Merging the worlds of rap, electronic, indie and infectious pop refrains, The Heart of It is an intoxicating alchemy of all the vast worlds Jelani Blackman has inhabited in his eye-catching rise. Filled with dark, rumbling tensions and soaring bursts of hope, Jelani’s debut album announces his latest arrival, with the assurance of an exciting fully-formed voice feeling at home in his singular lane, sights firmly set on breakthrough.

Raised in West London, schooled in South West and North and is now based in East, it’s safe to say London’s cultural melting pot is an endless source for the chameleonic talent. “It’s everything,” he says of the city. “It’s where I started making music, writing lyrics… I hope people come away from this with a better sense of who I am,” says Jelani Blackman, and he means that both sonically and literally. “Honestly, I’m a massive introvert and it doesn’t come naturally to me to share myself, it took a long time for me to be able to transfer my writing from being general and abstract to specific and personal.”

Having started playing the saxophone at age 9 and writing his first bars as a teenager growing up in Ladbroke Grove, music has been a constant in his life. Releasing EPs and mixtapes since 2016, over the years Blackman has gone on to collaborate with the likes of Fred Gibson (Fred Again), Gorillaz, Wolf Alice, Burna Boy, Ghetts and Fraser T. Smith, sharpening his lyrical toolkit and wide-ranging, fluid sonic approach while making a name for himself as one of the most original voices in a burgeoning UK scene, and of course going viral on COLORS. “I’ve taken my time and that’s very lucky. I’ve been able to do things in my own way, at my own pace and work with incredible people still.” Fully independent and primed to release his debut album, The Heart of It, Jelani’s fuelled by the constant growth of his journey. “People sometimes say that I’m underrated and I think that’s fine, but I think this is my best music.”

The title delivers on its promise, with the project exploring a whole range of topics at the core of Jelani’s world - the things that matter to him the most. “The Heart of It is what drives me, what gives me passion to communicate the stuff that I want to communicate and also to feel the things that I feel,” he says. Lead single ‘When You Feel It’ captures that spark-like feeling, Jelani’s flow mimicking a pressure-cooker as it ramps up against the ominous electric guitars, into the catharsis of his breathy falsetto. “It really crystallised what it was to me, when you feel the thing that motivates you, whether that’s food or music or love or frustration, whatever it is, when it triggers that emotion in you, that’s really what I’m touching on throughout. That thing that brings out the realest emotions inside you.”