Latest news with #Wretch32
Hypebeast
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Little Simz Unveils Third 'Lotus' Single, "Young"
Despite delaying her sixth studio albumLotusjust a tad,Little Simzisn't going quiet until its release. Originally slated to drop mid-May and now with a new release date in June, Simz has previewed the imminent LP with now a total of three highly diverse singles. After unveiling 'Flood' withObongjayarandMoonchild Sanellyand solo cut 'Free,' Simz has now unleashed a punk-pointed new track entitled 'Young.' Landing as the third song on the tracklist, 'Young' comes equipped with production from Miles Clinton James. 'I was able to tap into a character. That was fun for me. It's just a moment of light heartedness,' Simz said of 'Young.' 'Young' also sees Simz reunite collaborator Dave Meyers on the music video, following up on their multi-award winning video collaboration for 'Gorilla'. 1. Thief2. Flood (feat. Obongjayar & Moonchild Sanelly)3. Young4. Only (feat. Lydia Kitto)5. Free6. Peace (feat. Moses Sumney & Miraa May)7. Hollow8. Lion (feat. Obongjayar)9. Enough (feat. Yukimi)10. Blood (feat. Wretch 32 & Cashh)11. Lotus (feat. Michael Kiwanuka & Yussef Dayes)12. Lonely13. Blue (feat. Sampha) Stream 'Young' by Little Simz out on all streaming services now. ExpectLotusto drop everywhere on June 6.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Little Simz Releases Cheeky New Single 'Young': Stream
The post Little Simz Releases Cheeky New Single 'Young': Stream appeared first on Consequence. Little Simz has dropped new song 'Young,' the latest offering from her upcoming album, Lotus, out June 6th via AWAL Recordings. Stream it below. 'Young' takes a left turn from previous singles 'Free' and 'Flood' (the latter of which was named Song of the Week) by showing a playful side of Simz, who delivers cheeky bars about the folly of youth. Like 'Flood,' 'Young' was produced by Miles Clinton James. According to a press release, the dichotomy of the singles demonstrates 'the scope and breadth of Lotus, and the shifting moods that take the listener on an expansive journey.' Among fans, 'Young' has drawn comparisons to UK alternative hip-hop and electronic artist The Streets, who is featured on the lineup of the upcoming Meltdown festival curated by Simz. 'I was able to tap into a character,' Simz said of the new single. 'That was fun for me. It's just a moment of light heartedness.' To accompany the track, Simz dropped a new music video directed by Dave Meyers, who also worked on the award-winning visual for Simz's track 'Gorilla' off of her 2022 album, NO THANK YOU. The clip shows Simz made up like an elderly woman and causing mischief around her neighborhood. Watch it below. Lotus is Simz's first proper album since NO THANK YOU, although her most recent project was last year's Drop 7 EP. It features an impressive slate of collaborators, including Moses Sumney, Miraa May, Wretch 32, Cashh, Michael Kiwanuka, Yussef Dayes, Sampha, Lydia Kitto, Yukimi Nagano, Obongjayar, and Moonchild Sanelly. See the full tracklist for Lotus below. Pre-orders are ongoing. Simz will be performing two headlining shows in the UK this year at Co-Op Live in Manchester on October 16th and The O2 in London on October 17th. Get tickets here. Lotus Artwork: Lotus Tracklist: 01. Thief 02. Flood (feat. Obongjayar and Moonchild Sanelly) 03. Young 04. Only (feat. Lydia Kitto) 05. Free 06. Peace (feat. Moses Sumney and Miraa May) 07. Hollow 08. Lion (feat. Obongjayar) 09. Enough (feat. Yukimi) 10. Blood (feat. Wretch 32 and Cashh) 11. Lotus (feat. Michael Kiwanuka and Yussef Dayes) 12. Lonely 13. Blue (feat. Sampha) Popular Posts Drummer Chris Adler Opens Up on What Led to Firing from Lamb of God First Look at Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale in Madden Movie Morris, Alligator in Happy Gilmore, Dead at Over 80 Years Old Jazz Pianist Matthew Shipp Derides André 3000's New Piano Project: "Complete and Utter Crap" Stephen King's The Long Walk Movie Gets Long-Awaited Trailer: Watch Say It in Ghor: How Andor Brought a Brand New Language to Star Wars Subscribe to Consequence's email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.
