Fresh Music Friday: Hoodzy, LEX, Jesswar

Fresh Music Friday is brought to you this week by Zoe Biggs, Fynn Ferdinands, and Kat Porritt-Fraser as they delve into the newest tracks from east coast legends Hoodzy, LEX, and Jesswar.

Alone – Hoodzy

Zoe: This track is so much fun and the hook – “Yeah see I don’t wanna be alone/ but if I have to then I will” – immediately draws you in and I want to be shouting it at a live show ASAP. Combining elements of hip-hop, UK grime and a bit of alt-rock with the crunchy, distorted guitar riff, Hoodzy brings ENERGY on this track that speaks to her 7 years in the industry already despite being just 20 years old. Hoodzy is an unapologetic artist and this is an unapologetic track – will definitely be getting around more of her music.

Kat: This is officially my new getting out of bed song. So energetic, relatable, satisfying, hits my brain in all the right spots. The production has lovely variety and stays consistently interesting as well! Nice!

Fynn: Hoodzy’s latest tune is a very fun upbeat track that doesn’t take itself too seriously. ‘Alone’ is an exciting departure from Hoodzy’s hip hop and house sounds, successfully experimenting with rap rock. As always, Hoodzy’s signature kiwi vocals are wonderfully unique and really shine through on this track.

Feel What I’m Feeling – LEX

Kat: God I love me some revenge pop!!! Catchy and dancey with some delicious drums, everything pop should be. And stunning control and tonality in the vocals too.

Fynn: LEX’s latest brooding revenge song is almost nostalgic, reminiscent of a period of 2010s dark pop. This new single is LEX at her most angst. With a scream-able chorus, ‘Feel What I’m Feeling’ is certainly a girl boss anthem. It’s just hard to unsee how the cover artwork looks like the GigaChad meme.

Zoe: This track starts off strong with a cool harmonic piano flourish, and I would have loved for this sort of experimental touch to occur more throughout the song’s production. Despite this, LEX brings powerful vocals and has written a really catchy melody. There’s a dark feminine, don’t-mess-with-me attitude to LEX’s vision and lyrics, and I could definitely hear this being playing on the radio.

WAVES – Jesswar

Fynn: WAVES stands out as a banger on Jesswar’s brilliant new album ‘LIFE’S SHORT, LIVE BIG (Mixtape)’. Jesswar is a great artist and this track simply exemplifies that. Try to convince me that isn’t an Iron Man repulsor sound at 1:56.

Zoe: Prior to releasing their debut mixtape ‘Life’s Short, Live Big’, Jesswar took The Music through each track. They described the verses on WAVES as feeing “like a dirty page”, and the process of writing somewhat akin to therapy. This absolutely comes through when listening to the final track – the lyrics are honest and gritty, and Jesswar’s flow hits hard through the trippy electronic production. While the heavy repetition of the chords throughout the track isn’t for me, I know I’m going to keep coming back again and again. There’s something about Jesswar’s tone that’s kind of comforting in its bluntness and sincerity.

Kat: The production didn’t quite hit the spot for me with this one but very much love their voice and the track moves along structurally really nicely. Also loving the queer rep in all these songs, there really is no better feeling than listening to queer people being their biggest selves!