Review Summary: Jelani Blackman is the devil on your shoulder, pushing you further down the neck of the bottle until you drown with him, soaked in brandy and a little too much cocaine.
Jelani Blackman's an up-and-coming rapper from West London, UK. His first EP, "1-4 EP" showed immense promise and development from a young artist. Now he's back to hit us with "5-8 EP". He's coming more personally, tackling issues like heartbreak, success, and the state of the London rap scene - and his role in it.
Play the album and you're dropped into "Not You", starting with a gentle, hazy guitar riff and quickly blowing up any facade of gentleness as we're hit with a fat kick and these lines:
"She don't want my love but she do want my money/
Well, I do have enough but you can't have any (GO ON!)/
It's a cold, cold night every night in my city/
The broke die young and the rich die pretty (GO ON!)"
We're in Jelani's world. The ghastly rasp in his voice tells us he's not quite there and his wavering tone gives us the sense that he's not quite stable. The driving beat picks us up and carries us with him, deeper. Dense synths fly by the wayside like street lights out of a car window, enveloping us and giving a sense of warmth against the cold lyrics. We reach the chorus:
"I always tell them it's me, not you/ (It's too true)
'Cause I'm always thinkin' 'bout me not you/ (God like, God like)
How could I be the one you know?/
And I'm always thinkin' bout me not you? (God like)"
Jelani is unapologetic with his past, a theme that plays throughout the album. We're here to observe a man on a mission toward fame, success, and recognition of his incredible musical talents. Nothing more. The beat switches and Jelani drops into the bass kicks and seems to conduct the hits with his flow. His voice staging is split and it feels as though he's everywhere, hiding in the darkness.
Enter "One More Time". Here's Jelani's closest attempt at reconciliation:
"When it was, you and me we were lost in it./
Hazy days we were lost in it/ (Yeah)
Now it's, you and him and I'm not jealous/ (I'm not jealous)
But I'm not finished, I'm not finished"
The beat slows down from "Not You", and Jelani's raspy voice becomes forefront. He's sitting next to us in the car now, vulnerable. He'll never admit that he was hurt, he's too big for that. But through the cracks in his voice we can tell that he's struggling to maintain the mysterious machismo. The dark synths break and give us a gentle, minor melody backed by the same relentless drums:
"Is it this that you wanted/ (Now)
Face it one more time/
Us/
Face it one more time"
Jelani, heartbroken, is calling out angrily. Too strong to break, he's calling to his pain for empathy. We're given the melodic guitar that's been gone since the beginning of "Not You" to lull us into this earnest Jelani until the beat drops down and he's riding into a quicker and quicker flow. We'll see cracks in the armor and bits of Jelani's pain throughout the rest of the song as he returns to the intro chorus, with a slight change:
"When it was, you and me we were lost in it/
Lazy days as the light flickers/
Now it's you and him and I'm not jealous/
I'm not jealous/
But I know you girl, and you're not finished/
You know me girl, I'm not running"
Break into Follow's eerie strings. Jelani's back on top, armor fully repaired.
"Follow, Follow/
Dem mans there just follow, follow/
Hell no, Hell no/
I could never do that, follow follow"
The beats that have accompanied Jelani on "Not You" and "One More Time" are gone, trading the deep timpani hits for a tight, stiff electronic snare and kick. Stripped down, the clever production pieces - reversed hi-hat hits, chopping and screwing of vocal samples and the filters over Jelani's gruff voice come to the fore. It's here, over anywhere else on the album that we get to admire the depth of the accompanying beats. The rest of "Follow" comes to us through flow changes and Jelani discussing his lack of patience for a scene for which he is a reluctant rising hero. There's no doubt about it, Jelani's bringing something new to the London scene, accompanied by some of the New Gen movement.
"Try", the last track on the album.
"Disposable/
But I'm terrible"
Jelani is reckoning with the ghost of who he's becoming: "unwearable/ like the mask we try to fake." We see him struggling with losing who he feels he actually is in the world of fame and the public persona he needs to keep to grow the "Jelani Blackman" brand. This kind of honesty is rare, especially from people whose career rests on this current moment of providing to his fans what they want - for Jelani that's killer beats and a grimey flow. This is Jelani without his armor, picked up by his confidant at the end of the night from the club where we've been reduced to babbling drunks. The gentle, hazy piano synths give us some hope of redemption. The haze of the ambient synths is so thick that it's enveloping everything, the drums being behind the synths for the first time on the album.
Jelani's second EP gives us a taste of the artist he wants to become. He gained wide recognition - including from Vice's Noisey - for his last few works. With a year-long wait for new music, he needed to come out strong and hard to regain that attention in a fast-paced scene and reclaim his spot as Grime's Golden Boy to watch. He came back, and came back hard. The lyrics on this album aren't going to thrill the most metaphorically-minded listeners. They're relatively simple, but he says only what needs to be said and nothing more. That kind of restraint earns him points in my book.
Lyrics: 3/5
Jelani's production, however, is spot-on. Even within the burgeoning "New Age" grime movement, very few rappers can touch the sound that he's creating. This hazy, dark vibe is a world that only Jelani lives. It may be his voice, it may be his beats, or it may be a combination, but no other rapper can consistently give me chills, put me on edge, and get me to relax all at once.
Production: 5/5
I'm excited to see where Jelani takes us next as he'll soon need to break the formula of what's working for him into its constituent pieces and give us something new. Here's an artist to watch.