Telegraph
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Wretch 32, Home?: dazzling work from a once-reckless youth
Did you ever expect to hear a grime rapper busting rhymes about accountancy problems? Amidst an atmospheric swirl of samples and beats on the opening track of his ambitious and compelling seventh album Home?, veteran grime star Wretch 32 does exactly that. 'I'm the GOAT but I can't afford my mortgage!' the 40-year-old Jermaine Scott snaps with pained outrage on Transitional Chapter. 'Asking my accountant how my wins become my losses? / You suffer when you boss it, try'na tweak my outgoings / There's an office in my office!' Reviewing his life, Wretch (to give him his Grime name) offers moving thoughts on the struggles of a hard-scrabble youth: 'We're deep in the gutter / Where we reached for our mothers / But they're working overtime / So there wasn't time to hug us / Now the streets we becometh.' But it's not long before he's mischievously complaining, 'I preferred when dodging bullets was my problem / This tax robbing isn't common in the House of Commons.' Right now, Northern Irish rap trio Kneecap are mired in controversy over provocative remarks, with cancelled concerts and an investigation by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command. It doesn't seem so long ago that grime was a similar target, with police breaking up concerts and then-Prime Minister David Cameron denouncing the genre for 'encouraging people to carry knives and guns.' Yet in recent years, veteran Grime artists including Kano, Ghetts, Skepta and Headie One have been producing complex autobiographical works, while breakout star Stormzy has become a national treasure – his forthcoming collaboration with the National Theatre affirming hs status as an establishment figure. Having survived its reckless youth, grime has matured into one of modern Britain's richest musical styles, and this dazzling work from Wretch 32 is up there with the best. In truth, Wretch (a nickname from his mother, meaning skinny in Jamaican slang) has long been one of the most serious-minded and socially conscious grime artists. A former member of the Combination Chain Gang, he has scored pop hits, written books and poetry, and now holds a senior role as Creative Director with 0207 Def Jam. Like the best rap albums, Home? is infused with musicality, drawing on reggae, afrobeat, garage and R'n'B, punctuated by horns, guitars and a swimmy dubby sensuality. Wretch is a sharp wordsmith who also sings with a raw sweetness reminiscent of Bob Marley. It is a collaborative medium, and Wretch has marshalled outstanding talents: singers Angel, Teni, Protoje, Skip Marley and WSTRN, with punchy contributions from Little Simz, Ghetts and Top Boy star Kano. Soundbites from documentary Scenes From The Farm, about life on Tottenham's Broadwater Farm estate in the wake of the terrible mid-80s riots, give thematic focus to ideas of home and what it means to be Black and British. As a second-generation Jamaican, angered by the Windrush scandal, a sense of political frustration bubbles throughout. Yet it's not a heavy album, there's joy in the Caribbean, African and British blend, with sing-along melodies and danceable rhythms. Home? sugars bitter pills with sweet sounds. Just as revolutionaries often mature into statesmen, grime's once-controversial rebel youth are taking the reins right now in British popular music. Sometimes you just have to let people grow up.
The Guardian
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Wretch 32: ‘It's a difficult ride for Black people in this country'
Over the past two decades, Wretch 32, real name Jermaine Scott, has established himself as a pioneering figure in British rap. From his rise in the underbellies of an early-millennium rap and grime scene, to his mainstream success and songs with the likes of Ed Sheeran and Emeli Sandé, Stormzy and Giggs, he is among the handful of UK rappers who have scaled the heights of the British music scene while maintaining a deep connection to their communities. At 39, Scott is ready to release his seventh album, Home?, a soul-searching record that reflects on his relationship with that word. 'I feel like it always moves. I feel like it always changes,' he says of his relationship to 'home'. 'I'm still trying to put an exact location on it but as it stands it's more who I'm with. I feel like I could make a home in any house.' More than that, the album is a detailed account of his inner world, and a tender narration on the community that surrounds him. Over its 15 songs, it ruminates on themes of belonging, and on British-Caribbean and Black British history, as well as further commentary on the contemporary climate of the country at large. 'I think the word that comes to mind is 'displacement',' he says. 'For anyone who feels like: 'I'm here, but am I accepted here? Or am I just tolerated here?' Anyone who is in the middle of that, this record is for you.' On the album, home is a two-way street – one existing between a community and its country, as well as a country and its communities. Scott more than most embodies this sentiment. His grandparents – both paternal and maternal – arrived in the UK from Jamaica, settling in north London, a family line starting anew on British soil. Both of his parents were raised in Tottenham. He is the third generation of his family to have called the area home. Activism runs in the family. Growing up, he remembers a sense of communal resistance and care in the household. Both his dad, Millard Scott, and his uncle, Stafford Scott, were renowned in the local area for their community work and advocacy, standing firm in the face of entrenched racism and repression. 