Jords is smashing glass ceilings
The Croydon rapper is ready for the world to stop, look and listen to what he has to say. Ahead of his forthcoming album, Jords talks to Yolanthe Fawehinmi about being put in a box and his many sides
Jords talking to Yolanthe Fawehinmi at AIP Studios | CREDIT: Seyi Aleshe
“Hmmm,” ponders Jords. “Perfectionism…” At this, the Croydon rapper and songwriter lets out a soft chuckle. He’s sat across me, wearing a black crewneck Daily Paper tracksuit, carefully wrapping and unwrapping his dark one-size-fits-all silky durag around his index finger. “If you leave something in my lap, I’m going to play with it. Just like if you leave me with songs, I’m going to tweak, tweak, and tweak,” the 28-year-old says. “I think there is beauty in accidents, not sticking to the plan and discovering something new.” It’s why there are three different versions of his forthcoming album.
“I think there is beauty in accidents, not sticking to the plan and discovering something new.”
But for this recovering perfectionist, it’s not really finished until it’s out. “I’d even say it’s not finished until I go on tour, where I can really communicate what I see in my head as an artist. Kendrick Lamar is a good example of this.”
The co-founder of Pickni Uniforms, an organisation teaming up with local businesses to provide free school uniforms, goes silent when considering how proud he is of his work, while you sit and watch him process his thoughts in what appears to almost be a reckoning, before his words tumble out, sometimes perfectly formed, sometimes not.
Jords and Yolanthe Fawehinmi at AIP Studios | CREDIT: Seyi Aleshe
“Yeah. I was going to say no,” he admits. “At school, I was always at the top of the class, and I felt almost embarrassed. So I pretended to not be as smart, so I could fit in with the cool kids. Whereas now, I’m learning to really shout about myself. I’m good, I’m where I’m meant to be, and everything that is happening is happening, and I should be proud of myself for it. It’s a complex I’m [still] working through, that keeps me motivated and grinding.”
Jordan Edward-Wilks — his real name — didn’t know this was what he wanted to do as a career. When he was in Year 9, his brother Ben bought him a microphone and he started rapping for fun with other students from Harris Academy in the Croydon area. But I went to secondary school with Jords and even sat next to him in Religious Studies, and had no idea about his musical prowess.
Jords and Yolanthe Fawehinmi at AIP Studios | CREDIT: Seyi Aleshe
“I didn’t really feel like a writer [at the time], and I still don’t think I do. I just write. I don’t really feel like a rapper, I just rap. I’m just Jordan. It’s the same me that can come up with Pickni Uniforms and write a rap song. If I feel like singing, I’ll sing. If I feel like making an album that’s only piano [instrumentals]. I’ll do that as well. I don’t really feel tied by any label or box. Everything is all-encompassing.”
People fell in love with Jords when he released his debut mixtape Means To An End in 2016 and the 10-track project and film, Almost An Adult, four years later. In 2019, he produced the song of the summer Glide. Though he believes his soulful voice didn’t always find a voice in the grime world, he proved himself wrong in his latest single, Drill vs Grime, featuring Lil Sykes. But his creative response to the murder of George Floyd in his single Black & Ready proved his depth and his ability to voice the emotions of the Black British community. But has it been as difficult navigating the music industry as a Black man?
Jords at the George Floyd protest in 2020 | CREDIT: Jords
“No hurdle in the music industry is bigger than any hurdle I’ve had to face when I was growing up,” he says whilst fixing the four dreadlocked bangs he had twisted a couple of days after meeting British rapper, singer and songwriter Wretch 32, which, for him, was like meeting Mufasa from The Lion King. “The industry is not that different to the roads. It's just that the risk and threat level was probably lower. So there isn’t really much to be scared of.
“No hurdle in the music industry is bigger than any hurdle I’ve had to face when I was growing up.”
“There’s a line on the album that says ‘Caged birds got out the room with the glass ceiling / But smashing through the glass does its damage’. Being a caged bird singing in a room with a glass ceiling can be very annoying sometimes when your song is unique to you, and a lot of people are trying to impose their impression of it. But if you want someone to bloom, you have to let them be the best version of themselves, not what you think is the best version of them.”
“If you want someone to bloom, you have to let them be the best version of themselves, not what you think is the best version of them.”
Working through this complex has been heavy at times for Jords, especially when he’s trying to enjoy the music-making process. It’s why he disappeared to Milton Keynes to “ignore the noise” and found a studio there — with no start or end date — to create the album everyone is so patiently yet eagerly waiting on. Where’s the album, Jords?
Listen to our full conversation in the latest episode of the Black Prose Podcast here.