G’day mate. I hope you are well.

I know you have been holding your breath with frantic anticipation for this week’s New Music post and I am thrilled to announce that this week’s offering is the most impressive so far. There are, in fact, so many noteworthy tracks that it is too much to condense into a single blog post. As a result, I will be focusing on my favourite ‘Track of the Week’ and providing a close-up inspection of what makes it so great. In the meantime, you can listen to the best tracks from the week on the latest playlist ‘Nmf3’ by following grovesroad on Spotify. This week, we have features from Jorja Smith, Normani, Ross From Friends and a superb collaboration between Swae Lee and Drake. I am really impressed by the high quality of the playlist and I recommend that you go and listen to it straight away!

Headie To Number One

It has been an impossible task to pick my favourite track this week. In the form of a metaphor: I find myself in La Cantina, an exceptional Spanish Restaurant located in Heaton Moor, a suburb close in proximity to Manchester. I have ordered a dozen tapas dishes from the menu: Ham and Chicken Croquets; Prawns; Muscles; Chorizo; Lamb; Beef; Chicken – all cooked in a delicious red wine, white wine or tomato sauce. The waiter returns to the table to clear the empty plates – Can I get you anything else? – my stomach is full, but the food is so delicious that I can make room for one more dish. But which plate do I pick? Which plate left me wanting more? I pick the Croquets because I have a taste for more.

If Croquets were a track then it would be entitled Both and its creator would by Headie One, a seasoned Drill Rapper whose prominence in the UK Rap scene has increasingly grown with recent mainstream success through collaborations with Dave and Skepta. Headie One is thought to have first experienced commercial success from his early 2019 collaboration with Dave that peaked at no.6 in the UK chart. A relatively unknown artist charting at no.6 is notable, and it is more significant because it is the highest charting Drill track ever.

Drill is a prominent genre in UK Rap and its origins are disputed. Wikipedia claims that it began in Chicago, whilst UK Drill artists such as AM and Skengdo advise that its roots are in London – created organically from culture. It is characteristically dark in tone, and it discusses themes that are relevant to the speaker. Often, the lyrics will highlight violence, drugs and bad behaviour. This, as in all art, expresses elements of life in a structured and creative way. But there are commentators who have blurred the art/life boundary and consider Drill music to be directly influential in creating crime. Cressida Dick, the Commissioner of the Met Police, called on YouTube to remove videos that glamorised or incited violence and largely implied that Drill music is the biggest perpetrator.

In Art and Literary history, establishment commentators have been critical for centuries of artwork deemed to be dangerous and threatening to cultural values and behaviour. However, the assault on Drill and the artist’s freedom of expression coincides with a prevalent culture of prejudice towards Rap and Hip/Hop music that has been inherent as part of music discourse throughout the latter half of the 20^th century and today. Artists, despite of these obstacles, continue to persist and achieve monumental success. Skepta’s Mercury Prize award for Konnichiwa, Stormzy’s headline performance at Glastonbury and Dave’s No.1 track with Freaky Friday, are all important milestones in UK Rap history and Headie One’s rise to prominence is likewise significant for UK Drill.  

Prominent Drill artists such as 67, AM and Unknown T are popular on Streaming platforms but are yet to experience mass-exposure in popular culture. Their content and tone are deemed to be too inaccessible for the wider audience which is why they are currently absent during daytime radio. However, artists such as Aitch, MIST, Dave, Young T & Bugsey all feature prominently in the mainstream today, despite sharing similarly graphic and adult content. Tracks such as Taste, Strike A Pose and So High have been produced with mainstream success in mind, the production is more upbeat and lighter than pure Drill or Rap music and the high-pitched vocals allow the tracks to fit seamlessly in the playlist alongside Ariana Grande or Ed Sheeran.

Headie One, in comparison, retains his deep-voiced, Drill-inspired vocals on his new single Both. However, he has left the dark and violent lyrics behind with only passing and subtle references to drugs. Moreover, he has collaborated with producer PJ Beats who has sampled an already successful track, Free by Ultra Nate for Headie One to rap above. PJ Beats has introduced elements from Trap music to make Free a suitable song to feature verses over. This combination channels Drill music into a form that is easily accessible for mainstream listeners.

Headie One’s purveyance of the Drill and Trap scene unearths a fresh, hybrid genre that will generate positive success for both his future career as well as the future of Drill music in its entirety. Both, challenges negative assumptions about Drill music and will earn the genre a greater level of appreciation from Music Journalists and Media Commentators alike. Judging by the success of 18Hunna and more recent collaboration with Skepta in the track Back To Basics, I expect Both to excel and continue Headie One’s ascent to the top. As he states in his newest track, it would seem that Headie One agrees:

Now they say that I’m the king of drill, trap, rap, I’m doing it all.