Jeshi doesn’t run away from fire; he runs with it. The East London artist is on a quest to feel alive in every sense. For him, feeling alive means being present in each experience, no matter how challenging. Jeshi, who has spent the last few years establishing himself as one of the most exciting voices of his generation, believes life and art are all about this: chaos. Rather than something to avoid, chaos is where great ideas are born. You can feel this ethos in Jeshi’s increasingly vital output. His music is audacious and unflinching, packed with punkish energy and charisma, as the 29-year-old reshapes the boundaries of UK rap. This approach shines through his early releases, such as 2017’s The World’s Spinning Too Fast EP and 2020’s swaggering BAD TASTE, and continues with his soul-baring 2022 debut album Universal Credit – an “era-defining” (as per The Guardian) portrayal of London life, social malaise, everyday struggles, and youthful abandon that highlights his evocative storytelling.
But never has this been more palpable than on Jeshi’s electrifying second album AIRBAG WOKE ME UP. It’s a collection of moment-capturing songs built to ignite reactions and start conversations. His scene-stealing performances worldwide clearly influence its live-wire sound, as Jeshi and his cohorts shift moods and tempos like kids let loose on funfair dodgems. “I want to make things that have intent and feel like statements,” Jeshi declares. His versatile voice is the thread that pulls everything together. “On Universal Credit, my voice was used in one way; on this, it’s used in ten,” he notes.
On YOU SNOOZE YOU LOSE, Jeshi recounts the real-life experience that inspired the album’s title over an instrumental reminiscent of a warm-up jam session. As a teenager, Jeshi crashed into a parked car after dozing off on the way home from a party. He and his friends had chosen to sleep in his car overnight, only to wake up with an airbag in his face, turning a “stupid story about stupid things you do when you’re young” into a metaphor for awakening and recalibrating—central themes throughout the album.
“I love artists where every album defines a new period of their life; that was the inspiration thematically. With the music, I wanted to make big-sounding songs,” adds Jeshi. Tracks like the amp-shattering DISCONNECT! and rave-ready BAD PARTS ARE MY FAVOURITE (where Jeshi coyly asks, “What’s life if you don’t dance with danger?”) illustrate this intent, while LOVE SONGS takes a daring step into romantic territory.
Before creating AIRBAG WOKE ME UP, which was written and recorded in 2023 mostly in East London, Paris, and LA, Jeshi contemplated the sound he wanted for his second album. He viewed Universal Credit and his experimental 2023 EP The Great Stink like an architect would: “‘What would I change? How can I build on this? How can I make it new and interesting?’”
Jeshi’s approach to music goes beyond sound; it’s about resetting expectations. He admires artists who defy conventions, drawing inspiration from The Prodigy, Portishead, Dizzee Rascal, and Massive Attack. You can hear this throughout: STUCK ON LOOP and OVER YOU evoke trip-hop’s moody atmospheres, while the frenetic SCUMBAG features a subtle sample of Dizzee’s Stand Up Tall amid reflections on righting wrongs and adolescent apathy. “A lot of the time, it’s not so much about the sound; I’m influenced by how people push things,” explains Jeshi, who also loves envelope-pushing visuals. Growing up in Walthamstow, he spent hours watching MTV, Channel U, and YouTube, passionate about the potential of British music from any genre or era. Lead single TOTAL 90, with its interpolation of Blur’s iconic Song 2, encapsulates the album’s core theme: reconciling his past with his present, contrasting his formative resilience with young adult discontent.
TOTAL 90 was created in a “mad house” in Paris with collaborators Elijah Waters, Fredwave, and Dom Valentino, who, alongside JD. REID and JONAH, contributed to the album’s production. STUCK ON LOOP emerged from the same trip after the group randomly played This World by Selah Sue from a record stack in the house. Waters and Fredwave, along with voices like rising rapper Sainté and vocalist LEILAH, add to the rich collage of voices on AIRBAG WOKE ME UP.
Jeshi’s experiences before and during the Universal Credit era were essential for this new album. In many ways, AIRBAG WOKE ME UP is like a sibling to Universal Credit – an album that solidified Jeshi’s reputation but also came with challenges, as he was often pigeonholed as a political artist. This perception was something he wanted to move away from in subsequent releases. “It was a self-reflective album about my position, where I tried to make light of it with humor,” he explains. Proud of the breakthrough project, which earned acclaim for both its inventive artwork and visuals (the Will Dohrn-directed 3210 won Best Independent Video at the 2022 AIM Independent Music Awards), Jeshi is now focused on what’s next.
AIRBAG WOKE ME UP explores what happens when you emerge from tough times and gain a new perspective on life. It’s ambitious and charged with renewed energy – chaotic, but in the best way. “In my head, this is the real arrival chapter,” Jeshi says. “The ‘I am here, I’ve arrived’ moment.”
