Jelani Blackman Deals With Personal Demons In ‘Brixton’

“Born in a place that don’t know me, one half of the roots of my family tree”

Jelani Blackman has been on the music scene since 2014 when he released the critically-acclaimed dark anthem ‘Twenty//Three’ which soon racked up over 3 million Spotify streams. It was soon followed up by a collaboration with Brian Eno and duo Sylas for the single ‘Layer’.

Jelani proves his innovation for the new music video for ‘Brixton’ which was directed by Jim Pilling, who has previously worked with the likes of Hypebeast, Adidas and Vogue. The visuals reiterate the personal themes of the track by portraying close-up shots of a pensive-looking Jelani. The

He explains the meaning behind the track, “Brixton is about being separated from my dad and the area he’s from at two years old, but still feeling connected to it because I spent the beginning of my life there and it’s where his family first came to from Barbados,” Jelani continues, “It was a hard song for me to write, and it took a lot of dealing with personal demons to be able to confront it as an issue. I never wanted to accept that I’d gone through that stereotypical black male experience of growing up without their dad.”

‘Brixton’ is Jelani’s second release of 2019 and was premiered by Annie Mac on her BBC Radio 1 show. It follows on from the acclaimed ‘Nobody’s Son’, which was crowned BBC Radio 1 ‘Tune of the Week’, Annie Mac’s ‘Tune of the Week’ and BBC Radio1Xtra ‘Introducing Track of the Week’.