The rapper keeps his signature upbeat melodies and humour, while urgently pursuing a deep take on the systemic checks that mar Black British life
With his 2017 debut album, Common Sense, east London artist J Hus made a visceral impact. Nominated for the Mercury prize as well as pretty much every other UK music award going, it was an exquisite record that pulled together sounds from across the Black diaspora, melding bashment and Afrobeats alongside UK rap to represent a new generation of Black Britishness. As Aniefiok Ekpoudom wrote in an excellent essay last year: “Common Sense carves out a home in a country that can feel foreign, a reminder that though we are a generation stranded between heritage and birthplace, we have music that is distinctly our own, melodies that explain our existence, and albums that pay homage to the music we were raised on as well as the new sounds that found us in Britain.”
Beyond the significance of J Hus as the innovator of Afroswing, his music had another, more visceral impact: any given party, car journey, barbecue, park hang or night out (or night in) could be improved by pressing play. J Hus and his main producer Jae5 had an innate understanding of how to craft songs to get bodies moving and sweating.