Crashes and thuds of percussion bring a heavyweight feel to the easy rhythm to “of course,” and the beleaguered outpourings of “myb” are diffused by mellow, Sting-inspired chords. Features from D-Block Europe, Nines, and Slim—among others—populate the cinematic scene Huncho directs on this project. Bars about “spraying like Lynx,” meanwhile, strengthen the record’s London roots. But the sleek, laidback beats elevate Huncho’s melodious cadence to wash the grit with glamour, projecting an atmosphere that feels international rather than localized. Huncho may relish his anonymity, but he makes no attempt to hide his ambitious streak. *my neighbours don’t know.* reveals the latest stage of a masterplan from an artist fully in control of the game.

Destiny meets raw street energy on *The Mixtape*, the first full-length project from North London hitmaker M1onthebeat. More than six years on from his 2017 breakthrough—cooking up sinister drill beats across OFB and Headie One’s early rise—the former Broadwater Farm resident, who found his alias via a combination of his name (Moses) and favourite number, taps an elite gallery of talents for this stunning mission statement on the future of British rap. “My job here is to help *everyone* in the UK,” M1onthebeat tells Apple Music, highlighting involvement for Essex spitter French The Kid and Huddersfield’s Booter Bee. “This is an accurate display of our music and our lifestyle, this is what’s actually happening in drill \[music\]. I had to reach further out.” When the producer’s iconic tag intro-ed Drake and Headie One’s “Only You Freestyle” in 2020, their landmark linkup not only propelled the UK’s strain of the Chicago-bred sound into the charts, but also inspired the lead sessions for this debut project. Here, M1 handily elevates the sound of a moody, restless generation of MCs—including Digga D, Cristale, Nemzzz, and SL—united under its capacity for hyperbolic lyricism and true expression. It’s a vital rebuff to fears the sound would eventually grow stale and formulaic. And these 15 tracks lay the canvas for the UK’s best to explore the depths of ambition (“Hustle Can’t Die”), fear, and loathing in London (“Tape”), with just enough experiment (as R&B-meets-drill on closer “Hear no Evil, See No Evil”). “I know who everyone in the country is listening to,” he adds. “So I had to make those calls—and bring that collective feel.”

For drummer Yussef Dayes, music is a family affair. Getting his first taste of performance as a teen by playing with his older brothers in the jazz group United Vibrations, Dayes has gone on to build a formidable family of collaborators. From working with pianist Kamaal Williams as Yussef Kamaal and kick-starting a new London jazz scene with the release of 2016’s *Black Focus* to duetting with guitarist Tom Misch on 2020’s *What Kinda Music*, Dayes channels an intuitive connection when it comes to his energetic, improvised music. Now releasing his debut solo album, *Black Classical Music*, Dayes places family front and center. “I became a father in 2020 and it led me to reflect on the amazing influence of my own parents,” he tells Apple Music. “My mum passed away in 2015 and this album is guided by her healing spirit. It’s my tribute to all those I love, in music and beyond.” The result is a creatively boundless 19 tracks, traversing epic jazz harmonies on the title track, Bahian beats on “Chasing the Drum,” head-nodding hip-hop on “Presidential,” and orchestral expansions on “Tioga Pass,” all anchored in the foundation of Dayes’ innate groove. “Genres are restrictive when it comes to what I play,” he says. “I’m just chasing the rhythm, tapping into the Black classical music.” Read on for his in-depth thoughts on the album, track by track. **“Black Classical Music” (feat. Venna & Charlie Stacey)** “We wanted to kick off the album with a jazz epic, something to reference the lineage of improvised music I’ve grown up on. It features my live band with Charlie Stacey on keys and Venna on saxophone, and it’s the tune we always open our shows with. It never fails to get everyone dancing, which is exactly what jazz has always done.” **“Afro Cubanism”** “In 2019, I took a trip to Havana and worked with some great musicians to learn the technicalities of Cuban rhythms and the clave groove. We came up with this tune on the spot in the studio, jamming after ‘Black Classical Music.’ It instantly took me back to my time in Cuba. Plus, it’s ‘Afro’ since I have a huge one on the album cover!” **“Raisins Under the Sun” (feat. Shabaka Hutchings)** “I’ve known Shabaka since I was a kid. He lived in my area and I always remembered seeing him as this super-tall guy getting on the train with his instrument cases. I later started playing with him and was on the drums for some of his Sons of Kemet shows. He is one of a kind, a person full of wisdom and artistry, and I knew I had to have him on the record. He’s on bass clarinet for this tune, which takes its name from the Sidney Poitier film, and is simply perfect.” **“Rust” (feat. Tom Misch)** “Ever since me and Tom started playing together in 2018, it’s always been a vibe. We’re both independent artists who keep our playing free and we’ve never been in the studio and not had a wicked idea. He takes me out of my comfort zone and provides a great fusion between styles. It only felt right to continue our collaboration on this album.” **“Turquoise Galaxy”** “We invested in a Moog One synth for the album and created a new patch for this track that I played a shuffle beat to. For some reason, that combination took me to another place, to the summer and the sky and the color of turquoise, which was my mum’s favorite and is still