Choice Music Prize nominated rapper JyellowL is back with new single See Me Finish a track which taps into his Nigerian heritage. JyellowL has always held a strong interest in African music and has previously incorporated elements of it into his music but a prolonged stay in Nigeria over Christmas saw him immersed in the culture like never before. And See Me Finish is the first glimpse of this journey of discovery.
“I ended up being there until February with the Covid restrictions,” he explains. “I had to just tap into the scene there, such a thriving scene, amazing artists and producers. I got a completely different wave of inspiration, and I created a tonne of music and See Me Finish is the first taster of that JyellowL sound.”
Following his own bout of Covid, JyellowL found himself with lots of time on his hands as flights were cancelled and he used this time to embed himself in the local music scene.
“I decided if I’m gonna be stuck here I might as well make it productive, so I started studio hopping.” This eventually led to JyellowL travelling to Lagos and using his new contacts to tap-in to the scene in the capital.
See Me Finish sees JyellowL taking a colloquial Nigerian phrase and utilising it to weave a story about his own life.
“The song is about an experience I had a while back there’s a saying in Nigeria ‘See Finnish’ It means I’ve made myself too accessible to this person, I have over familiarized myself to the point that they are now taking me for granted.”
Jyellowl’s upcoming Shades of yellow EP will see the Dublin rapper continue to explore his heritage
“This is music that I have always made, but never released. To people who hear my unreleased stuff it wouldn’t come as a surprise to them but to people who only know the music I’ve released… it might come as a surprise to people, hopefully a pleasant one I’m excited to see how it goes.”
“I have enough songs to release about 2 to 3 albums,” says Jyellowl. “People have probably seen me hash tagging #shadesofyellow. The whole point of it is to show that there’s different shades of yellow there’s different branches, I’m multifaceted, there’s different sides to me I can make different types of music, so it speaks to my versatility and my diversity as an artist.
This particular Shades of Yellow EP is one shade of me, but one of many. I want to familiarize people with that JyellowL and I want to get to the point where I can release any type of music and nobody will be able to say this isn’t what he usually does. I want there to be a point where people are like JyellowL does everything.
Of the EP which drops later this year JyellowL states: “There’s definitely something there for people who like to hear me rap for people who like to hear me sing, people who like when I’m talking about conscious stuff and people who prefer me when I’m talking about light hearted stuff there’s something there for everyone and I want everyone to know that whatever it is they like about me transcends a specific style of music, they can get all of those things that they like about me across any genre of music that I decide to tap into.”
Check out See Me Finish below. Jyellowl plays Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Belfast this October – details below. Read our recent interview with JyellowL here
LIVE DATES:
Saturday, 9th October 2021 – Limelight 2, Belfast
Thursday, 14th October 2021 – Roisin Dubh, Galway
Saturday, 16th October 2021 – Opium, Dublin
Friday m 22nd October 2021 – Kasbah Social Club, Limerick
Tickets here