Name: JESHI
Nationality: British
Occupation: Rapper, vocalist, poet
Current Release: JESHI's Airbag Woke Me Up is out now.

If you enjoyed these thoughts by JESHI and would like to know more about his music, visit him on Instagram, and bandcamp.   



What were some of the musical experiences which planted a seed for your interest in hip hop?

I think being young and going through my mum's CD collection was some of my earliest.

I loved the music and the physicality of the CD going through the booklets and everything.

What does the term hip hop mean and stand for today, would you say?

I think it’s an attitude towards the art and towards life in the same was punk is.

I think they stand for the same thing: breaking the rules and doing things your way.

Hip hop has always been about a lot more than just music. For you personally, is hip hop a way of life – and if so, in which way?  

I’m able to do this because I’m completely obsessed with it. Music definitely affects and is present through everything in my life

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to creativity?

Collaboration is key.

Where do most of your inspirations to create come from – rather from internal  impulses or external ones? Which current social / political / ecological or other developments make you feel like you need to respond as an artist?  

I’ve always been really inspired by what I see around me. I think the social landscape subconsciously is always playing a big part in what I’m making.

Hip hop has always had an interesting relationship between honouring its roots and pushing the music forward. What does the balance between these two poles look like in your music?

I look back to a lot of music which inspires me a ridiculous amount, especially on this new album. But it’s really important for me not to be trying to imitate that and instead take parts of many things and turn them into something new.

What role do electronic tools and instruments, including AI, play for your creative process?

I haven’t dabbled with AI but electronic tools are everything.

I’d have never been able to make music without them. It’s opened up the playing field so everyone has an opportunity to be heard.

What are currently developments and directions in hip hop or hip-hop-adjacent communities which you personally find interesting?

I find the way everyone records now super interesting. The line-by-line punch-in method creates a lot of mad sounds and flows that feel really new.

How do you see the role of sampling in hip hop today?

I love sampling and the idea of reimagining and bending one thing into something else.

There has always been a close connection between hip hop and jazz. What role does improvisation play in your current creative process?

Yeah I think the free wheelingness of jazz and rap music do have a lot in common.

I just try to be as open as possible when creating and go where the music takes me.

It can sometimes seem as though, in hip hop, production is the main force of progress. Do you feel like there is still space for genuinely new ideas for lyrics and vocals as well? If so, what could these look like?

Yeah definitely there’s always room for new ideas. I think some of the rap stuff happening now feels completely new even compared to a few years back.

For many artists, life-changing musical experiences take place live. How do you see that yourself?

It’s really important to me. You work away behind closed doors and playing the music live is really the full circle moment you get to see it all connect.

How, would you say are your live performances and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?  

It was important for me on this album to create a body of work where all the songs are songs I’d want to perform on stage so yeah it was definitely influential on the process.

From Star Wars via The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to the Fifth Element, there have always been amusing sci fi ideas about how music could look like at some point. For a not too distant future, where do you personally see it going?

Hopefully going to a futuristic world where artists get paid.