J Hus: What's With All The Fuss?

We investigate the current hype surrounding the UK rapper and give a few pointers on how he can make it last.

J Hus

J Hus has got it all to play for. The unsigned Newham MC has gone from who? to most-likely-to in the space of half a year and a handful of YouTube uploads. He's already scored over a million YouTube and two million SoundCloud plays for "Dem Boy Paigon"—not bad for a track that hasn't been properly released yet—while the follow-up, "Lean & Bop", is sitting on just shy of 800,000 reloads; to put that in context, in one month, it's had more plays than Krept & Konan's Rick Ross-assisted "Certified" has managed in three. So, it's fair to say that the streets are feeling J Hus. The question is: can it last? 

Fact is, the roll call of UK rappers who have flopped after early hype is longer than Drake's list of people he doesn't want to be friends with. There have been untold reasons why MCs have come out strong then gone to nothing, and few of them have been to do with a lack of talent. With artists dealing with anything from bad managers making wack decisions, record labels forcing rappers from the bits to make wet pop, or the old bill going out of their way to eff-up a promising career (we see you, K Koke)—the rewards of success may be big, but the pitfalls are bigger. Here's where J Hus is gonna need to deliver if he wants to convert street hustle into Richard Branson paper.

Words: Ian McQuaid

Keep On Delivering Those Catchy Hooks

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Hooks are all-important. They're the song-lines that get into that tiny part of Joe Public's brain not yet devoted to Insta filters and swiping right, and stay there until he's handing over the cash to iTunes. Fortunately, it looks like this is one area Hus has got on serious lock, because between "Dem Boy Paigon" and "Lean & Bop" he's got more hooks than Abu Hamza singing "Loyal". True, he may not be shy of lifting lines from the next man, but that only makes the effect strongeralthough, when he gets to signing a deal, getting clearance may prove a very expensive thing. "Paigon" has got lines cribbed from JME, TLC, I Wayne, Beenie Man and probably a couple more, which means already that publishing money is getting bitten into. Don't be surprised if a version with different lyrics comes out on a major somewhere down the line.  

Keep The Lyrical Fire Burning

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Hooks are all good but to really stay in the game, you've got to have something deeper, something different. It helps if you're saying something that no-one else is saying—probably the key to Skepta's success—or you're saying it in a way no-one else is saying it, a la Chance The Rapper. Alternatively, you could just try being balls-out crazy, which seems to be working fine for Young Thug. For J Hus, he's at his most unique when he switches up his flow to drop in that melodic West African vibe. Catching his recent Fire In The Booth, it was clear that he's got a dope singing voice and the Ahhuahh ​thing he does is becoming the biggest ad-lib of the year. No one has really followed Fuse ODG to become another player in UK Afrobeats, but Hus' fusion of the sound with road rap and grime could very well change that.

Stick With The Winning Team

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Picking a good team is the trickiest thing. Do you stick with the dons you grew up with, who you know you can trust, or hire a shark who knows the industry inside out? Probable best bet is a bit of both. So far, J Hus has managed to get himself in good positionson-stage at Wireless, spitting on 1Xtra, playing ram-jam Westwood shows outside London—so someone is clearly calling good plays. But there's a big difference between saying yes to no-brainer gigs and dealing with the well-oiled machinations of major labels. Hus is going to need some level-headed advice when negotiating with majors who possibly won't understand his music, but will be willing to squeeze him for everything they can. Of course, at this stage, he could always take a leaf out of Atlanta's Awful Records crew and self-release a mixtape via Bandcamp, charge a fiver for it, and turn some of those million views into hard cash before even speaking to a major. The kid's got some work to do, and we shall be watching his every last move.

 

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