Dublin rapper JyellowL aka Jean-Luc Uddoh has returned with his new single ‘See Me Finish’, produced by Nigeria’s Tee-Y mix. This follows his critically acclaimed debut album ‘2020 D|vision’, which was nominated for Irish album of the year 2020 at the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Awards and debuted at number 2 on the official iTunes album charts as well as number 1 in the hip hop category.
I caught up with the artist to discuss the new single, his upcoming EP’s and tour, his suave fashion sense, and how his collaboration with Tee-Y mix came about.
“I was in Lagos, and I met a couple of people who introduced me to a couple of people. One of them was Tee-Y mix. He asked me to come down to the studio for a couple of sessions so we did two sessions probably, two days back to back and we just got along really well. He’s Tee-Y mix, obviously he’s a legend. He’s produced some of my favourite songs from like Davido,Tiwa Savage and M.I. I told him that I wanted to fuse what I was doing with what he does, and the best way to do that, and make it a new musical direction and he just instantly inspired me. So, yeah, that’s where ‘See Me Finish’ came from.”
‘See Me Finish’ sounds so effortless and chill as JyellowL and Tee-Y mix blend their musical talents to create a vibrant backdrop filled with summer beats and lush melodies.
“It sounds effortless yeah, but I actually wrote the whole thing in that session, in the first session. I think between writing and recording we must have spent about four hours or so. Tee-Y is a beast though so he mixes as well in that same session. I’m pretty sure he mastered in that session as well so yeah we did everything in the four hours so it was pretty cool.”
“I hate demos, I can’t stand making demos. So, I was just happy he had the same mindset of, like, anything we did today let’s just make it the final product, or at least get everything you need to do and I’ll do the rest on the mixing front. So yeah, we’re on the same page in that respect so I was happy about that.”
JyellowL has become known for his witty lyrics and smooth melodies. He once again matches clever lyrics with irresistible melodies within ‘See Me Finish’ to create an enjoyable listening experience filled with vivid storytelling that keeps you hanging on to every word.
“Yeah, I definitely do. I guess it’s something that I’ve trained myself to do I’ve trained myself on my delivery, so it may not take as much time now to say something in that lyrical manner, as it would have before. So yeah I do that purposefully.”
‘See Me Finish’ is a taste of the sound he is creating for his upcoming series of EP’s ‘shades of yellow’ and JyellowL explained what we can expect from these EP’s
“You can expect a new musical direction. ‘See Me Finish’ was a taster for what’s to come but the real thing with ‘shades of yellow’ is that it’s not just one project. It’s a series of EP’s, that will be different shades of yellow. I thought it was a really nice way for me to express my versatility. I want people to get accustomed to me sounding different ways, but still be comfortable knowing that ‘oh that’s still JyellowL, just in a different musical direction or sound’ but it’s still JyellowL. I want people to be accustomed to that, because I make so many different types of music, and it’s always an issue of I want to release this today but then I want to release this tomorrow and it’s completely different. And everyone’s like, yeah, but, where’s the coherence. I just want to throw everything out – I don’t make one type of music, the same way I don’t listen to one type of music.”
JyellowL is an ambitious artist who is constantly evolving and we discussed how he approaches keeping his sound fresh. I wondered if he is always thinking ahead and moving towards future goals or if he lives in the moment and lets his sound ebb and flow with his emotions.
“I just mostly live in the moment. It’s a hard thing to explain because honestly, I make some random music and I get randomly inspired. So for me it’s not even an evolution. It may seem like an evolution because of the timeframes in which those songs get released, but, I’ll be making them in the background anyway. So for me, I’m just being my whole artistic self when I’m allowed to be in studios, when I’m writing, that kind of thing”
JyellowL has recently become the face of Virgin Media’s ‘Up Your Speed Game’ 1Gig broadband campaign, a deal which saw the multinational company commission him to pen a track, ’Pick Up the Pace’ specially for the campaign and boy! did JyellowL take the task in his stride. His lyrics and rap are fluid and fast as he swiftly spits out puns with ease, mirroring the theme of their fastest broadband campaign.
“Yeah they pretty much gave me creative freedom within certain parameters. I had to come up with a lot of broadband puns and metaphors and euphemisms. It was really cool for me though, but the thing that I really enjoyed about that campaign was the fact that everyone was aware that it had to sound like something I’d release anyway… it has to sound like JyellowL, and it has to be in a way that feels natural to me and they were completely supportive of that. So yeah that was a lot of fun. It was definitely a lot of fun because it felt like a writing drill for me. I think I wrote the track, as soon as we confirmed everything, say, in the afternoon we signed off on everything or whatever, I think I wrote the track, that evening, sent it off to them in the morning like one am or two am in the morning and then, they signed off on the lyrics and that was that, recorded it and everything”
Packing in such brisk lyrics for recording is an achievement in itself but what about performing it live where you can’t make any mistakes or stumble. We discussed the possibility and fear of forgetting such rapid and dense lyrical content while performing live.
“It’s muscle memory. The more I do it, the more my tongue gets used to keeping up with the lyrics in my mind, so yes muscle memory.”
JyellowL has some shows coming up in October. This is such an exciting prospect for both JyellowL and his fans as he never got to tour his acclaimed debut album ‘2020 D|vision’ due to the pandemic, so these shows will be an extra special celebration for everyone involved.
“I can’t wait. I really can’t wait, I think the tour has been rescheduled multiple times. I think it’s looking like its definitely going ahead now, so I’m excited for that. I’m very very happy, because, it was meant to be the album tour. But then the album’s nearly a year old now, and we still haven’t toured it so yeah I’m excited for that. Now it’s just going to be a JyellowL tour I can’t even say it’s an album tour anymore, because there’s new music to perform.”
“I’m just looking forward to celebrating this freedom with real people…it’s just gonna be such an emotional experience and I’m looking forward to it”
JyellowL has worked hard to establish himself as a musical force to be reckoned with. He is a talented artist who alongside others is making huge strides to put Irish hip hop on the map. He told me what advice he would give a budding artist.
“The best advice I ever got, was to be patient and persistent not persistent and patient and know the difference. That’s something that I still live and abide by, you know, I just work by myself, regardless of what it looks like right now, when the weather’s fair when it’s not. I just stay working, stay improving, put my time in regardless and I’m aware that there’s delay gratification, with whatever work that I put in. That’s the advice that I live by, so I guess that’s the advice I give someone else.”
JyellowL’s style and how he presents himself is very suave and sharp. He explained to me the importance of branding and being true to your style.
“I want to say yes because branding is always important in business in general, branding and packaging yes, however, when it comes to a personal brand I’m of the opinion, and I mean, my opinion is not gospel but I’m of the opinion that you should represent yourself because otherwise, eventually, it will be just too hard to keep up an appearance that’s not yours. For instance when I do my shoots or whatever, I wear what I would wear normally, and I’m pretty big on my fashion. Most of the time, I’m casual and I think that comes across in my shoots and stuff and therefore it allows me to stay on brand and it’s easy for me to stay on brand because that’s my personal appearance.”
‘See Me Finish’ is a vibrant, well-crafted tune that provides an exciting glimpse into the many facets of JyellowL’s sound. His ambition, eloquent songwriting and diverse musicianship makes him an artist to get excited about. I’m looking forward to the ‘shades of yellow’ releases. If ‘See Me Finish’ is anything to go by they will be richly textured, musically lush and a joy to listen to again and again.
Stream ‘See Me Finish’ below
Author: Danu
