Next Wave / / 28 · 01 · 2021
If anyone is closing 2020 on a high note, it s South East London s answer to Lauryn Hill,
ENNY. Building a legacy birthed from the love and support of her community, the rapper and singer s come-up has been more than pleasurable to watch.
Signed to Jorja Smith s FAMM label, her latest single âPeng Black Girlsâ, which also features Amia Brave is an empowering ode to Black women, celebrating the beauty of Black womanhood and more. âThere s peng black girls in my area code / Dark skin, light skin, medium tone / Permed tings, braids, got minis afros / Thick lips got hips some of us don t / Big nose contour some of us won t / Never wanna put us in the media bro,â she raps, commemorating the skin, hair, facial and body characteristics often disregarded by society.
Jorja Smith performs at Glastonbury festival 2019. CREDIT: Jim Dyson/Getty Images
Jorja Smith is hosting a new BBC Radio 3 show that aims to soothe listeners and provide escape through music.
The singer’s programme, titled ‘Tearjerker’, is a 12-part series that launched its first two episodes on Saturday night (January 16). The first one-hour part is described as “string-inspired music that just catches you”, and the second is a collection of Smith’s favourite piano pieces. You can listen to the series on BBC Sounds.
Episode one “focuses on Jorja’s favourite string-inspired music, including tracks from Kano, Laura Mvula and Sade. She says they are tracks that make her feel ‘safe’, where ‘silky vocals’ take her to new, more comforting places”.
Predicting the names who will matter.
The pandemic has changed the way we look at new music.
With touring - largely - off the cards, artists have been forced to shift the manner in which they operate, finding fresh ways to connect with their audience.
As these pathways have become more splintered, convoluted, and difficult to follow, the speed at which music arrives on our screen, before dashing into the ether, seems to have multiplied.
It s an enormously difficult landscape to traverse, but it s also one fraught with opportunity - put simply, music truly does feel as though it exists at a crossroads.
25 Tracks That Defined 2020 It s been a journey.
If 2020 produced nothing else of positivity in our lives, it provided ample time to soak up new music.
With gigs, club nights, and festivals largely shuttered, our evenings were instead spent seeking out new artists, and re-visiting releases that might otherwise have passed us by.
When the Clash team began collating our Albums Of The Year list, it quickly became apparent just how fertile 2020 had really been - virtually every genre is represented, from underground jazz to nu metal via the burgeoning offshoots of UK rap.
Focussing on our favourite tracks, we decided to forego the ranking system, and simply present 25 favourite moments from this tumultuous year.