Jeshi

Social media has changed the way we interact with our favourite artists. More than just musicians, they’re now personalities, people we can interact with on the daily. Now more than ever we’re aware that musicians are pretty normal people, they just have a weird job. Every week we get to know one of our favourite SoundCloud heroes, internet dating style, in our new column, Internet Crush.

 

East London’s Jeshi makes rap music that defies categorisation. From one track to the next his flow and delivery can change completely. One minute he’s weaving complex bars over a dusty, half-formed trap beat and the next he’s slowed things down completely, detachedly recalling stories of parties and girls over skittish, paranoid production.

 

His new EP The World’s Spinning Too Fast deals in both. Recorded between London and Marrakech with help from the likes of Mura Masa and Prince 85, it’s a creeping, uncompromised slice of East London ruminations that sits somewhere between the apocalyptic grit of slowthai and brooding ambivalence of King Krule. Jeshi is this week’s Internet Crush.

The idea for your new EP blossomed in Marrakech, where’s your favourite place in the city?
Jardin Majorelle gardens are super zenned out; I could spend a lot of time there.

It was recorded in some unlikely places.

 

Whose kitchen did you record in?
I’ve always just recorded wherever I can. The majority of the time I’m using a really humble setup, so it’s relatively easy to set up shop anywhere. I recorded ‘RUSH’ in my girlfriend’s kitchen.

 

Do you think the location you recorded each track has an impact on how it sounds?
100%. Everything matters. The location, who’s in that room at the time, what I just ate, what’s on TV – it all matters. ‘Wedding Gown’ wouldn’t sound the way that it does if I wasn’t working on it between sitting in the apartment in Marrakech dying from the heat and taking breaks in the pool, chain-drinking mint tea and then going back to it.

 

Who do you roll with?
Not a lot of people to be fair, I try and keep myself to myself most the time – I have some great friends though.

 

Describe your sound in just a sentence:
Fucked.

 

Favourite colour:
Green has always been my colour.

 

Favourite movie:
Casino.

 

Last book you read:
Prodigy from Mobb Deep’s autobiography that my friend Daniel gave me, great read.

First single/album you ever bought?
It was either Justin Timberlake – Justified or 50 Cent – Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, both of which I still play heavily to this day.

 

First band/act you ever went to see live?
I’d probably seen other’s prior, but the first live experience that really resonated was seeing Jay-Z and Kanye play together at this free festival in 2012 for the Olympics.

 

Earliest memory?
Wheatus – ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ video.

 

What do you do in your spare time?
When I can, I try to get out of this city and get my head clear. Paris has been great for that.

 

Are you a morning or evening person?
Night time for sure.

 

First song you ever wrote?
Probably an 8-bar relay track with my friends over a Stimpy and Scruface instrumental.

 

Favourite song of your own?
The bonus track ‘Get Rich Flow’ on The ‘Worlds Spinning Too Fast’ always makes me smile.

 

Favourite lyric?
“My lady waited on the counter in a towel, while I sing a Rick James banger in the shower…”