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Music

Jesse James Solomon Will Rob Your Stereotypical Views on UK Hip Hop

This is the time we start fresh with rap music in Britain.
Ryan Bassil
London, GB

The internet isn’t a competition that can be “won” or a shop that can be “shut down”, it’s just really big. Thousands of songs are uploaded to Soundcloud each day and starting now, we’re going to sort through them and present you with our favourites. This week:

British hip hop is, unfairly, negated as the bastardised child of teenagers in provincial towns somewhere near the A1 that've discovered Roots Manuva. The stereotypes, ticks, and signifiers have been relayed ad nauseum; so much so that these days I can only imagine Skinnyman wanking behind his Compaq while his Mother brings him tea and hobnobs.

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This is the time, then, that we can start fresh with a new approach to the music in Britain. You've got artists like Onoe Caponoe and Little Simz, who make music that sounds like it's never been near a Peugeot 206, and on the other side you've got the artists that assimilate environments into soundscapes, the sonics painting scenarios and portraits of the cities where they live.

Jesse James Solomon is one of those artists. His music is dark, introspective, like the damp evenings where you're walking home in the drizzle, headphones on, so lost in thought that you're not even paying attention to where you're going. Ever since he put out "Came in the Name Of" - and featured on tracks with Rejjie Snow and Edgar the Beatmaker - we've been awaiting the arrival of Jesse from SE, his debut 4 track EP, which is streaming above.

Follow Ryan on Twitter: @RyanBassil

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