'My uncles and Dad would be on GMTV before school,' he says. 'I remember seeing my gran, my dad and my uncle on London Tonight because they had taken the police to court for harassment and had won.' Formative memories like these meant that from a young age 'I was knowing that something's not right in the system'. As a child there were community activists holding meetings in his front room; he recalls the teachings he received on the likes of Marcus Garvey and the African National Convention, or on apartheid in South Africa, the posters of Muhammad Ali on the walls, and a deep-set understanding of Britain and its relationship to his people being seeded in his mind. 'The first thing was understanding it's a difficult ride for Black people in this country,' he says. 'I remember feeling displacement on that level, hearing these conversations with my dad, with my uncles, hearing them talk about injustices, the first Broadwater Farm riots, and the uprisings.' Eventually, as he grew older and into his own life, he began to experience his own early feelings of displacement, subtle questionings of Britain and his place in it. There were early encounters with the police, being stopped or chased when he was as young as eight, and the occasional screams from passing cars, their passengers telling him to go back to where he came from. 'On Black Boy Lane I was caught on my own,' he raps on Black & British, a track from Home? with Little Simz and Benjamin AD, 'he told me to go back to my country, I thought I was home.' In the late 00s and early 2010s, years after the first peaks of Dizzee Rascal and Kano, British rappers and MCs began to resurface in pop culture. Wretch 32 was among them, a rare case of an artist who managed to tailor his music for a wider audience without corrupting his reputation. After signing with Ministry of Sound, he released the commercially successful singles Traktor, Unorthodox and Don't Go, the latter reaching No 1 on the UK singles chart. Emerging into the mainstream changed his fortunes. He moved out of working-class Tottenham to the north London and Hertfordshire hinterland of Barnet. Despite turning music into a viable career, that sense of displacement still followed. 'There was less of a community there than there was in Tottenham,' he reflects. '[In Tottenham] I knew all my neighbours. I knew their names; we helped each other out. We held doors, we carried bags for elderly women. When I moved into the gated community in Barnet it wasn't the case.' The sense of resistance that runs in the family continues today. In 2020, his dad, 62 at the time, was tasered by police, and subsequently fell down the stairs. The Met Police, in a review of the incident, 'found no indication of misconduct'. After the footage was posted to social media, London mayor Sadiq Khan called for an urgent review by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). Scott appeared on ITV News alongside his father to speak on the incident. His father believed the tasering would not have happened if he were a white man. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion 'Imagine the beautiful darkness,' Scott says. 'I remember watching my dad on the news, watching my dad on London Tonight, and now I'm beside him on London Tonight. It's not the full circle you would want but it is [what happened] nevertheless.' Scott was born in 1985, the same year the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham blazed with late-autumn riots after the death of 49-year-old Cynthia Jarrett. She died from heart failure after the police raided her home on suspicion of her son having handled stolen goods. Stafford would write in the Guardian years later: 'There was such anger about Cynthia's death, given the regular harassment local black people faced from the police, that the following day a riot broke out.' This history is carved into the album. Stitched into Home? are voices and echoes from that time gone, catalogued in excerpts from a 1988 documentary titled Scenes from the Farm. Originally aired on Channel 4, the documentary was shot in the aftermath of the riots, capturing the mood and immediate realities of 80s Black Britain on the estate. Scott's grandma owned a copy on VHS, before accidentally taping over it. It would be years before he would watch it in full, eventually seeing it for the first time when the full piece was uploaded to YouTube. By this time, his grandma had died, her memory only existing in family photos and albums. So, as he watched for the first time, her presence came into full colour. Speaking to the pastor in a scene outside Scott's baptism, she says: 'If I die today I'm just dead, but as long as I know I died to let someone else live …' The scene struck Scott at his core. 'To hear her voice was such a big, impactful moment, it was such a feeling. I haven't heard this voice before. She only existed in family photos.' Home? is a weaving of these realities, of a history extending beyond Wretch 32's immediate reality. It was a charting of the political, social and cultural forces and history that preceded his entry into the world. In that way, this album, and his wider discography, are an extension of the work and legacy started by the generations of his family who came before him. Home? is out this spring; the single Black and British ft Little Simz is out now.
