Jim Legxacy is a younger artist with an outdated soul—that of a Tumblr-pilled millennial. Till lately, the British rapper, singer, and producer was a meticulous craftsman of audio moodboards, stitching collectively spidery emo guitar strains, Afrobeat drums, recognizable samples, and of-the-moment rhythms like Jersey membership. However as expert as he’s as a producer, it was his songcraft that made his tracks really feel extra important than mere nostalgia bait. As a vocalist, Legxacy used his spectacular vary—he can sing with a delicate flutter, rap ferociously, and do nearly all the things in between—to sketch out deeply private tales about homelessness, loss, and displacement. Inside the constraints of self-produced, two-minute bed room pop songs, Legxacy had discovered easy methods to make surprisingly wealthy, evocative music. On his XL debut, black british music (2025), he makes an attempt to interrupt out of the field he’s made for himself by bringing in outdoors producers and aiming for a extra polished, seamless sound.
Fortunately, he’s nonetheless letting the seams present. black british music options a few of Legxacy’s finest manufacturing and songwriting but; he’s starting to sound just like the second coming of cut-and-paste icon Jai Paul. Right here, Legxacy is at his finest when commanding tracks which might be propulsive and chaotic: Samples collide headfirst, drums snap with the power of fingers on pads, drops overpower all the things within the combine. “Father” is a radiant, trendy tackle chipmunk soul, whereby Legxacy sees the shortage of a male function mannequin as a path to companionship. He writes with a stunning economic system of phrases: “On the block, I used to be listening to Mitski.” “New David Bowie” shapeshifts from Bollywood banger to harpsichord rap to glittering pop, all within the area of simply over two minutes (few tracks right here exceed that size). “D.B.A.B” sounds claustrophobic however the lyrics reveal Legxacy’s humorousness: He positions himself as a pushover (“Don’t be a bitch/In case you wanna be a bitch, then that’s okay”) earlier than briefly interpolating Snow’s “Informer.” “Solar” reads like a summery Afropop quantity till you understand he’s invoking the rising of the solar as a way of navigating grief, in the future at a time. “3x,” which strips issues all the way down to an acoustic sound that recollects Younger Thug’s Punk, is extra direct. “Woman don’t hit my cellphone/I’d slightly be alone once more,” Legxacy moans on the refrain, earlier than Dave steps in to consolation him with a showstopping verse. “Instructed Jim, you already did your sister proud,” he huffs, acknowledging the passing of Legxacy’s sister in 2023.