all over my family house.” **“The Light” (feat. Bahia Dayes)** “This track was first recorded in 2019. I used to play it to my daughter Bahia as a lullaby while she was a newborn. When it came to making the album, I was listening to Stevie Wonder’s *Songs in the Key of Life* and got inspired by how he uses his daughter’s voice in his tracks. I decided to do the same thing for Bahia’s favorite tune, so you hear her throughout this.” **“Pon di Plaza” (feat. Chronixx)** “My dad’s Jamaican and, recently, I’ve wanted to tap into my Caribbean heritage more. I’ve known and loved \[Jamaican reggae star\] Chronixx’s music for ages and this ended up being a beautiful Jamaican collaboration after we got in touch during lockdown. He sent over the vocals and arrangements and it was so fun to put together and produce. I’m really pleased we managed to make it happen.” **“Magnolia Symphony”** “I recently took a trip to New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, and was so struck by the music on every street corner there, as well as the gorgeous magnolia trees that are all over the city. This track became an ode to that beauty, chopped from an outtake the Chineke! Orchestra played when they were in to record the track ‘Tioga Pass.’” **“Early Dayes”** “This is a little family skit, taken from a VHS my dad filmed when I was a kid and you can hear me in the background playing the drums. It’s a link back to those childhood days of being free, as well as an appreciation for my parents—you have to have patience when there’s a drummer in the family!” **“Chasing the Drum”** “I’m always chasing rhythms and trying to find different drums native to each place I’m traveling to. This track is dedicated to the rhythms I picked up in Salvador in Brazil. It’s an ode to my time there and my interpretation of the way those incredible people express themselves through their drums.” **“Birds of Paradise”** “‘Birds of Paradise’ is one of the first sessions I laid down at \[one of the album’s co-producers\] Malcom Catto’s studio back in 2021, with my core band of Rocco Palladino on bass, Charlie Stacey on keys, and Venna on sax. It’s a lover’s song that reminds me of the beauty of nature and how we need to take care to protect it.” **“Gelato”** “I love listening to funky house and dance music, and ‘Gelato’ is inspired by that vibe, creating a little dance riddim in the album to get the people moving. It’s a tune for driving along to, named after a nice strain of one of my favorite herbal remedies.” **“Marching Band” (feat. Masego)** “I met \[Jamaican American singer-songwriter\] Masego in 2022 and we really got along, he’s such good vibes. He invited me over to his house to record and we had a conversation about my love of Brazil and how he was starting to learn Portuguese. Once he got in the booth, he freestyled what we were speaking about in one take, on the spot. It was amazing to watch and be a part of.” **“Crystal Palace Park” (feat. Elijah Fox)** “\[Pianist/producer/songwriter\] Elijah joined the live band in summer 2022 and we soon started working together in the studio. This is his interlude and space for him to shine. He’s from North Carolina, where John Coltrane and Nina Simone are from, and he channels this contagious, positive energy that really comes through when he plays.” **“Presidential” (feat. Jahaan Sweet)** “Jahaan Sweet is an incredible producer from the US who I worked with when we were in a session for Kehlani. This is a tune we came up with then that showcases my love of rap music. Listening to it makes you feel presidential, it gives you such confidence, and it has perfect space in it for a vocal feature, which hopefully could come through in the future.” **“Jukebox”** “I grew up listening to records played on an old 7-inch vinyl jukebox my dad has. Over the lockdowns, my brother repaired it and this track is dedicated to the sounds and feeling of those records being loaded and played. It’s also a collaboration with my good friend, the producer and guitarist Miles James, as it references his love of West-Coast G-funk and ’80s drum machines. It was my chance to bruk out with him on his flex.” **“Woman’s Touch” (feat. Jamilah Barry)** “\[UK singer-songwriter\] Jamilah joined us on our 2021 UK tour, and she has such incredible talent. I wanted to give her a moment to shine on the record. ‘Woman’s Touch’ has a great Sade feel to it and spotlights Jamilah’s beautiful voice. It’s amazing to be able to curate a record like this and to collaborate with so many great artists I know and love.” **“Tioga Pass” (feat. Rocco Palladino)** “The bass and drums combination is super important, from Sly & Robbie to The Wailers and The Headhunters, it’s the foundation. Rocco and I had the same upbringing in music and we essentially have a telepathic connection when we play—he knows exactly what I’m going to do. This track is his moment to play beautiful lines and it reminded me of the epic nature of Yosemite, which is the last family holiday I took with my mum in 2014. It also features the incredible Chineke! Orchestra, who are a blessing to have on the album.” **“Cowrie Charms” (feat. Leon Thomas and Barbara Hicks)** “I wanted to end on a note of healing and peace, so this track features a recording of one of my mum’s yoga classes, where she’s guiding us in a shavasana. It was always my favorite part of her practice, as you can just lay down and relax. The track also features the amazing vocalist Leon Thomas, who I linked up with in 2022. It’s really special to be able to collaborate with my mum in this way and it also channels the good energy of the cowrie-shell necklace that I got given in Senegal and that features in the artwork.”