“Where Has Your Heart Gone” by J Appiah

His third single of the year, “Where Has Your Heart Gone” and its accompanying music video sees J Appiah blend the atmospheres of 90s Britpop with a modern sensibility that comes straight from the heart of Hackney itself.

It’s a fitting reflection of J Appiah’s lifelong, blood-deep connection to the streets of East London. He’s a writer of love songs, but not necessarily about people – instead, they’re a reflection of the deep relationships we build with the environment around us and the way that environment naturally talks back. It’s that dialogue that forms the foundation of J Appiah’s music, especially in new single, “Where Has Your Heart Gone”.

His latest music video, directed by Lloyd Wakefield, uses a fish-eye camera lens to pay homage to the filming techniques pioneered by J Appiah’s favourite 90s rap groups and celebrates the cathartic power of live music with its depiction of a wild warehouse performance that threatens, without ever boiling over, to become destructive.

In J Appiah’s music, the old and the new fuse together to create something perfectly in between. It’s a perfect tribute to the musicians that made him and a great guide to the future.